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The Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Environment of Fiji launched the Home Composting Subsidy Pro-gram and the Clean School Program in April, 2015 for im-plementation by the thirteen Municipal Councils responsible for waste management around the various divisions in the country.

Waste characterization report.

In less than a century ago, Ethiopia was covered by more than half with dense rainforest. Today, only 5% remain resulting in famines causing thousands to perish every day. To achieve a sustainable use of national resources, the World Wildlife Fund mobilised the strongest worldwide support for conservation, working within 130 countries and supporting over 200 National Parks around the world. As an example of its success, WWF worked in collaboration with the Indian Government establishing a dozen reserves for "Project Tiger" which saved the 'Bengol Tiger' from extinction. Its population is now believed to have dropped from 4,000 to 1,800, occuring at an extremely high rate. Conservation Treaties and International Conventions greatly aid the WWF cause in preserving wildlife by forbidding trade of endangered plants and animals.

Several mechanisms have been used to acquire land for tropical-forest reservations. Legislative designation of National Parks on government-owned land, condemnation of private land, debt swaps, and outright purchase of private lands for reserves may, however, be inappropriate strategies in areas occupied by extant indigenous populations. In areas where indigenous peoples have a strong conservation ethic, the creation of reserves under partial or complete aboriginal control represents a viable alternative to the more traditional forms of land acquisition. Recently, three significant rain-forest reserves were created in Samoa using alternative strategies. 1) A US National Park in American Samoa involves the long-term lease of customary lands with local chiefs forming an advisory board on park policy; 2) in the Falealupo peninsula in Western Samoa, a covenant was established between the villagers who pledged to preserve and manage a large rain forest and private donors who provided funds for the construction of an elementary school; 3) in Tafua, Western Samoa, a covenant was established between the village, which vowed to preserve and manage the forest, and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SNF) which provided funds for an elementary school and public works. These reserves suggest that under indigenous control robust solutions to the problems of rain-forest preservation can be achieved.

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.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) was established by the Conservation Act 1987, and is charged with promoting conservation of the natural and historic heritage of New Zealand on behalf of, and for the benefit of, the present and future generations. DOC also has functions under a number of other Acts, including the National Parks Act 1980, the Marine Reserves Act 1971, the Reserves Act 1977, the Wild Animal Control Act 1977, the Wildlife Act 1953 and the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978. The Minister of Conservation is the Responsible Minister, and DOC’s work is funded through Vote Conservation.

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

Although the term biodiversity emerged from the pool of obscure jargon quite a few years ago, it is still enshrouded with significant ambiguity. At one extreme, some people use it as a loose synonym for nature. At the other extreme, some people reduce biodiversity to simplistic parameters, such as the number of species. Conservation organizations, both private and public, must navigate these waters with great care. They need to engage a pulic that loves nature as embodied in beautiful places and charming creatures - elk in a Yellowstone meadow or snow leopards on a Himalayan snowfield - while expounding the values of species and ecosystems that have "swamp," "rat," or "spider" in their titles. A the same time, to undertake their work in a systematic and rigorous manner, conservation organizations need to be able to quantify their goals and accomplishments. Some things are easy to measure, such as the areas of new reserves, but biodiversity writ large is not one of them.

Western Samoa possesses a considerable wealth of natural and cultural resources from which many generations of Samoans have been able to derive benefit. However, appre- ciable areas of natural vegetation are being lost annually to agricultural, housing and communication development, or modified by logging and life styles and cultural values of the Samoan people are changing in response to mounting pressures imposed by a rapidly increasing human population and aspirations for higher living standards. In the foreseeable future, exponential increase in these pressures and consequent speed of change seem inevitable. In recog- nition of these circumstances the Government of Western Samoa sees the creation of a system of National Parks and Reserves as a means of conserving representative samples of Western Samoa's natural and cultural heritage in perpetuity.

The Common Myna Acridotheres tristis was originally introduced to the island of Atiu, Cook Islands, in 1915 to control the Coconut stick insect Graeffea crouanii but it has since become a pest itself. The Rimatara lorikeet Vini Kuhlii or ‘Kura’ was reintroduced, after disappearing from the Southern Cook Islands almost 200 years ago, to Atiu on 24th April 2007 from Rimatara, French Polynesia to create a reserve population due to there being only approximately 1000 birds left on Rimatara. Due to observations of mynas reportedly harassing and attacking adult and juvenile Kura at the nest, an eradication programme was introduced by Gerald McCormack, Director of the Cook Island Natural Heritage Trust (CINHT), in May 2009 to reduce the population size of myna birds to give the Kura a couple of peaceful nesting seasons to help establish a stable population on Atiu. A study by J. Mitchell of the University of Leeds in May/June 2009 estimated a starting count of approximately 6000 myna birds prior to the eradication programme. That survey was followed up in May 2010 using two strategies, the transect method and roost counts. Analysis of transect method counts, using the Distance software, estimate there are approximately 3128 mynas on Atiu. Roost counts were at variance with that figure and estimated only 1280 myna birds. The roost counts estimate of 1280 may be the most accurate because all mynas would be in the winter roosts for heat conservation from May to July alleviating the concern that females and young would be nesting away from the roosts during counts, whereas transect counts may involve recounting the same birds numerous times; a problem minimized by repeating transect counts twice daily and using different transects to cover as much of the expected habitat as possible. Only a limited survey of the population of Kura was possible during this visit to Atiu since almost all available time and logistics were focused on myna surveys. An estimate of the Kura population suggests there are approximately 100 birds, which suggests that since the 2007 introduction the Kura population is thriving on Atiu. However, comparisons with the exponential growth rate model of 184 birds suggest this difference could be due to myna bird harassment despite culling. A more comprehensive survey is recommended perhaps using similar strategies to determine whether the myna has any deleterious effect on the Kura. In July 2010 a new myna bounty was introduced and is proving successful as a further 383 myna birds were culled by the end of July. The Atiu Island Council may decide on complete eradication of the myna to give the Kura full advantage of living on Atiu in the absence of the competitive myna bird.