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Inception Report on 'Data collection survey on reverse logistics in the Pacific Islands.'

Previous reef surveys on Rarotonga have shown that the crown-of-thorns outbreak in the late 1990s degraded the fore reefs to its current state departure of corals. The 2006 survey indicated that average coral cover at most sites were less than 5%, however it was noted that recovery was occurring. This is consistent with the present survey, which indicated that most sites have doubled their average percent coral cover after three years with some sites showing a greater than three-fold increas.

This report presents the findings of a preliminary survey initiated and conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to assess the situation of the generated solid waste and the sewage conditions at the Aleipata and Lepa Districts following the tsunami which hit Samoa on Tuesday, 29th September 2009. The occurrence of the Tsunami event has resulted with the generation of large quantities of solid wastes deposited at 10 villages of the Aleipata and Lepa Districts. Wastes from fallen trees, damaged buildings and furniture as well as other destroyed properties were deposited along the coast towards 200m inland. The toilet facilities at these villages were all destroyed with the contents of most septic tanks being swept away by the waves leaving open ditches, while some partly damaged septic tanks still have active and unstable sludge. Samoa like most of the Pacific Islands does not have any special policy and strategy in place to provide a management framework to respond to such a situation. The findings of this preliminary survey are therefore very important in providing some baseline information and data to assist JICA in its post tsunami relief waste management works.

In 2002, The Republic of Palau requested assistance from the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, to conduct a survey of invasive plant species of environmental concern. A comprehensive survey of the entire country was conducted and a report of the findings was submitted to the Government of Palau in 20032. This superseded a more cursory survey of the major species of environmental concern conducted in 19983. The present survey was requested as a follow-up to the 2002 survey.

Dugong dugon are the last extant species in the Family Dugongidae and are listed as Vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN Red List. The dugong population is believed to be in decline globally. Throughout its range, relic populations remain and are separated by large areas where populations have disappeared (Marsh & Lefebvre 1994). The degree of the decline of numbers or fragmentation of its range is not known for any country. For many countries the only information available is from incidental sightings, drownings and anecdotal information. The Pacific region supports the world's largest remaining population of dugongs (Marsh et al. 2002). Dugong occur in most of Melanesia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), the northeast and east coasts of Australia and as far east as Vanuatu.. The current status of dugongs is unknown throughout the region (Marsh et al. 2002) and information on dugong distribution and abundance is outdated or non-existent. It is likely that dugongs are widely distributed in small numbers in much of PNG. the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and that larger numbers occur in the Papua New Guinea waters of Torres Strait. Marsh et al. (2002) states that their reliance on relatively shallow water seagrass beds for food, limits the ability of dugongs to travel between islands and continents that are separated by extensive areas of deep water. For this reason, many island populations become essentially isolated, making these populations especially vulnerable to extinction.

The undertaking has been in operation for about 4 years now (to 2008) starting in late 2004 with the sole objective of establishing an income generating avenue targeting tourists. [However, a similar survey conducted in 2002 by SPREP and the Samoa Visitors Bureau confirms the existence of this operation then. Thus it started before 2004]. This operation is popular and is listed by the Pacific Travel Guide as one of the Top 10 things to do in Samoa.

This report is the review of terrestrial biological information in Samoa and was written by MNRE with the technical support of Conservation International (CI). It is a contribution to Samoa’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) which is currently being implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment (MNRE), with funding provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Samoa has 13 declared protected areas (PAs), including three Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and 3 community managed conservation areas (CAs) (see annex 1). The terrestrial coverage of Samoa’s protected area network is approximately 7% of Samoa’s land area. However Samoa’s Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (SBSAP) has a target protected area coverage of 15% of land and presumably, near shore (Schuster and Butler (eds) 2001).

Solomon Islands is emerging from four turbulent years (1999 – 2003) of an ethnic crisis with a very weak economy, a rapidly growing population and a government system struggling to cope with the delivery of basic services. The country’s people are custodians to globally significant terrestrial and marine biodiversity that is at risk of being over-exploited and lost due to uncontrolled and unsustainable development activities. In recognition of the importance of environmental management and conservation the country ratified the United Nations Convention to Combat Land Degradation (UNCCD) as well as a host of other Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEA) including the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Despite its affiliations to these global agendas the country’s performance in addressing its obligations has been very poor

The Aleipata Islands lie off the south-eastern end of Samoa's second largest island Upolu. All four of the Aleipata islands were visited (two for the third time since 2000) to record their fauna. Our earlier visits in 2000 and 2001 were to investigate the feasibility of eradicating rodents from Nu'utele island and to record the terrestrial fauna. One of the recommendations from our second visit was to investigate the fauna on Fanuatapu and Namu'a islands.

To’atuga Reef is located between 6.5-7.4 km (3.5-4.0 nautical miles) north or seaward of Apia Harbour (middle) on the north coast of Upolo Island, Samoa. It is an elongate ridge of reef extending in a NW–SE axis, with a broad reef top which ranges between 15-22m descending on a slope of 300 450 with vertical sections to a sand and rubble bottom at 35-40m. The reef top is characterised by a low topographic relief with the undulating contours of small ridges and depressions. This report provides a baseline description of the major habitat types and dominant fauna present on the reef. A basic inventory and description of the To’atuga marine environment is undertaken. Transects were used to detail the occurrence primarily of fish, coral, algae, mobile invertebrates and physical substrate types. Preliminary species inventories were compiled for hard coral and fish, with records of other benthos. General features of the habitat such as the surge environment, current, depth, bathymetric profile, community type and dynamics are described. Bathymetric assessment was aided by the profiling of the reef by South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) which provided a framework for site position and general reef assessment. Impacts of storms, coral bleaching, disease and the human impacts of recreational diving, fishing and anchoring are discussed and management recommendations made.