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This proposal will provide the scientific basis to support sustainable management of the Marovo Lagoon in the Solomon Islands, while maximising use of local marine resources for the benefit of local communities. The health of coastal marine ecosystems in the Marovo lagoon, like many sites around the world, are at risk due to inappropriate land use adjacent to coastal rivers and the lagoon (FAO 1994; Umali etal. 1987; WWF 1999a & b; World Bank 2000). Mangrove, seagrass and coral habitats provide the basis of most food chains in tropical regions; hence any deterioration in the condition or health of these habitats will lead to significant losses in both physical and functional benefits derived from these coastal ecosystems. Both intentional (wetland reclamation, point source pollution discharge, destructive fishing practices) and unintentional (increased run-off due to clearing, non-point source pollutant release) anthropogenic activities can lead to serious degradation of these important habitats and lead to a reduction in productivity of the ecosystem.

This paper is a somewhat revised and updated version of a report, written in 1973 after our 9-day visit, at the request of Mr. Marlon Brando, proprietor of Tetiaroa Atoll, and published here with his accord. The original version was based on that visit to the atoll, as explained in the introduction. It was supplemented by a few observations called from herbarium specimens and field notes of Dr. Gerrit Wilder, who visited the island briefly on March 12, 1925 and August 30, 1929, and of E. H. Quayle, of the Whitney Expedition, who stopped there on November 19-21, 1921.

The Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme of UNESCO, first thought of in 1968, launched in 1970 and endorsed by the Stockholm Conference of 1972, includes a number of scientific projects, of which No. 7 is devoted to the Ecology and Rational Utilization of Island Ecosystems. All the programmes are to be interdisciplinary and intergovernmental. Among member countries which developed their own national plans within the framework of the separate MAB projects, France drafted a vigorous one in MAB 7 in French Polynesia, under the leadership of Dr. B. Salvat (1977). The French programme includes a detailed study of an atoll, Takapoto in the Tuamotus, and comparison of its ecosystems and their functioning with those of a high island already under scrutiny, Moorea in the Society Islands.

The archipelago of the Society Islands, in the South Pacific, includes principally high volcanic islands, with fringing or barrier reefs, but also a number of outlying atolls: Tetiaroa, due north of Tahiti, Tupai or Motu-Iti, north-northwest of Bora-Bora and, at the west end of the volcanic chain, Maupihaa or Mopelia, Scilly or Fenua Ura or Manuae, and Bellingshausen (often spelled Bellinghausen) or Motu One.