scholarly journals Where to invade next: Inaction on biological invasions threatens sustainability in a small island developing state of the tropical South Pacific

2022 ◽  
pp. 393-406
Author(s):  
Marie- Isabell Lenz ◽  
Stephen Galvin ◽  
Gunnar Keppel ◽  
Sunil Gopaul ◽  
Matthias Kowasch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Small Island

scholarly journals The Vulnerability of Health Infrastructure to the Impacts of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise in Small Island Countries in the South Pacific

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 117863292110208
Author(s):  
Subhashni Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Marshall Islands ◽  
World Health ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Medical Facilities ◽  
Medical Infrastructure

Anthropogenic climate change and related sea level rise will have a range of impacts on populations, particularly in the low lying Pacific island countries (PICs). One of these impacts will be on the health and well-being of people in these nations. In such cases, access to medical facilities is important. This research looks at the medical facilities currently located on 14 PICs and how climate change related impacts such as sea level rise may affect these facilities. The medical infrastructure in each country were located using information from a range of sources such as Ministry of Health (MoH) websites, World Health Organization, Doctors Assisting in South Pacific Islands (DAISI), Commonwealth Health Online, and Google Maps. A spatial analysis was undertaken to identify medical infrastructure located within 4 zones from the coastline of each country: 0 to 50 m, 50 to 100 m, 100 to 200 m, and 200 to 500 m. The findings indicate that 62% of all assessed medical facilities in the 14 PICs are located within 500 m of the coast. The low-lying coral atoll countries of Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Tokelau, and Tuvalu will be highly affected as all medical facilities in these countries fall within 500 m of the coast. The results provide a baseline analysis of the threats posed by sea-level rise to existing critical medical infrastructure in the 14 PICs and could be useful for adaptive planning. These countries have limited financial and technical resources which will make adaptation challenging.

scholarly journals Law, land, development and narrative: a case-study from the South Pacific

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Farran
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Development ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Small Island ◽  
The South ◽  
Indigenous Land Rights ◽  
Indigenous Land

This article explores a primary source of legal studies, case-law, as a form of narrative in the context of indigenous land rights, and considers how this narrative negotiates pre-colonial land claims in a post-colonial context. Its case-study is the South Pacific island country of Vanuatu, a small-island, least-developed, nation-state, where laws introduced under Anglo–French colonial administration are still retained and sit uneasily alongside the customary forms of land tenure which govern ninety percent of all land in the islands. The article looks at the traditional and changing role of narrative presented as evidence by claimants and their witnesses against a context of rapid social and economic change, and asks whether the metamorphosis of narrative signals the future survival or imminent demise of customary indigenous land rights and what that might mean for these island people faced by the pressures of development.

scholarly journals Forget China: No Shark Trade in Tonga. Yeah Right

Te Kaharoa ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teena Brown Pulu
Keyword(s):  
South Pacific ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
First Century ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The South ◽  
Debt Stress ◽  
The Government ◽  
Regional Engagement

In the South Pacific winter of 2013, Michael Brassington reported from Tonga that “China is now the South Pacific’s most valued VIP.”  The Australian journalist was interviewing Pesi Fonua, longstanding Tongan publisher who commented: “They are definitely calling the shots.  Whatever they want they can negotiate or take it.”  Referring to China, he ranked this regional power as a twenty first century precursor for South Seas debt, diplomacy, and indebtedness. By Fonua’s description China was the debt stress killer.  In 2014, Tonga would start repaying Chinese soft loans worth 40% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) spent on buildings, wharfs, bridges, roads.  Ordinary people in this small island developing state were worried the government might default on loan payments.  Then what would happen?  Would China own Tonga?  What have Pakeha New Zealanders’ perceptions of Pacific Islanders got to do with any of this?  Reconfiguring South Pacific relations with China as a contending power sparked off anxiety for the United States, Australian, and New Zealand governments.  The question was how did political unease shape strategies to control the region?  For Tonga’s national affliction of debt distress, did New Zealand’s regional engagement consider how an age old attitude towards Pacific Islanders weighed down this country’s excess baggage carried over from the 19th and 20th centuries, nudging them closer to China?

Searching for appropriate criminal evidence laws in the South Pacific

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-241
Author(s):  
Jennifer Corrin
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
The South ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Island States ◽  
Small Island States ◽  
The Common ◽  
The 19Th Century

Most island states in the South Pacific have inherited a common law legal system as a consequence of their colonial history. After independence only a few of these countries have been active in replacing or amending the inherited laws. In the field of evidence, many countries are still reliant on introduced statutes from the 19th century. Commencing with a brief outline of legal systems in the small island states of the South Pacific, this article moves on to identify the legislation which governs criminal evidence in a representative sample of countries from Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. It explains the complexities of this exercise in countries which still rely in whole or in part on legislation introduced during the colonial era. The article then moves on to discuss the application of the common law and the extent to which South Pacific courts have developed their own jurisprudence in this area. It considers how far these countries have come in developing their own rules of criminal evidence. The article concludes with a discussion of whether the prevailing criminal evidence laws are suitable for the circumstances of South Pacific island countries.

scholarly journals Influences of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on Rainy Season Precipitation for the Southernmost Caribbean Small Island State, Trinidad

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 707
Author(s):  
Nkese D. Mc Shine ◽  
Ricardo M. Clarke ◽  
Silvio Gualdi ◽  
Antonio Navarra ◽  
Xsitaaz T. Chadee
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Rainy Season ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Small Island ◽  
The South ◽  
Island States ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Composite Maps

Seasonal rainfall in the Caribbean Basin is known to be modulated by sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and particularly those in the Equatorial Pacific and Atlantic and the Tropical North Atlantic. However, little is known about how these major oceans influence the seasonal precipitation of individual small island states within the region as climate variability at the island-scale may differ from the Caribbean as a whole. Correlation and composite analyses were determined using monthly rainfall data for the southernmost island of the Caribbean, Trinidad, and an extended area of global SSTAs. In addition to the subregions that are known to modulate Caribbean rainfall, our analyses show that sea surface temperatures (SSTs) located in the subtropical South Pacific, the South Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico also have weak (r2 < 0.5) yet significant influences on the islands’ early rainy season (ERS) and late rainy season (LRS) precipitation. Composite maps confirm that the South Pacific, South Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico show significant SSTAs in December–January–February (DJF) and March–April–May (MAM) prior to the ERS and the LRS. Statistical models for seasonal forecasting of rainfall at the island scale could be improved by using the SSTAs of the Pacific and Atlantic subregions identified in this study.

Some Issues Facing Environmental Organisations in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the South Pacific Action Committee for Human Ecology and the Environment

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
Neil Taylor ◽  
Subhashni Nathan
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Human Ecology ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
The South ◽  
Action Committee ◽  
Government Organisation

AbstractThe South Pacific Action Committee for Human Ecology and the Environment (SPACHEE) is a regional environmental Non Government Organisation (NGO) based in Fiji but serving twelve small island nations in the South Pacific region, and involved in both formal and non-formal environmental education. At present its membership base is very limited numerically, regionally and also in terms of its socio-economic make up. This article analyses SPACHEE's current membership and issues base and makes a number of recommendations as to how the organisation might broaden these. Some suggestions are also made as to how SPACHEE might link its work more explicitly to issues of equality and social justice. These suggestions may have implications for other environmental NGOs in larger developing countries in the region which face similar environmental issues, such as loss of rainforest, degradation of coral reefs and mangrove destruction.

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