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Sound waste and pollution management is an urgent priority for our Pacific Island leaders – ours here at SPREP is just to “Make it Happen.”

This form is to be used by all stakeholders seeking support from PacWastePlus programme. They are required to provide detailed information using this form.

A guide to identify three core waste streams icons associated with the PacWastePlus programme

This guideline provides the visual identity of the PacWastePlus programme. It establishes the the basic design principles to be applied to the PacWastePlus range of communication products, including publication

This guideline provides a guide on using the PacWastePlus programme logo correctly. Contents of this document must be observed whenever PacWastePlus staff, external partners or stakeholders communicate on behalf of the programme or its related activities. It should be used in conjuction with the PacWastePlus Communciations and Visibility Plan, Communications Guideline for Countries & Partners, and the PacWastePlus Branding Guidelines.

Rat eradication has become a common conservation intervention in island ecosystems and its effectiveness in protecting native vertebrates is increasingly well documented. Yet, the impacts of rat eradication on plant communities remain poorly understood. Here we compare native and non-native tree and palm seedling abundance before and after eradication of invasive rats (Rattus Rattus) from Palmyra Atoll, Line Islands, Central Pacific Ocean. Overall, seedling recruitment increased for five of the six native trees species examined. While pre-eradication monitoring found no seedlings of Pisonia grandis, a dominant tree species that is important throughout the Pacific region, post-eradication monitoring documented a notable recruitment event immediately following eradication, with up to 688 individual P. grandis seedlings per 100m2 recorded one month post-eradication. Two other locally rare native trees with no observed recruitment in pre-eradication surveys had recruitment post-rat eradication. However, we also found, by five years post-eradication, a 13-fold increase in recruitment of the naturalized and range-expanding coconut palm Cocos nucifera. Our results emphasize the strong effects that a rat eradication can have on tree recruitment with expected long-term effects on canopy composition. Rat eradication released nonnative C. nucifera, likely with long-term implications for community composition, potentially necessitating future management interventions. Eradication, nevertheless, greatly benefited recruitment of native tree species. If this pattern persists over time, we expect long-term benefits for flora and fauna dependent on these native species.

PACC reports