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This guide defines what sustainability means in tourism, what are the effective approaches for developing strategies and policies for more sustainable tourism and the tools that would make the policies work on the ground.

Questions: Do past disturbance, soil nutrients, or species diversity predict the invasion success of the alien tree Pittosporum undulatum in an island montane rain forest? What are the consequences of its invasion for forest composition and species diversity? Location: Blue Mountains, Jamaica. Methods: Censuses of trees ? 3 cm DBH in permanent plots in four sites within ca. 7 ha; 1974–2004 (intensive sites) and in 16 plots within 250 ha; 1990–2004 (extensive plots). Results: Pittosporum was unrecorded in the intensive sites before a severe hurricane in 1988: by 2004 all four sites were invaded. Pittosporum had invaded 25% of the extensive plots in 1990 and 69% in 2004, where its basal area increased from 0.5 ± 0.4 (SEM) m2.ha?1 in 1990 to 2.8 ± 1.3 m2.ha?1 in 2004. It had zero stem mortality and diameter growth rate exceeded that of native species fourfold. Pittosporum's basal area in the extensive plots in 2004 was positively related to the stand basal area damaged in the 1988 hurricane and negatively related to soil N concentrations. Pittosporum invasion was unrelated to stand-level tree species diversity in the extensive plots but as its basal area increased over time the basal area of native species and stand-level diversity declined. Conclusions: There are no obvious functional attributes of Pittosporum unrepresented in the native tree flora although it has high photosynthetic efficiency compared with native trees. More widespread invasion of these forests by Pittosporum seems inevitable since hurricanes, which accelerated the invasion, affect these forests frequently.

Disturbances are a primary facilitator of the growth and spread of invasive species. However, the effects of large-scale disturbances, such as hurricanes and tropical storms, on the broad geographic patterns of invasive species growth and spread have not been investigated. We used historical aerial imagery to determine the growth rate of invasive Phragmites australis patches in wetlands along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. These were relatively undisturbed wetlands where P. australis had room for unrestricted growth. Over the past several decades, invasive P. australis stands expanded in size by 6–35% per year. Based on tropical storm and hurricane activity over that same time period, we found that the frequency of hurricane-force winds explained 81% of the variation in P. australis growth over this broad geographic range. The expansion of P. australis stands was strongly and positively correlated with hurricane frequency. In light of the many climatic models that predict an increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes over the next century, these results suggest a strong link between climate change and species invasion and a challenging future ahead for the management of invasive species.

Avoid products that you only use once and then throw away.Reduce the amount of waste you generate. Most plastics take years to break down. Reuse paper and plastic containers.Use cloth bags or baskets instead of plastic bags. Recycle bottles, cans and paper where you Compost your organic waste.In most Pacific countries, more than 50% of the waste thrown away is organic.Return green waste to your garden to make good fertiliser for your plants and food.

The Department of the Navy (DoN) is committed to demonstrating environmental stewardship while executing its national defense mission. The United States (U.S.) Navy (Navy) is responsible for compliance with a suite of federal environmental and natural resources laws and regulations that apply to the marine environment, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act/Sustainable Fisheries Act (MSFCMA/SFA), and Executive Order (EO) 13089 on Coral Reef Protection. The Navy Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMPACFLT) implemented the marine resources assessment (MRA) program to develop a comprehensive compilation of data and literature concerning the protected and managed marine resources found in its various operating areas (OPAREA). The information in this MRA is vital for planning purposes and for various types of environmental documentation such as biological and environmental assessments (EA) that must be prepared in accordance with the NEPA, MMPA, ESA, and MSFCMA/SFA.

This Pacific Remote Island Areas Fisheiy Ecosystem Plan (FEP) was developed by the Western Pacific Regional Fisheiy Management Council and represents the first step in an incremental and collaborative approach to implement ecosystem approaches to fisheiy management in the Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA) of Baker Island, Johnston Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Wake Island and Palmyra Atoll.

This American Samoa Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) was developed by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and represents the first step in an incremental and collaborative approach to implement ecosystem approaches to fishery management in American Samoa.

This Pacific Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) was developed by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and represents the first step in an incremental and collaborative approach to implement ecosystem approaches to fishery management for Pacific pelagic species.

Coral reefs are vital ecosystems, providing a source of income, food arid coastal protection for millions of people; arid recent studies have shown that coral reef goods and services provide an annual net benefit of US$30 billion to economies worldwide (Cesar et al, 2003). Coral reefs are composed mainly of reef-building corals: colonial animals (polyps) that live symbiotically with the single-celled microalgae (zooxanthellae) in their body tissue and secrete a calcium carbonate skeleton. Coral reefs are formed by hundreds of thousands of these polyps and are found in warm, shallow, clear, low-nutrient tropical and sub-tropical waters, with optimum temperatures of 25-29eC, although they exist in ranges from 18eC (Florida) to 33eC (Persian Gulf) (Buddemeier and Wilkinson, 1994). They are incredibly diverse, covering only 0.2% of the ocean's floor but containing 25% of its species and they are often dubbed the 'tropical rainforests of the oceans' (Roberts, 2003).

The objective of this project is to formalize the experiences, outcomes and lessons learned from previous GEF projects, as well as major non-GEF initiatives involving coral reefs and associated ecosystems. The project aims to comprehensively identify, analyze, and translate lessons into good practices and information resources, and then disseminate this information globally for use in future project design and development. Based on its history of supporting coral reef biodiversity, management and sustainable development, this project will help the GEF fulfill a major mandate to identify what has worked and what could be improved upon in supporting biodiversity conservation. In combination with other GEF projects, this effort will also help the GEF and other major non-GEF projects achieve an improved return on investment for future projects involving coral reefs and associated ecosystems.