DEFINITION - % cover of wetlands, mangroves, and seagrass
PURPOSE - Wetlands, mangroves and seagrass provide ecosystem services not provided by other ecosystems (such as nurseries for economically important fish species, natural flood mitigation and water filter systems). They also support plants and animals not found in other ecosystems.
DESIRED OUTCOME - Stable or positive trend in area of wetlands and mangroves
DEFINITION - % of live coral cover in coastal and marine environments
PURPOSE - Indicator of overall health of reef ecosystems. These ecosystems provide important services for humans
DESIRED OUTCOME - Stable or positive trend in live coral cover
DEFINITION - Enterococci levels in water samples
PURPOSE - Enterococci are bacteria found in the intestines of animals and humans and indicate the presence of faecal pollution in coastal waters
DESIRED OUTCOME - Enterococci levels are within the safe threshold for marine recreation at all monitored sites. Current United States EPA thresholds are
DEFINITION - Trends in biomass of tuna species
PURPOSE - Track the health of this important component of the ocean ecosystem
DESIRED OUTCOME - Stable biomass catch
DEFINITION - Fish biomass for inshore fish populations
PURPOSE - Indicates inshore fish population status and reef health
DESIRED OUTCOME - Stable level of biomass; or juvenile fish are not overrepresented in markets
DEFINITION - % of plastic in waste audits, including beach clean-ups
PURPOSE- Determine trends in marine plastic pollution from land and at-sea sources
DESIRED OUTCOME - Stable or declining trend in proportion of plastic in waste audits
Indicator 13 : Terrestrial Protected Areas
Indicator 14 : Marine Protected Areas
Indicator 15 : Protected Area Management Effectiveness
Indicator 16 : Key biodiversity areas protected
Indicator 17 : Governance and equity of protected areas
Indicator 18 : Integration of protected areas into wider land and seascapes
Indicator 19 : Invasive species under management or eradicated
Indicator 20 : Priority sites with invasive species managed
DEFINITION : Population abundance of identified species
PURPOSE : Tracks the status of populations of priority species over time
DESIRED OUTCOME : Stable or positive trend in population size
DEFINITIO : Number and types of species listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List and a summary of their threats
PURPOSE : Track the status of threatened species and understand the most important threats
DESIRED OUTCOME : Trend for species to be downgraded to lower threat levels or off the threatened species list
This first state of the environment report for the Pacific region uses regional environment indicators to assess the status, trends, and data quality and availability for the endorsed Pacific environmental priorities. This report also includes an update of the State of Conservation in Oceania report produced in 2013, which was endorsed and published in 2017.
This list of indicators was developed through the Inform project at SPREP for use by Pacific Islands countries (PICs) to meet their national and international reporting obligations. The indicators are typically adopted by PICs for their State of Environment reports and are intended to be re-used for a range of MEA and SDG reporting targets. The indicators have been designed to be measurable and repeatable so that countries can track key aspect of environmental health over time.
The objective of this regional meeting is to build the capacity of the 14 project target countries, with an aim to build an open data community amongst the users of the national data portals and inform outputs. This is intended to improve south-south collaboration, enhance the opportunity for sustainability and increase the feeling of ownership and belonging amongst the project countries.
This will be delivered by real world application of Inform developed processes and tools, focused on a common area to all countries; protected areas.
This paper addresses the question of whether the increased occurrence of central Pacific (CP) versus Eastern
Pacific (EP) El Niños is consistent with greenhouse gas forced changes in the background state of the tropical Pacific as inferred from global climate change models.
The analysis uses high‐quality satellite and in situ ocean data combined with wind data from atmospheric reanalyses for the past 31 years (1980–2010).
A major objective of this report was to develop a regional assessment of Pacific Island sensitivity to projected
climate change as a component of the Pacific-Australia Climate Change Science and Adaptation Planning
(PACCSAP) program. The PACCSAP Program is intended to help partner countries including Cook Islands, Fiji,
Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa,
Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu and their communities better understand and respond to climate associated impacts.
The number of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and institutions has grown steadily over the last few decades. The work taking place under these agreements and within these institutions is increasing in volume and specificity, and it is having an increasingly substantive impact, particularly as there is an increasing focus on practical implementation.
This edition of the Multilateral Environmental Agreement Negotiator’s Handbook principally to respond to the need for a practical reference tool to assist in addressing the many complex challenges in such negotiations.
Disasters, and therefore disaster response, in the Pacific are expected to be affected by climate change. This research addressed this issue, and focused on the immediate humanitarian needs following a disaster, drawing upon adaptive capacity as a concept to assess the resilience of individual organisations and the robustness of the broader system of disaster response..
Four case study countries (Fiji, Cook Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa) were chosen for deeper investigation of the range of issues present in the Pacific.
The Forum Secretariat in collaboration with a number of Member countries, Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP) and development partners is exploring a range of modalities, approaches and enabling environments that might assist countries to more effectively harness climate change resources and implement them to address national priorities. A number of these modalities are already being implemented or explored in the region and provide a practical experience to draw from -
Summary table for the SPREP core national environment indicators. Includes theme and indicator definition, purpose and desired outcome.
Practical arrangements for the regional meeting