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The world’s more than 200 000 protected areas come in many forms, on land and at sea, and occur in every country (Bertzky et al. 2012). They are places that people establish to conserve natural and cultural heritage and to sustain their benefits for society. Among other values, protected areas allow people to connect with nature for their inspiration, education, well-being and recreation. While protecting ecosystems that are essential for life, they can support human livelihoods and aspirations and offer nature-based solutions for the complex challenges faced by the world today.

The Pacific Islands region is currently experiencing an intensification of interest in culture of an enabler, rather than an inhibitor of development.

Seabirds are notoriously sensitive to introduced mammalian predators and eradication programs have benefitted seabird populations and their habitats on numerous islands throughout the world. However, less evidence is available from the tropics as to the benefits of rat eradication. Here, we report the seabird recovery and vegetation dynamics on a small coralline island of the tropical western Indian Ocean, eight years after Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) eradication. Two species of seabirds were breeding before rat eradication (red-footed and masked boobies, Sula sula and Sula, dactylatra) and, in both species, the number of breeding pairs had an apparent increase of 22?23% per year after rat eradication. Such a high annual growth rate cannot be achieved by auto-recruitment only and our data suggest that immigration from other source populations never occurred in at least one of these species. We suggest that it is rather due to a rapid increase in breeding success, which rapidly increased the observed number of breeders since birds remained in the available-for-counting-as-breeders group for much longer. Two other species, the white tern (Gygis alba) and the brown booby (Sula leucogaster) were recorded breeding in 2014. The former species has not bred on the island since 1856 and the latter has never bred on the island. Plant cover (monospecific formation of the ruderal herb Boerhavia diffusa) dramatically increased from less than 30% of surface coverage to more than 70%. Although the initial restoration project was to eradicate all introduced mammals of the island simultaneously, house mouse (Mus musculus) eradication failed. Mouse density was high 8 years after rat eradication (32 mice/ha in dry season and 52 mice/ha in rainy season) but not higher than at a comparable tropical island of the region (Juan de Nova) where mice coexist with introduced black rats (Rattus rattus) and feral cats (Felis catus). These results are discussed in terms of the direct positive effects of rat eradication on seabirds and plants and the indirect positive effects of post-eradication seabird increase on soil manuring and vegetation recovery. Overall, our results show that on tropical islands, seabird and habitat recovery can be very rapid after rat eradication and should be implemented as a restoration tool wherever possible.

Tropical forests are suffering from increasing intensities and frequency of disturbances. As a result, non-native species accidentally introduced or intentionally planted for farming, plantations, and ornamental purposes may spread and potentially invade undisturbed native forest. It is not known if these introduced species will become invasive, as a result of recurrent natural disturbances such as hurricanes. Using data from three censuses (spanning 15 years) of a 16-ha subtropical wet forest plot, we investigated the impact of two hurricanes on populations of plant species that were planted in farms and plantations that were then abandoned and from the natural spread of species introduced into Puerto Rico in the past. The populations of four species (Citrus paradis, Mangifera indica, Musa sp., and Simarouba glauca) changed little over time. Six species (Artocarpus altilis, Calophyllum calaba, Genipa americana, Hibiscus pernambucensis, Syzygium jambos, and Swietenia macrophylla) declined between the first two censuses after Hurricane Hugo, then increased again in Census 3 after Hurricane Georges. Spathodea campanulata gradually increased from census to census, while Coffea arabica declined. These introduced species represent only a small part of the forest basal area and few show signs of increasing over time. The number of stems per plant, new recruits, and the growth rates of these introduced species were within the ranges of those for native plant species. The mortality rates over both census intervals were significantly lower for introduced species ( 5% year?1) than for native ones (15% year?1). Many new recruits established after Hurricane Hugo (prior to this study) had opened the forest canopy and these high mortality rates reflect their death as the canopy recovered. Only Swietenia macrophylla and Syzygium jambos showed an increase in stem numbers in the closed canopy area of forest that had suffered limited human disturbance in the past. A future increase in frequency of disturbance may enable greater stem numbers of introduced species to establish, while lower-mortality rates compared to native species, may allow them to persist during inter-hurricane intervals. An increase in the population of introduced species, especially for those that grow into large trees, may have an impact on this tropical forest in the future.

The year 2007 marks the twentieth anniversary of the release ofOur Common Future,commonly known as the Brundtland Report. The need for building environmentalconsiderations into decision making, a central theme in the Brundtland Report, is no longer abold proposition, but a basic necessity. Without the ability to monitor and assess changingenvironmental trends and their interactions with human development, navigating the sea ofglobal change would be reduced to reactive crisis management—hardly an effective way totackle policy issues with such profound relevance for the planet.

Invasive species (non-native, harmful organisms) undermine human health and safety, food and water security, and economic development. Consequently, invasive species can have significant socio-economic impacts and warrant attention as a public policy priority. Trade and travel are the primary drivers of biological invasion both into and within the United States and prevention measures have been identified as the most cost-effective means of minimizing the introduction and thus impact of invasive species.

The purpose of this section is to provide a management context to reef restoration. We assume some familiarity with what coral reefs are. A key point we make is that reef restoration should be treated as just one option within an integrated coastal management (ICM) planning agenda for a stretch of coast. Too often, enthusiastic proponents of active restoration omit to consider the wider context and factors outside their control which may jeopardise their efforts.

Forests and other wooded land together cover about one-third of the Asia and the Pacific region. Excluding the Russian Federation, forest area in 2005 was estimated at 734 million hectares, accounting for about 19 percent of global forest area. The region as a whole experienced a net increase in forest area of about 633 000 ha annually during 2000-2005. This is an important breakthrough, since the region had experienced a net loss of forest cover during the 1990s. The improvement was largely the result of an increase of more than 4 million hectares per year in China, which has been investing heavily in afforestation in recent years.

As parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) gather in Bali, Indonesia to initiate a fresh effort to develop a global strategy to address climate change, the case for basing that strategy on early, deep cuts in emissions is being aggressively touted. To reinforce that case, the argument is being made that if such a strategy is not adopted, developing countries like China and India will be those most adversely affected.