Many of the Pacific entities have begun efforts to develop and implement programs to ensure that the biodiversity of life that live in or depend on the marine ecosystems. Many of the Pacific entities have elected to identify and designate areas within their marine jurisdictions as Marine Protected Areas.
An MPA – defined by The World Conservation Union as “any area of the intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its underlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical, and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment – serves to reduce the decline of biodiversity and protect the health of ecosystems within the MPA and those linked to it.Representatives of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, American Samoa, Western Samoa, Republic of Palau, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Tahiti, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Fiji convened at the University of the South Pacific (USP) – Suva, Fiji – to attend an MPA Capacity Building Training from September 8-13, 2008. The representatives, though representing differing entities, share a unique passion – to save their countries from drowning their marine resources and to promote the future welfare of all the Pacific peoples.All of the training revolves around MPA management planning – inclusive of steps and processes critical to the identification and designation of MPAs and strategies essential to ensure that the Pacific marine resources are saved from further degradation.All of the entities represented have identified and designated MPA sites – some of which are established. However, most of the MPA sites lack adequate or have dysfunctional management plans that have served little or no purpose in the protection and promotion of the MPAs. It is hoped that at the conclusion of the training, the representatives will return to their home countries with essential information and skills to develop purposeful management plans – or improve on existing plans – to protect their MPAs; and to add on to the global movement to protect, conserve, and preserve the health and quality of the world’s marine environments.
