Search the SPREP Catalogue

45296 result(s) found.

Sort by

Publication Year
Sort results by
Created
Sort results by
Updated
Sort results by

Cook Islands POPs Project : Summary of the test results for food and other household items

Island and Ocean Ecosystems, Waste Management and Pollution Control

Graham, B. W.

This report provides a summary of the analytical results for a range of food and other household items that were collected in October 2010 as part of the background information gathering phase of the Cook Islands POPs Project. The samples were analysed for a wide range of possible pesticide contaminants, including the POPs pesticides. The samples were also tested for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

Status as at July 2017 of the Apia, Noumea (or SPREP) and Waigani Convention for which SPREP is the Secretariat

Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

SPREP

Status as at July 2017 of the Apia, Noumea (or SPREP) and Waigani Convention for which SPREP is the Secretariat

Parties to international and regional MEAs relevant for SPREP activities - Updated July 2017

Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

SPREP

Parties to international and regional Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs) relevant for SPREP activities - Updated July 2017

Source information for the inventory of dioxins and furan releases in the Cook Islands, September 2010

Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Hilyard, Maureen

Dioxins are organic compounds that are not produced intentionally but only as a product of other chemical procedures such as incineration, wood and fuel burning, combustion,and others. When dioxins enter the food chain,they are retained in the fatty tissue of living organisms. General hospital waste, including used bandages, are put into yellow bins to indicate that they will be burned in the incinerator. Syringes from the outer islands are delivered to the incinerator in special boxes. Needles are disposed of in a special electric burner. The incinerator area has become a dumping ground for a variety of waste not just for burning. The hospital does not have a sustainable environment policy. Quarantine wastes are incinerated at the Rarotonga airport. Two incinerators were purchased in 1973. One has only one of its two chambers operational. The other has not worked for years and has supplied parts for the other as parts are no longer available. The Airport Authority and AirNZ have had discussions about the efficiency of the incineration process, especially when food waste from LSG is included with wet waste from daily aircraft. A new incinerator for the airport is warranted if aircraft waste continues to be required to be burned at its destination.. A general survey of domestic fuel and waste burning revealed that 89% of households use gas cookers although 33%also use an umu for cooking food at least once a month. 68% burn green waste with only 2 of those who were surveyed having compost bins. 17.6 tonnes of wood and 2794 kg of LPG are burned by householders each month. Recycling is used with varying degrees of efficiency within our schools. Green waste is burned in all schools. Some attempt at composting is used in one of the primary schools. None of the schools had an environmental sustainability policy, and it was noted that students had seen already separated material combined together during the weekly collection by the waste contractors. There is not enough information about who accepts material for recycling or other more appropriate methods of disposal of school waste. In 2008,the statistics department recorded 17 million litres of gasoline and other mineral fuels imported to the Cook Islands for general use by the public for cars,boats,etc,and also by Te Aponga Uiraandthe Airport Authority. In 2010, 21% of the 9214 registered vehicles are older than 6 years with implications as to their effectiveness regarding exhaust emissions. 336,000 litres of fuel is consumed annually by the inter island shipping service and local charter and recreational craft. There is no policy about the disposal of waste oil. 11 tonnes of tobacco products including 8.5 million cigarettes were imported into the Cook Islands in 2008. 52 tonnes of plastic and polymers were imported in 2008, mainly for use by food vendors.

Plant Life : Common plants at Samoa Trust Estate Corporation plantation, Mulifanua, Upolu

Climate Change Resilience

Available Online

Government of Samoa

Samoa is home to abundant plant life including indigenous species and some foreign introduced plant species. A majority of the foreign plants were introduced to Samoa in the pre-independence era through arrival of the early missionaries, Germans and Japanese, for various purposes from medicinal use to construction. These plants can be found across all the four islands; Upolu, Savaii, Manono and Apolima. As part of the EU-GIZ Adapting to Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (ACSE) programme, a component of the Energy Bill and Sustainable Bioenergy, Samoa project focuses on biomass resource assessments at the Samoa Trust Estates Corporation (STEC) Plantation at Mulifanua, Upolu. Through fieldwork for biomass resource assessments at the non-leased land areas within the STEC Mulifanua plantation, eight common plants were identified and further scientific analysis on each was conducted by the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS). SROS laboratory tests took place over a period of 14 days using the Quality Management System implemented by SROS and which also meets the requirements of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, ISO/IEC 17025 (2005). Thus, this publication provides a brief description of these plants as well as some data on moisture content and energy content under different conditions.

samoa

Samoa Energy Sector Plan 2017-2022

Available Online

Government of Samoa

The energy sector is important to Samoa's economic, social, infrastructure and environmental composition. This plan has therefore been developed using extensive consultation with many groups. The purpose of the Energy Sector Plan is to provide a comprehensive plan for the energy sector to deliver outcomes consistent with the overarching Strategy for the Development of Samoa (SDS) 2012-2016, with due regard for cross-cutting issues including emphasising the importance of raising living standards, increasing resilience and boosting productivity for sustainable development. It provides a resourcing framework to support implementation of the plan.

samoa

Regional Institutional Framework Review (RIF): assessment of the Regional Institutional Arrangement proposed by the CEOs of SOPAC, SPC and SPREP - Consultant's final report : Part two Part A: Background and Common Issues Part B: Reformed, Rebranded SOPAC and SPREP Part C: SOPAC established as a Division of SPC

Available Online

Bennett, Catherine

Howorth, Russell

Pittman, Rewi Edwin

As part of the RIF review process, a team of three independent consultants were commissioned to analyse, assess and validate the most appropriate regional institutional arrangements based on a range of options provided by the CEOs of SOPAC, SPC and SPREP. The key rationale underpinning the work was to optimise service delivery, in particular ensuring the SOPAC work programme continued without diminution and was potentially enhanced. This document presents the Final Report of Part Two of the consultancy.

Report of Special SPREP Meeting / Rapport de la Conférenceextraordinaire du PROE

SPREP Publications, Key SPREP Documents

Available Online

SPREP

The special SPREP Meeting: ÿ Noted the ICR progress report and agreed to provide feedback on the two discussion papers relating to proposed Secretariat actions on ICR recommendations 59, 60, 61 and 79 before the 20th SPREP Meeting; and ÿ Endorsed the establishment of a task force, representative of and open to all Members, to progress the issue of core functions and related ICR recommendations and agreed that the Secretariat would also establish an electronic bulletin board to enable greater participation of all Members.

Impact of anthropogenic disturbances on a diverse riverine fish assemblage in Fiji predicted by functional traits

Available Online

Brown, Christopher J.

Jenkins, Aaron P.

Jupiter, Stacy D.

Lin, Hsien-Yung

1. Anthropogenic disturbances particularly affect biodiversity in sensitive freshwater ecosystems by causing species loss. Thus, measuring the response of species to multiple disturbances is a key issue for conservation and environmental management. 2. As it is not practical to assess the response of every species in a community, we compared the performance of trait and taxonomic-based groupings of species for their abilities to predict species loss in a threatened freshwater fish assemblage. Specifically, we examined responses of a Fijian freshwater fish assemblage to deforestation, placement of anthropogenic barriers (overhanging culverts) and the presence of introduced cichlids. 3. Species grouped by traits showed more consistent responses to disturbances than taxonomic groups. In particular, species belonging to trait groups that were estuary associated favoured medium-to-hard substrate, while feeding specialists were highly likely to be absent in catchments with high deforestation and overhanging culverts. The presence of introduced cichlids (Oreochromis mossambicus and O. niloticus) had a smaller effect than deforestation and barriers, but was negatively associated with species richness of diadromous species with climbing ability and positively associated with presences of some piscivores. The trait groups also revealed that detritivores, species favouring soft substrate, and those with a broad dietary range were less sensitive to anthropogenic disturbances. 4. Our study indicates that using traits to predict species loss from disturbed environments can aid in detecting the responses of rare species to disturbance. In addition, we provided a method to estimate the consistency of species responses to disturbance. This study may ultimately help managers identify the most effective actions for conserving sensitive species that are seldom recorded in surveys.

Habitat change mediates the response of coral fish populations to terrestrial run-off

Available Online

Albert, Simon

Brown, Christopher J.

Jupiter, Stacy D.

Klein, Carissa

Lin, Hsien-Yung

Maina, Joseph M.

Mumby, Peter J.

Tullock, Vivitskaia J. D.

Wenger, Amelia S.

ABSTRACT: Coastal fish populations are typically threatened by multiple human activities, including fishing pressure and run-off of terrestrial pollution. Linking multiple threats to their impacts on fish populations is challenging because the threats may influence a species directly, or indirectly, via its habitats and its interactions with other species. Here we examine spatial variation in abundance of coral reef fish across gradients of fishing pressure and turbidity in Fiji. We explicitly account for multiple pathways of influence to test the alternative hypotheses that (1) habitat moderates predation by providing shelter, so habitat loss only affects prey fish populations if there are abundant predators, (2) habitat change co-drives biomass of both prey and predator functional groups. We examined responses of 7 fish functional groups and found that habitat change co-drives both predator and prey responses to turbidity. Abundances of all functional groups were associated with changes in habitat cover; however, the responses of their habitats to turbidity were mixed. Planktivore and piscivore abundance were lower in areas of high turbidity, because cover of their preferred habitats was lower. Invertivore, browser and grazer abundance did not change strongly over the turbidity gradient, because different components of their habitats exhibited both increases and decreases with turbidity. The effects of turbidity on fish populations were minor in areas where fish populations were already depleted by fishing. These findings suggest that terrestrial run-off modifies the composition of reef fish communities indirectly by affecting the benthic habitats that reef fish use.

www.sprep.org © 2021 - 2024. All rights reserved