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A monthly e-bulletin of activities and assistance from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme to its member countries.

The overall objective of this project was to support governments of nine Pacific smaller island states.

The final report on the action is divided into two volumes: Volume 1-Final report and Volume 2-Country reports.

Fiji has been identified as one of the countries most vulnerable to declines in reef condition due to the high dependence on reef systems for key industries (tourism and fishing). Much of the waters of Fiji and adjacent international waters include highly prospective deposits of copper, gold, zinc, silver and chemical elements. Extracting these resources is only now becoming feasible due to technological advances in Deep Seabed Mining (DSM). A large area of Fiji’s waters is now subject to DSM exploration licenses. But very little is known of the risks DSM creates for key marine ecosystem services and the industries that reply on those services for both income and employment (e.g. tourism and fishing). This desktop study seeks to identify, scope and broadly estimate the potential costs to Fiji associated with DSM. Only once those costs are understood, can Fiji confidently make robust policy decision about the amount, location and management of DSM within its waters.

Until now, there has been only one source of data on global fishery catches: information reported to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations by member countries. An extensive, ten-year study conducted by The Sea Around Us Project of the University of British Columbia shows that this catch data is fundamentally misleading. Many countries underreport the amount of fish caught (some by as much as 500%), while others such as China significantly overreport their catches. The Global Atlas of Marine Fisheries is the first and only book to provide accurate, country-by-country fishery data. This groundbreaking information has been gathered from independent sources by the world’s foremost fisheries experts, and edited by Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller of the Sea Around Us Project. The Atlas includes one-page reports on 273 countries and their territories, plus fourteen topical global chapters. National reports describe the state of the country's fishery, by sector; the policies, politics, and social factors affecting it; and potential solutions. The global chapters address cross-cutting issues, from the economics of fisheries to the impacts of mariculture. Extensive maps and graphics offer attractive and accessible visual representations. While it has long been clear that the world’s oceans are in trouble, the lack of reliable data on fishery catches has obscured the scale, and nuances, of the crisis. The atlas shows that, globally, catches have declined rapidly since the 1980s, signaling an even more critical situation than previously understood. The Global Atlas of Marine Fisheries provides a comprehensive picture of our current predicament and steps that can be taken to ease it. For researchers, students, fishery managers, professionals in the fishing industry, and all others concerned with the status of the world’s fisheries, the Atlas will be an indispensable resource.

Climate change exacerbates the magnitude and impacts of climate variability and some natural hazards. The existence of some Pacific Island countries (PICs) is threatened by climate change. Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) are highly exposed to a range of natural hazards of hydro-meteorological origin (such as cyclones, droughts, landslides and floods) and geological origin (including volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis). These hazards often lead to disasters, which affect thousands of people and exacerbate existing development challenges in the region. Climate change predictions identify changes for the Pacific including an increase in extreme hot days and warm nights, extreme rainfall events, intensity of tropical cyclones in the South Pacific, sea level rise and ocean acidification. Climate change is increasing the risks from weather related disasters and posing new impacts to the region. Climate change impacts also cause progressive long-term degradation to the natural environment, to critical ecosystems (e.g. coral reefs), and to social and economic systems, resulting in loss and damage to the system upon which Pacific Island communities depend for their subsistence and livelihoods.

The Asia Pacific region is exceptionally rich in biodiversity. The tropical forests of South East Asia, the reefs of the ‘coral triangle’, the temperate forests and the large river basins found in the region are among the most unique on Earth. However, biodiversity in the Asia Pacific region is in fast decline. For example, the region recorded the world’s highest number of threatened species in 2014 and extensive coastal development and unsustainable exploitation of marine resources have resulted in the disappearance of over 40 percent of coral reefs and mangroves, leading to declines in fish stocks.

A monthly e-bulletin of activities and assistance from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme to its member countries.

Pacific Island countries and territories already face a range of development challenges due to their specific geographic and socio-economic characteristics, and their generally high exposure to natural hazards. The projected changes to the climate of the Pacific Island region over the coming decades present another challenging dimension that the region will need to grapple with. These changes could compromise the very ability of Pacific communities to meet their economic development needs.