A list of international and regional multilateral environmental agreements in which each of the Pacific Island country is a party/signatory of. This is useful for SPREP activities and planning
The Marine Species Programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) outlines a regional strategy for the cooperative conservation and management of dugongs, marine turtles, whales and dolphins. This strategy will enable Pacific Islanders to take a primary role in achieving the following vision:
"A healthy Pacific Ocean with sustainable populations of whales, dolphins, marine turtles, dugongs and other species, and meets the aspirations of Pacific Island peoples and protects their natural and cultural heritage"
A direct internet link to easily access the visualization of ocean acidification conditions and data synthesis products being collected around the world on the GOA-ON Data Explorer portal.
Concise environmental legislative reviews of Pacific Island countries plus Tokelau. **Please submit new information or corrections as the reviews will be updated annually.**
InforMEA provides easy access to information on Multilateral Environmental Agreements. It is an initiative facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme and supported by the European Union. It seeks to develop Inter-operable information systems for the benefit of the (MEA) Parties and the environment community at large.
This dataset provides direct links to:
1. "Pacific Islands" - related data on the InforMEA portal. For country-specific information, please type *name of country* on the InforMEA portal search tool.
2. Free online courses
Dataset regarding 'Seamounts' - peaks that rise over 1,000 m above the seafloor. Seamount chains occur in all three major ocean basins, with the Pacific having the most number and most extensive seamount chains.
A direct internet link to and resources pertaining the Blue Habitat website which has been established as a portal for information on the global distribution of marine ‘blue’ habitats. Knowledge on the distribution of blue habitats is an important input into ocean management, marine spatial planning and biodiversity conservation.
The NOAA Coral Reef Watch program uses satellite data to provide current reef environmental conditions to quickly identify areas at risk for coral bleaching. Bleaching is the process by which corals lose the symbiotic algae that give them their distinctive colors. If a coral is severely bleached, disease and death become likely. Coral Reef Watch also offers a modeled Outlook that predicts the likelihood of coral bleaching heat stress on a week-by-week basis, up to four months in the future (the typical length of a bleaching season).
Regional data on marine pollution.
This dataset has all icons for Multilateral Environment Agreements such as SDGs and Aichi
The InterRidge Vents Database is a global database of submarine hydrothermal vent fields. The InterRidge Vents Database is supported by the InterRidge program for international cooperation in ridge-crest studies (www.interridge.org).
The Global Mangrove Watch (GMW) is a collaboration between Aberystwyth University (U.K.), solo Earth Observation (soloEO; Japan), Wetlands International the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
This dataset shows the global distribution of seamounts and knolls identified using global bathymetric data at 30 arc-sec resolution. A total of 33,452 seamounts and 138,412 knolls were identified, representing the largest global set of identified seamounts and knolls to date. Seamount habitat was found to constitute approximately 4.7% of the ocean floor, whilst knolls covered 16.3%.
The research leading to these results received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme, and from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
GEBCO's aim is to provide the most authoritative publicly-available bathymetry of the world's oceans. It operates under the joint auspices of the International Hydrographic Organization(IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) (of UNESCO).
GEBCO produces and makes available a range of bathymetric data sets and products. This includes a global bathymetric grid; gazetteer of undersea feature names, a Web Map Service and printable maps of ocean bathymetry.
Minerals are non-renewable resources (at least within human timeframes) but mining them is now apparently a sustainable enterprise, not a one-way street of exploitation. ISA provides an international and transparent forum to regulate and manage all mineral resources related activities and ensure protection of the marine environment in the “Area”, the deep seabed and subsoil beyond national jurisdiction, for the benefit of all humanity.
The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the most comprehensive global database of marine and terrestrial protected areas, updated on a monthly basis, and is one of the key global biodiversity data sets being widely used by scientists, businesses, governments, International secretariats and others to inform planning, policy decisions and management. The WDPA is a joint project between UN Environment and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
This project has developed sub-regional bioregionalisations for the western-south Pacific Ocean, through expert workshops and novel statistical analysis of physical and biological data. This combines approaches CSIRO developed in Australia, used in the Bay of Bengal (in collaboration with BOBLME) with similar approaches that have been used throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans to derive a single combined bioregionalisation.
Comprehensive assessment of the risks and impacts of seabed mining on marine ecosystems by Fauna and Flora International.
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 dataset hosts 31 individual environmental indicator assessments that are in the **State of Environment and Conservation in the Pacific Islands : 2020 Regional report.**
Regional indicators are used to understand the current status of conservation in the region and to establish a process for periodic reviews of the status of biodiversity and implementation of environmental management measures in the Pacific islands region.
Each Pacific regional indicator is assessed with regard to: