Pacific Science Association

Resolutions Concerning Biodiversity in the Pacific Region

21st Pacific Science Congress

The Pacific Science Association Council, on the occasion of the 21st Pacific Science Congress in Okinawa, Japan from 12 – 19 June 2007, recognizes the following:

It is believed that the Pacific region has one of the highest percentages of threatened and endangered species in the world; and

Many habitats in the Pacific are threatened by human activities such as deforestation, over-use of resources, alien species introductions, and other natural and anthropogenic phenomena such as climate change, coral bleaching, ocean acidification and other stresses; and

The Pacific region lacks comprehensive information on the native and introduced plants and animals, and their habitats, ecological requirements, and responses to environmental stresses, and this information is extremely important to guide and inform conservation efforts; and

Greater information on the ethnobiology of the Pacific will also provide broad benefits to human society, and this information is extremely important to guide and inform conservation efforts; and

The scale and intensity of threats to ecosystems in the Pacific region is increasing while the availability of funds to address these issues remains limited; and

The indigenous and local knowledge systems of Pacific region cultures are both inherently valuable and have much wisdom to impart to science and human knowledge, and the integration of this knowledge with Western scientific approaches could provide synergistic benefits for the conservation, sustainable use, and equitable sharing of access to and benefits of biodiversity, in line with the Convention on Biological Diversity; and

The ecological services provided by nature are critical to human societies at local, regional and global scales;

In recognition of these findings, the 21st Pacific Science Congress endorses the following actions in order to enhance the effectiveness of sustainable natural resource management and conservation in the Pacific Region:

  1. A comprehensive biological survey to document the distributions of species and their ecological requirements, and that the PSA Biodiversity Task Force play a leading role in this endeavor; and
  2. The development of new communications tools, especially World Wide Web-accessible information systems, to facilitate the dissemination of important information on the biodiversity of the Pacific region; and
  3. Strengthening the local institutional capacity of Pacific regional institutions, particularly in the areas of biological sciences, taxonomy, parataxonomy, and bioinformatics is essential to understanding and supporting sustainable resource utilization; and
  4. Increased research on large-scale environmental processes in the region; and
  5. More intensive and sustained field-level conservation efforts working in authentic partnership with local communities and other stakeholders; and
  6. Greater use of social science tools and community-driven approaches that are both critical and effective in addressing on-the-ground conservation issues with local communities; and
  7. More concerted efforts by scientists, conservation practitioners, and other stakeholders to document and to support traditional systems that effectively promote the sustainable use and management of natural resources in the Pacific.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

SESSION ON PROTECTED AREAS AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AT THE 21ST PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS

Biodiversity loss resulting from such factors as habitat modification, deforestation, climate change, invasive species, and overfishing continues to pose a major challenge for the Asia-Pacific region. Inappropriate or unsustainable use of terrestrial and marine resources poses risks for the human societies and economies who depend on the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity. A session at the 21st Pacific Science Congress will examine these topics and representative case studies in order to illustrate problems associated with conservation planning and management of natural resources, as well as to identify lessons learned that can help illuminate best practices to protect biodiversity.  Paper topics may include, but are not limited to, issues such as:

We are particularly interested in particular case studies on conservation and natural resource management in the Pacific and Asian regions. We also encourage a range of topics, including both terrestrial and marine natural resource management areas. The geographic scope in the session includes all countries in the Pacific Rim, but focusing particularly on the Pacific Islands (Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia), Indonesia, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Russia, North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand.

The deadline for submitting paper proposals is 15 January 2007. Interested researchers are encouraged to send an indication of interest before 1 December 2006. Please send proposals to:

John Burke Burnett
Executive Director, Indo-Pacific Conservation Alliance [and]
Executive Secretary, Pacific Science Association
burnett@indopacific.org or burnett@bishopmuseum.org

PSA Task Force on Biodiversity

Chair:
Dr. Allen Allison
Vice President for Sciences
The Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice Street
Honolulu , Hawaii 96817 USA
FAX (808) 847-8252
allison@hawaii.edu

Botany Division
Prof. Chang-Hung Chou
National Pintung University of Science and Technology
Pintung 91207 , Taiwan
choumasa@mail.npust.edu.tw

Ecosystem Division
Dr. Dieter Mueller-Dombois
c/o Department of Botany
University of Hawaii
3190 Maile Way
Honolulu , Hawaii 96822 , USA
amdhawaii@aol.com

Entomology Division
Dr. Neal Evenhuis
Department of Natural Sciences
The Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice Street
Honolulu , Hawaii 96817-2704
FAX (808) 847-8252
neale@bishopmuseum.org

Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum

Click here for a review of the first five years of PBIF.

Dr. Mark Fornwall
Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN)
310 Ka`ahumanu Ave.
Kahului, Maui, HI 96732 USA
mark_fornwall@usgs.gov