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Technical assistance of the Asian Development Bank to the Dept. of Town and Country Planning Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Fiji

Synopsis - Coral reefs are integral to the cultures and nutrition of many Pacific peoples; this report was developed to assist reef conservation for those peoples.

Apres cette breve introduction (p. iv-viii), le document comprend deux parties prinicipales.

The book you hold in your hands represents a first. Never before has such a compilation and synthesis on protected area management been attempted. Managing Protected Areas: A Global Guide brings together state-of-the-art thinking from around the world on the complex business of managing protected areas.

The papers and abstracts published in this book are the outcome of the conference on Island Invasives: Eradication and Management held at Tamaki Campus, University of Auckland, New Zealand from 5 to 12 February 2010, hosted by the Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity (University of Auckland and Landcare Research), in collaboration with the IUCN/SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. This conference had "islands" and "eradication of invasive species" as the focus, with emphasis on the work done and results or learning achieved. The conference endeavoured to cover the full breadth of this work by breaking the subject down to: Gaining political, community, financial, and physical support; Eradication techniques tested and used; The immediate results of eradication operations; The longer-term outcomes as seen in the biota of the island and among communities involved; Biosecurity measure for such islands from planning to implementation.

The Convention on Biological Diversity has been adopted by many countries, resulting in the development of national biodiversity strategies. This illustrates the international recognition of the importance of protecting ecosystems. However, ecosystems still face many threats, some of them growing and spreading so rapidly as to cause irreversible deterioration in many countries and areas. The Biodiversity Synthesis Report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment show many undersireable phenomena such as loss of forest, conversion of terrestrial biomes, extinction of species and so on. This report also describes various ecosystem services, and explains how their changes have affected humans. Furthermore, it proposes international actions to achieve sustainability for future generations.

This book is one of the main contributions of the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to the international discussions on how we should address climate change impacts on natural and human systems, including ecosystems and the services they provide to society and communities. It was produced through contributions of CEM members worldwide and those from other scientists with key experience in research on, and implementation of climate change adaptation measures. Eleven case studies were selected by a team of editors, covering different ecosystems and regions around the world.

To introduce this collection of studies, a logical first question to ask is why produce a “lessons learned” publication? The initial impetus for this initiative was an observation by an external evaluation of CARPE that there was relatively little sharing of information within the programme between numerous actors and sites concerning the conservation strategies undertaken and the results achieved (Weidemann Consortium, 2006).1 The evaluation concluded that this lack of information exchange was a threat to the success of CARPE as a large-scale regional programme, a view that was confirmed by programme partners during the CARPE Phase IIB Inception workshop that was held in Yaoundé in February 2007.

The need for a management response to mass coral bleaching is now well established. The incidence and severity of mass coral bleaching events has increased continuously over the last two decades. As a result, almost every reef region in the world has now suffered extensive stress or coral mortality. Observations of these past impacts and studies of expected future trends have prompted leading researchers and managers to declare that coral reefs are in crisis. In keeping with this, the scientific community has suggested that the impacts of mass coral bleaching events, in combination with those from chronic local stressors, will largely determine the condition of coral reefs in the next 50 years.