SOUTH PACIFIC REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM

SPREP grew out of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the South Pacific Commission. Located in Noumea, New Caledonia, at the South Pacific Commission headquarters, SPREP works on behalf of 22 island governments and administrations of the South Pacific Region. Funding comes mainly from the United Nations and other South Pacific Commission countries, namely Australia, New Zealand, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. SPREP is recognized as the principal environment program for the countries of the South Pacific, in partnership with the South Pacific Commission, the United Nations Environment Program, the Forum Secretariat, and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

SPREP was inaugurated in 1982 with an Action Plan that included the following mandates:

(1) Identify experts and institutions with

specific skills required to assist Pacific Island governments in solving their environmental problems.

(2) Ensure that monitoring of the state of the environments is continually underway to enable the early detection of potential problems.

(3) Facilitate exchange of environmental information among experts, institutions, governments, and the community.

(4) Develop and increase expertise, especially through training programs in environmental management skills.

BIODIVERSITY WORKSHOP

The environment officers from the various island countries and administrations listed above were present at the Vanuatu Biodiversity Workshop primarily to identify and discuss conservation and biodiversity issues in the SPREP member nations and to discuss the position of the South Pacific Island countries vis-a-vis the Global Biodiversity Convention. The chairman was Mr. Demei Otobed, Chief Conservationist, Bureau of Resources and Development, Ministry of Natural Resources, Republic of Palau.

The workshop was structured around the presentation of working papers that were followed by open discussion among workshop participants. Titles of working papers included:

• Conservation of Biological Diversity - An Overview

• Pacific Island Biodiversity: A Basis for Ecological and Economic Survival

• Project Formulation Framework

that up to 90% of rural economies in the South Pacific are actually based on long-established practices that promote biodiversity, i.e., based on a healthy and robust natural environment that produces food, raw materials for domestic use, and export products. Dr. Randy Thaman, of the University of the South Pacific, stressed that biodiversity was future capital of the region and must be maintained. He added that the value of island biodiversity has probably been grossly underestimated because there has yet to be a comprehensive survey where researchers travel out into local communities, talk to people in native languages, and learn the medicinal and other uses of plant and animal products. There are, he suggested, many such undescribed values within the ecosystems of the South Pacific. Many other participants also stressed the need for researchers and programs concerned with the environment of the South Pacific to use and integrate local knowledge from native people. Integrating scientific methods and surveys with local knowledge is the most expedient way to gather data on the species distribution and abundance of the region. The most important first step in identi

• SPREP Regional Avifauna Conservation Program

• Global Biodiversity Convention An Overview

Within this framework, the workshop raised awareness among the SPREP member countries about global and regional biological diversity issues, such as species extinction rates, the unique needs of islands, and the special conservation considerations for underdeveloped countries. It was widely agreed by all present that the local economies and native social systems must be maintained when implementing conservation regimes. It was noted

The meeting also reviewed the Global Biodiversity Convention line by line to propose changes for the next round of official negotiations, currently being undertaken under the auspices of UNEP. This convention is designed to bring together various efforts and concerns for global biodiversity that could rationalize current activities and give direction to future efforts to conserve biological diversity. This is a world-wide convention with several more rounds of negotiations planned prior to the UNCED Brazil conference in June 1992. It is intended that this treaty be completed by the time of the UNCED conference. However, this meeting was only concerned with the needs and

Participants agreed that Pacific Island countries should participate in the negotiating sessions and present a coordinated approach to the convention. Requests will be made to UN agencies and other organizations to assist Pacific Island governments financially in attending negotiations. It was also agreed that SPREP will coordinate the Pacific Island delegation response and provide advisory services. This workshop also emphasized the need for the convention to: (1) recognize the fragility, poor understanding, and limited knowledge of tropical ecosystems; and (2) emphasize that biological diversity in the South Pacific region is especially threatened by the predicted effects of climate change, particularly sea level rise. These effects include the disruption to or loss of entire island ecosystems.

MARINE MAMMAL CONSERVATION PLAN FOR SPREP

Marine mammals (whales, dolphins, porpoises, dugongs, and seals) are vital and highly visible components of aquatic and marine environments in the South Pacific. Of the approximately 80 species of whales and dolphins in the world today, 32 are confirmed or can be reasonably expected to occur in the SPREP region. There are populations of dolphins or small whales in rivers, estuaries, bays, and virtually all marine environments throughout the region. As many as nine species of great whales may occur in some part(s) of the vast SPREP area, as residents, seasonal migrants, or occasional wanderers. At least three species of seals wander into the area occasionally from their principal habitats further south or north. Dugongs can be found, albeit in diminishing numbers, in seagrass beds around Papua New Guinea, the Solomon

Caledonia.

One of the responsibilities of SPREP is to assess and conserve the marine mammals of the region. Towards this end, a steering committee was formed and a draft marine mammal action plan was developed during the Port Vila Biodiversity Workshop. The initial steering committee for this plan consists of the authors of this report and Paul Holthus, Scientific Officer, South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, P.O. Box D5, Noumea, New Caledonia. The overall aim of the SPREP Marine Mammal Conservation Programme (MMCP) is to implement a well conceived strategy to conserve the diversity of marine mammal species as part of healthy marine, estuarine, and riverine ecosystems in the SPREP region. It was decided that the required actions will include:

• Marine mammal data needs and education. As with other conservation issues identified during the meeting, the biggest problem with the marine mammals was the lack of information on species present in the area, distribution, and abundance. There have been few published papers on marine mammals of the area, so most information comes from unpublished reports, whaling records from the 18th and 19th centuries, and inferences of distribution and abundance from what is known from other areas. As a first priority, a comprehensive review document will be prepared, which will summarize available scientific literature and nonpublished sources on the occurrence and distribution of marine mammals within the SPREP region. Next, a program will be developed to collect information from knowledgeable local sources on the occurrence of marine mammals within each of the SPREP member countries. At the same time,

education programs will be started

in each country to teach local people about marine mammals and conservation issues. An identification guide, poster, and reporting form will be developed for widespread distribution throughout the region in order to improve the knowledge of marine mammal distribution.

Marine mammal threats. Simultaneous with the collection of basic data on marine mammal populations, an assessment will be made of the threats to marine mammals of the region. At present known threats include: incidental and directed fisheries, habitat loss, environmental cataclysms (e.g., nuclear explosions, volcanic eruptions), and the effects of pollution.

Establishment of a database. A database will be established by SPREP to hold information on sightings, strandings, and takes of marine mammals, both directed (harvest) and incidental (in fishing operations).

• Research and conservation plan.

From the information gathered from local, regional, and international sources, a series of comprehensive research and conservation projects will be implemented and support sought from a variety of sources.

• Urgent programs for immediate action. Even with the present dearth of information on marine mammals in the SPREP region, there are several programs that need to be started immediately including:

(1) Assessment of dugong populations throughout the region and the threats to these populations. Since dugongs live near shore in estuarine and riverine ecosystems, they are particularly vulnerable to human

activity, habitat loss, and directed and incidental fishing. Interviews with local people and surveys of potential habitats must be conducted throughout the region. Once critical habitats and populations have been identified, conservation measures need to be taken.

(2) Development of a local program for handling strandings, in particular, that will include release of animals sufficiently healthy to warrant release and careful dissection of dead specimens and sharing with specialists of tissues, collected and preserved according to existing protocols.

(3) The SPREP region contains

breeding areas for both northern and southern hemisphere humpback whales, perhaps the most endangered species of large whale regularly found in the area. It is important to develop and implement throughout the region a coordinated program of research on humpback whales using well-established techniques now in use world wide. Research should initially identify humpback whale breeding and calving areas in the SPREP region. Next, by using photographic and genetic individual identification methods, the relationships of stocks in the SPREP region must be identified, both between breeding areas of the region and to high latitude feeding grounds in both hemispheres. Programs must also be started to monitor the recovery of humpback stocks in the South Pacific that

will include research and appropriate management steps to protect critical habitats. It is also advised that, where appropriate, SPREP monitor the development of whale watching programs and the associated impacts on the animals.

CONCLUSION

While some populations of marine mammals are restricted in distribution, others are highly migratory and move freely through the region, both within exclusive economic zones (EEZS) and on the high seas. Therefore, conservation of marine mammals of the region cannot be achieved solely by measures at the national level and requires a coordinated regional effort. Thus the SPREP framework provides an ideal opportunity and mechanism to carry this out. The biggest obstacle in completing this conservation plan is funding. The SPREP marine mammal conservation plan is presently at the stage of seeking funds from both national and international organizations for full implementation.

Gregory Stone is currently the Japan Program Manager for the U.S. NOAA National Undersea Research Program. He is a specialist in undersea research technology and marine mammals. His marine mammal research has included work throughout the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Antarctic and Pacific Oceans. This research has mainly focused on the migration and population dynamics of humpback and right whales and more recently on New Zealand's endemic Hector's dolphin. In 1990, he published results in Nature that confirmed the longest mammalian migration ever documented, a humpback whale that swam over 8,000 km from Antarctica to Columbia.

Michael Donoghue is the Principal Conservation Officer, Marine Mammals, with the New Zealand Department of Conservation. He is a graduate of the Universities of London and Southampton in England. He developed and coordinates a broad range of marine mammal programs in New Zealand and in the South Pacific including stranding programs and the conservation of New Zealand's Hector's dolphin. He is closely involved in the International Whaling Commission as a scientific advisor to the New Zealand Delegation and as a delegate on the Commission's Scientific Committee.

Stephen Leatherwood is currently Chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Cetacean Specialist Group. He has been involved in marine mammal research and conservation for over 22 years. He has authored more than 100 scientific papers, 2 dozen chapters in books, numerous popular articles, and has edited 4 books of collected papers on various scientific topics. He has also written field guides to the whales, dolphins, and porpoises of the North Atlantic and North Pacific waters and handbooks of cetaceans (1983) and seals and sirenians (1991) of the world. Leatherwood is scientific advisor to 12 scientific and conservation organizations.