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In 2018, the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a decision on protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). It contains the definition of an OECM and related scientific and technical advice that has broadened the scope of governance authorities and areas that can be engaged and recognised in global conservation efforts. The voluntary guidance on OECMs and protected areas, also included in the decision, promotes the use of diverse, effective and equitable governance models, the integration of protected areas and OECMs into wider landscapes and seascapes, and mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation across sectors.

This brochure highlights the central role the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) plays in the sustainable management of our oceans. Outside the ocean science community many people are unaware of the critical services the IOC provides from coordinating the global tsunami warning system, to supporting greater understanding of climate change, and sharing data on all marine life from bacteria to whales.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) through its Pacific sub-regional office are joining forces to provide support to Pacific delegates to the international UN Oceans Conference.

Despite a growing body of literature on integrated land–sea management (ILSM), very little critical assessment has been conducted in order to evaluate ILSM in practice on island systems. Here we develop indicators for assessing 10 integrated island management principles and evaluate the performance of planning and implementation in four island ILSM projects from the tropical Pacific across different governance structures. We find that where customary governance is still strongly respected and enabled through national legislation, ILSM in practice can be very effective at restricting access and use according to fluctuations in resource availability. However, decision-making under customary governance systems may be vulnerable to mismanagement. Governmentled ILSM processes have the potential to design management actions that address the spatial scale of ecosystem processes and threats within the context of national policy and legislation, but may not fully capture broad stakeholder interests, and implementation may be poorly coordinated across highly dispersed island archipelagos. Private sector partnerships offer unique opportunities for resourcing island ILSM, although these are highly likely to be geared towards private sector interests that may change in the future and no longer align with community and/or national objectives. We identify consistent challenges that arise during island ILSM planning and implementation and offer recommendations for improvement.

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.

The Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation (PIRT) Planning Meeting was convened in Suva on the 30th of March 2016. The main objective of the Planning Meeting was to discuss priority activities of PIRT and plan towards key events and activities commencing in 2016 and early 2017. The meeting was attended by: Taholo Kami (Chair, IUCN), Stuart Chape (SPREP,) Easter Galuvao (SPREP), Etika Rupeni (IUCN), Scott Radway (SeaWeb), Crissy Canlas (SeaWeb), Bridget Kennedy (CI), Jan Steffen (GIZ-MACBIO), Donald Stewart (Birdlife), Mark O’Brien (Birdlife), Eleni Tokaduadua (DOE-Fiji), Aminiasi Qareqare (DOE-Fiji), Prof. Elizabeth Holland (USP), Sangeeta Mangubhai (WCS) and Payal Maharaj (SPREP).

Crisis has enveloped the more than 200,000 nationally and regionally protected natural and cultural heritage sites around the world. Heritage managers - those who manage natural sites such as national parks, wilderness areas, and biosphere reserves, as well as those who manage cultural sites including historic monuments, battlefields, heritage cities, and ancient rock art sites - face an urgent need to confront this crisis, and each day that they don't, more of our planet's common heritage disappears. Although heritage management and implementation suffer from a lack of money, time, personnel, information, and political will, The Future Has Other Plans argues that deeper causes to current problems lurk in the discipline itself. Drawing on decades of practical experience in global heritage management and case studies from around the world, Jon Kohl and Steve McCool provide an innovative solution for conserving these valuable protected areas. Merging interdisciplinary and evolving management paradigms, the authors introduce a new kind of holistic planning approach that integrates the practice of heritage management and conservation with operational realities.

This document provides a plan to protect and enhance the cloud forests of Rarotonga so that their indigenous ecosystems, habitats for endemic species, and water supply functions are preserved in perpetuity.

A patchwork of international bodies and treaties manage ocean resources and human activity in areas beyond any state’s national jurisdiction (see Table 1). However, these governance bodies vary greatly in terms of their mandate, which determines their geographic scope, their objective, the legally binding nature of decisions they adopt, and whether they regulate one or several activities. Their jurisdictions often overlap, but virtually no mechanisms exist to coordinate across geographic areas and sectors.1 Too often, this piecemeal governance approach leads to the degradation of the environment and its resources, and makes deploying management and conservation tools such as environmental impact assessments and marine protected areas (MPAs), including marine reserves, challenging both legally and logistically