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Legislation guidance end-of-life vehicle management in the Pacific.

SPREP Publications, Waste Management and Pollution Control

Available Online

This guideline is to provide a legislative guiding template with a technical drafting note that creates an enabling environment for the effective management of end-of-life vehicles at a scale and technological complexity that is financially viable and suitable for the Pacific Islands.

Guidelines and Standards for Composting and Compost Quality for Pacific Island Countries and Timor-Leste.

SPREP Publications, Waste Management and Pollution Control

Available Online

Organic material is biodegradable matter such as kitchen scraps (food): garden cuttings, grass and branches and paper. Combined data from 13 waste audits in the Pacific found that approximately 40% of waste disposal to our landfills and dumps is organics.

Social Impact Assessment Guidelines for Thriving Regions and Communities

Environmental Monitoring and Governance

Available Online

These guidelines provide a practical approach to Social Impact Assessment (SIA). They are designed to help readers learn the basics about how to conduct an SIA, contribute to an SIA, use the results of an SIA, and judge if an SIA is fit for purpose. When writing the guidelines, we have assumed that readers may have little or no prior experience with SIA. The need for guidelines for SIA became apparent during our research with regional communities experiencing the social impacts of economic regeneration projects, including infrastructure, housing, irrigation, tourism and heritage conservation. During our work, we encountered many community leaders who were keen to learn how to assess the social impacts of the plans they design, how to take this information and use it to make decisions, and then, overtime, evaluate the outcomes for communities. When writing and testing the guidelines, we drew on our own professional expertise in SIA, and the experiences of potential guideline users including: community organisations, iwi members, central government agencies, local government economic development and planning professionals, infrastructure providers, sector groups, evaluation practitioners, consultancies, students, and academics. We also drew on the ideas of practitioners of SIA in conferences and training sessions1 , and other invaluable sources that are listed in the Annexes. SIA looks at the potential impacts of change proposal, focusing on who is affected, where and how, and what might be done to improve the results in the short, medium, and long-term. We expect that the guidelines will be useful for anyone proposing changes that affect people and communities, as well as those experiencing social impacts.

Pacific Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS): Implementation Guidelines

SPREP Publications, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) : Guidelines for Pacific Island countries and territories

SPREP Publications, Environmental Monitoring and Governance

Available Online

SEA by its nature, covers a wider range of activities. This is a key difference between EIA and SEA with the latter usually applied to a wider area and often over a longer time span than the EIS of projects.

Island invasives: scaling up to meet the challenge. Proceedings of the international conference on island invasives 2017

Island and Ocean Ecosystems, BRB

Available Online

Godwin, J.

Heard, N.

Serr, M.

House mice are significant invasive pests, particularly on islands without native mammalian predators. As part of a multi-institutional project aimed at suppressing invasive mouse populations on islands, we aim to create heavily male-biased sex ratios with the goal of causing the populations to crash. Effective implementation of this approach will depend on engineered F1 wild-lab males being effective secondary invaders that can mate successfully. As a first step in assessing this possibility, we are characterising genetic and behavioural differences between Mus musculus strains in terms of mating and fecundity using wild house mice derived from an invasive population on the Farallon Islands (MmF), a laboratory strain C57BL/6/129 (tw2), and F1 wild-lab off spring. Mice with the t allele (tw2) have a naturally occurring gene drive system. To assess fertility in F1 wild-lab crosses, tw2 males were paired with wild-derived females from the Farallon Islands (MmF). Results of these matings indicate litter sizes are comparable but that weaned pup and adult wild-lab mice are heavier in mass. Next, we initiated tests of male competitiveness using larger (3 m2) enclosures with enrichment. We introduced both an MmF and a tw2-bearing male to two MmF females to assess mating outcomes. Preliminary results of these experiments show none of the off spring carried the t-allele. However, performing the same experiment with F1 wild-lab males instead of a full lab background resulted in 70% of off spring carrying the tw2 allele. This indicates that F1 wild-lab males may be able to successfully compete and secondarily invade. It will be important in subsequent experiments to determine what characteristics contribute to secondary invasion success. More generally, a better understanding of characteristics contributing to overall success in increasingly complex and naturalistic environments will be critical in determining the potential of a gene drive-based eradication approach for invasive mice on islands.

Fisheries - effects of marine protected areas on local fisheries: evidence from empirical studies.

Available Online

Badalamenti F

Goni, R

Tupper, M H

Fisheries - effects of marine protected areas on local fisheries: evidence from empirical studies.

A potential new tool for the toolbox: assessing gene drives for eradicating invasive rodent populations

Island and Ocean Ecosystems, BRB

Available Online

Brown, P.R.

Campbell, K.J.

Delborne, J.

Godwin, J.

Gould, F.

Howald, G.R.

Kanavy, D.M.

Kuiken, T.

Packard, H.

Piaggio, A.

Saah, J.R.

Serr, M.

Shiels, A.

Thomas, P.

Threadgill, D.

Tompkins, D.M.

Invasive rodents have significant negative impacts on island biodiversity. All but the smallest of rodent eradications currently rely on island-wide rodenticide applications. Although significant advances have been made in mitigating unintended impacts, rodent eradication on inhabited islands remains extremely challenging. Current tools restrict eradication efforts to fewer than 15% of islands with critically endangered or endangered species threatened by invasive rodents. The Genetic Biocontrol of Invasive Rodents partnership is an interdisciplinary collaboration to develop and evaluate gene drive technology for eradicating invasive rodent populations on islands. Technological approaches currently being investigated include the production of multiple strains of Mus musculus with a modified form of the native t-complex, or a CRISPR gene drive, carrying genes or mechanisms that determine sex. These systems have the potential to skew the sex ratio of off spring to approach 100% single-sex, which could result in population collapse. One goal proposed is to test the ability of constructs to spread and increase in frequency in M. musculus populations in biosecure, captive settings and undertake modelling to inform development and potential deployment of these systems. Structured ecologically-based risk assessments are proposed, along with social and cultural engagement to assess the acceptability of releasing a gene drive system. Work will be guided by an external ethics advisory board. Partners are from three countries with significant regulatory capacity (USA, Australia, New Zealand). Thus, we will seek data sharing agreements so that results from experiments may be used within all three countries and treat regulatory requirements as a minimum. Species-specific, scalable, and socially acceptable new eradication tools could produce substantial biodiversity benefits not possible with current technologies. Gene drive innovation may provide such a tool for invasive species management and be potentially transformative and worthy of exploring in an inclusive, responsible, and ethical manner.

Modelling invasive plant alien species richness in Tenerife (Canary Islands) using Bayesian Generalised Linear Spatial Models

Island and Ocean Ecosystems, BRB

Available Online

Arévalo, J. R.

Bacaro, G.

Da Re, D.

Fernàndez-Palacios, J. M.

Negrín-Pérez, Z.

Otto, R.

Rocchini, D.

Tordoni, E.

Biological invasions are one of the major threats to biodiversity, especially on islands where the number of endemic species is the highest despite their small area. In the Canary Islands, the relationships among invasive alien species (hereafter IAS) and their environmental and anthropogenic determinants have been thoroughly described but robust provisional models integrating species spatial autocorrelation and patterns of IAS communities are still lacking. In this study, we developed a Generalised Linear Spatial Model for Invasive Alien Species Richness (IASR) under a Bayesian framework, using a methodological approach that encompass GIS and geostatistical analysis. In this study, we hypothesised that the inclusion of spatial autocorrelation can improve model performance thus obtaining more IASR-reliable predictions. In addition, this method provides uncertainty maps that prioritize areas where further sampling e?orts are needed. Our model showed that IASR in Tenerife is mainly driven by a combination of anthropogenic and natural processes, highlighting favourable conditions for IAS from the coastline to about 800 m a.s.l., especially on the windward humid aspect. Among anthropogenic factors, a clear positive relationship between road kernel density estimation and IASR was found. Indeed, road density has recently increased especially in low to mid altitudinal zones on the Canary Islands, strictly associated with urban expansion and it has been widely demonstrated to be one of the main IAS pathways. Hence, higher road density can be related to increased propagule pressure which is, together with source of disturbance, one of the most important factors explaining richness in alien species invasion success. Our main conclusions highlight the importance of considering spatial autocorrelation and researchers prior knowledge to increase the predictive power of statistical models. From a practical perspective, these models and their related uncertainty, will serve as important management tools highlighting those portions of territories that will be more prone to biological invasions and where monitoring e? orts should be directed.

Directives pour les études dimpact environnemental du développement du tourisme côtier dans la région du Pacifique.

Environmental Monitoring and Governance, BRB

Available Online

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the primary instrument for planning, assessing and managing development projects, to support sustainable and resilient development goals and green growth outcomes.

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