scholarly journals Na Vuku Makawa ni Qoli: Indigenous Fishing Knowledge (IFK) in Fiji and the Pacific

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salanieta Kitolelei ◽  
Randy Thaman ◽  
Joeli Veitayaki ◽  
Annette Breckwoldt ◽  
Susanna Piovano
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Intergenerational Transfer ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Modern Education ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Associated Knowledge

The time-tested Indigenous fishing knowledge (IFK) of Fiji and the Pacific Islands is seriously threatened due to the commercialization of fishing, breakdown of traditional communal leadership and oral knowledge transmission systems, modern education, and the movement of the younger generations to urban areas for work and/or study. Consequently, IFK, which has been orally transmitted for generations, has either been lost, not learned by the current generation, or remains undocumented. This study focuses on the critical need to conserve and include IFK as a basis for assessing the conservation status of ecologically and culturally keystone fisheries species as a basis for planning site-specific management of marine and freshwater fisheries in Fiji and the Pacific Islands. The study reviews studies of the last two and a half centuries on IFK from Fiji and elsewhere in the small oceanic islands of the Pacific, as a basis for the conservation, documentation and intergenerational transfer of this knowledge as the foundation for sustainable fisheries management. The study also reviews: the nature and conservation status of IFK, itself; and the conservation status of species considered to be of particular ecological and cultural importance; reasons for the loss of species/taxa and associated knowledge and practices; and actions that can be taken to address this loss.

scholarly journals The conservation status of marine biodiversity of the Pacific Islands of Oceania

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Pippard ◽  
G.M. Ralph ◽  
M.S. Harvey ◽  
K.E. Carpenter ◽  
J.R. Buchanan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
The Pacific

Pectis loiolae (Asteraceae: Tageteae): New Species Registered in a Natural Monument at an Archaeological Site in Northeast Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 486-492
Author(s):  
Natanael Costa Rebouças ◽  
Valéria da Silva Sampaio ◽  
Mariana de Oliveira Bünger ◽  
Nádia Roque
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Morphological Description ◽  
White Disk ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Natural Monument ◽  
A New Species

Abstract— Pectis comprises about 90 species distributed in North America, Mexico, the Caribbean, South and Central America, and the Pacific Islands. In Brazil, the genus is represented by 14 species that mainly occur in the Cerrado and five species that are endemic to the Caatinga domain. During field expeditions to the Lajedo de Soledade archaeological site, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, a new species of Pectis was found on rocky outcrops (lajedos) in the Caatinga. Pectis loiolae sp. nov. grows on limestone rocks in sedimentary substrate and is recognized by its prostrate habit with ascending branches terminating in a solitary capitulum, apex of the involucral bracts rounded, apiculate, and green becoming vinaceous in the apical 1/3, corolla of ray flowers (5) with abaxial surface vinaceous and adaxial white, disk flowers 8‐10, and presence of stylopodium in the disk flowers. A morphological description, illustration, distribution map, habitat, conservation status, and a key for all Brazilian Pectis species are presented herein.

scholarly journals Challenges for the application of earthquake engineering in the Pacific Islands

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-133
Author(s):  
G.G. Shorten
Keyword(s):  
Earthquake Engineering ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Earthquake Risk ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
The People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Response Capacity ◽  
Local Risk ◽  
Building Standards

Experience has shown that successful application of earthquake engineering in the Pacific, particularly the understanding of earthquake risk as applied in the high-risk urban areas, is fundamentally dependent on continuing studies of seismicity and neotectonics; research on foundation problems; the institution of building standards; and seismic microzonation studies of urban population centres. The whole needs to be carried forward by a comprehensive risk-management approach that takes scientific and engineering advances towards social outcomes by defining the people, buildings and infrastructure at risk, and engages the relevant communities in planning for ways to treat risk, including risk-financing for catastrophes. The challenges inhibiting that successful application in the Pacific Islands are manifold, and include problems imposed from outside the region as well as those inherent from within. The focus of activities related to earthquake engineering should now be on the solutions to those challenges, including improvements in education, organisational approaches and research on the local risk, as well as providing for an immediate technical response capacity to disasters and a regional network facility. Overwhelmingly, a more efficient coordination of the services provided by the international community is called for, because a concerted effort is required if there is to be any chance of successfully overcoming the challenges to sustainable development in the Pacific.

scholarly journals Threatened Mangroves in the Anthropocene: Habitat Fragmentation in Urban Coastalscapes of Pelliciera spp. (Tetrameristaceae) in Northern South America

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan F. Blanco-Libreros ◽  
Karla Ramírez-Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Mangrove Habitat ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Threatened Plant Species ◽  
The Caribbean

Mangroves are fragmented habitats thriving in human-dominated coastalscapes worldwide. They provide refuge to threatened plant species, such as the Neotropical Piñuelo Mangrove (formerly the monotypic Pelliciera genus, recently split into two species: P. rhizophorae and P. benthamii). However, little is known about the relationship between urbanization and the spatial configuration of mangrove habitat and how it would drive ecological and evolutionary changes in the small populations of Pelliciera spp. We used open data (e.g., land cover, mangrove cover) for 107 locations of Pelliciera spp. in Colombia (extant populations) to assess coastalscape structure and urbanization. We described coastalscape composition dynamics (for 2000 and 2010) and mangrove habitat configuration along a human-domination gradient, using landscape metrics. We computed an urban index to compare urbanization intensity among the study areas along the Caribbean coast and compared coastalscape structure and mangrove spatial metrics between basins (Caribbean and Pacific). The proportion of artificial surfaces was greater in the Caribbean than in the Pacific, but no temporal difference was found. The Caribbean basin exhibited a greater Urban Index, particularly in Cartagena and Urabá. Mangrove fragmentation was also greater in the Caribbean and it was influenced by the degree of urbanization. Mangrove area and core area were smaller in the Caribbean than in the Pacific, while cohesion was significantly lower in Cartagena than in other urban areas of the Caribbean. We propose a conceptual eco-evolutionary framework for linking mangrove patch reduction and isolation to demographic variables of Pelliciera spp. Edge effects are expected to affect birth and mortality rates in small patches. Small patches and small effective populations are expected to be more sensitive to novel biotic interactions, extreme weather, and gradual climate change. Isolation will also influence both emigration and immigration rates of propagules. We propose: (1) Assessing the conservation status of the two species, (2) setting monitoring programs of their populations of Pelliciera spp. and their surrounding coastalscapes (particularly in the Caribbean, (3) declaring protected areas, in wild and urban settings, to reduce mangrove fragmentation and urbanization.

Growing Coconut Palms in the Pacific Islands: Colliding Knowledge and Values

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Coconut Oil ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Experiential Knowledge ◽  
The West ◽  
Passive Resistance ◽  
The People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Coconuts provided commodities for the West in the form of coconut oil and copra. Once colonial governments established control of the tropical Pacific Islands, they needed revenue so urged European settlers to establish coconut plantations. For some decades most copra came from Indigenous growers. Administrations constantly urged the people to thin old groves and plant new ones like plantations, in grid patterns, regularly spaced and weeded. Local growers were instructed to collect all fallen coconuts for copra from their groves. For half a century, the administrations’ requirements met with Indigenous passive resistance. This paper examines the underlying reasons for this, elucidating Indigenous ecological and social values, based on experiential knowledge, knowledge that clashed with Western scientific values.

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