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Category Archives: Islands

2013 ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC CULTURAL FESTIVAL – CANNERY CASINO (Video Length 7:14) – Video

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2013 ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC CULTURAL FESTIVAL - CANNERY CASINO (Video Length 7:14)
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2013 ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC CULTURAL FESTIVAL - CANNERY CASINO (Video Length 7:14) - Video

People Progressive Party (PPP) Turks and Caicos Islands Chamber of Commerce Presentation – Intro – Video

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People Progressive Party (PPP) Turks and Caicos Islands Chamber of Commerce Presentation - Intro
Candidates Harold Charles (Leader), Zhavargo Jolly (Deputy Leader), Dr. Edward Smith, Dorrel Delancey-Pratt and Wendal Wilson make a presentation on the futu...

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People Progressive Party (PPP) Turks and Caicos Islands Chamber of Commerce Presentation - Intro - Video

People Progressive Party (PPP) Turks and Caicos Islands Chamber of Commerce Presentation – Part 2 – Video

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People Progressive Party (PPP) Turks and Caicos Islands Chamber of Commerce Presentation - Part 2
Candidates Harold Charles (Leader), Zhavargo Jolly (Deputy Leader), Dr. Edward Smith, Dorrel Delancey-Pratt and Wendal Wilson make a presentation on the futu...

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People Progressive Party (PPP) Turks and Caicos Islands Chamber of Commerce Presentation - Part 2 - Video

Solomon Islands PM Attends Global Transparency Conference

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Solomon Islands Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo Attends Global Conference of the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI

Honiara, May 21, 2013 Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Hon. Gordon Darcy Lilo will give a key note address at the 6th Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Global Conference, in Sydney, Australia this week.

Speakers at the conference address the evolution of the EITI, now a firmly established global standard in extractive industry revenue transparency. Solomon Islands is the first country in Oceana to become an EITI candidate country of 37 countries implementing the standard globally.

Speaking Tuesday, on his departure to Sydney Mr. Lilo said, the government will make sure Solomon Islands becomes a compliant country of EITI.

Implementing EITI in the Solomon Islands is very important. As our main source of revenue, output from our forestry sector is expected to decline in the coming years. So a decision has been taken to focus on developing the vast potential of our mining sector as the future engine of growth in the economy. Establishing the consultative, consensus building, and transparency enhancing mechanisms common to EITI, will help reduce the risk of conflict and repeating the legacy of the forestry sector.

Signing on to the EITI runs in parallel to initiatives taken to modernize the mining sector in collaboration with the World Bank. The government is currently in discussion with the World Bank to provide ongoing support to update the mining law and regulatory framework for the sector to promote the development of an industry that is environmentally and socially responsible.

The EITI standard is based on a simple but powerful concept that ensures the money mining companies say they have paid to the government, is actually equal to the money the government says it has received from them. While the initiative is led by the government all decisions are made in active and meaningful partnership with civil society and industry representatives. These representatives work together in the Solomon Islands Extractive Industry National Stakeholder Group (SIEINSG). Key members of this group are also attending the EITI conference in Sydney.

Mr. Lilo continues, From experience, natural resource extraction as we have seen with logging can be a potential source of conflict, and in order to avoid a repeat of conflict related to resource extraction and benefit sharing, government will do all it can to support everybody that is involved in developing the mining sector.

The 6th EITI global conference will focus on how transparency and the EITI is leading to change in the 37 implementing countries, as well as agreeing to a revised version of EITI Standards to ensure greater transparency in the years ahead. This will include changes aimed at improved implementation and reporting processes.

The conference theme is Beyond Transparency as some of these changes will include new reporting requirements including greater detail in reporting revenue streams, local level reporting, and industry social expenditures. It brings together delegates and officials from academic institutions, the mining industry, private sector, international development organizations, and governments from almost 100 countries.

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Solomon Islands PM Attends Global Transparency Conference

Rare island fox rebounds on California islands

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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A rare and tiny island fox is on the verge of making a comeback from near-extinction in the Channel Islands, a rugged and wind-swept chain off Southern California, officials said Monday.

The population of the fox dropped to an all-time low of just 70 animals on Santa Cruz Island in 2000 before rebounding to 1,300 foxes now, said Yvonne Menard, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service. Santa Cruz is the largest island.

Populations on nearby San Miguel and Santa Rosa islands have also bounced back into the hundreds after dropping in 1999 to just 15 of the cat-sized animals on each island.

The island fox is only found on six of the Channel Islands, a chain of eight islands, five of which form a national park. Each of the six islands has its own unique fox subspecies because of generations of genetic isolation.

In a five-year period in the 1990s, fox populations plummeted more than 90 percent on the rugged and mountainous islands due to an influx of golden eagles, which preyed on them.

The eagles were attracted by hundreds of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island that also made easy prey and were descendants of pigs brought to the island years ago by ranchers.

The food source allowed the eagles to begin to nest on the island, said Tim Coonan, a biologist with the National Park Service.

Four of the six fox subspecies were listed as federally protected endangered species in 2004, but now biologists say their populations on three of the four islands have recovered almost completely.

"They are doing unexpectedly well," Coonan said in a phone interview Monday after a tour of Santa Cruz Island to publicize the program's success.

"I don't think anyone could imagine that 12 years after the decline was discovered .... we'd be looking at recovered populations."

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Rare island fox rebounds on California islands

Non-native goats and iguanas threaten Pacific islands

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Feral goats and green iguanas wreaking havoc with the ecosystems in the small islands in the Pacific, biologists warn, in two separate studies published in Pacific Science last month, calling for control or elimination of these animals.

The animals have been introduced there by humans, but are now threatening the survival of native wildlife.

Feral goats rapidly deplete grazing lands, the first paper warns, while green iguanas threaten the local horticultural industry, according to the second study. Iguanas also reportedly cause car accidents when they cross roads and motorists try to avoid them, it adds.

Mark Chynoweth, a natural resource science manager at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an author of the goat study, says that the population of feral goats on Pacific islands "poses a significant threat to the native flora and fauna, and is a critical barrier to conservation and habitat restoration".

"Non-native goats threaten native species through direct impacts grazing and indirect impacts, such as destruction of habitat," he adds.

The study recommends that the goats be removed from some of the vulnerable ecosystems in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, Wilfredo Falcn, a graduate student of the University of Puerto Rico and lead author of the second study, says that green iguanas have been imported to Pacific islands both legally and illegally from the Americas as exotic pets since the 1950s.

But because of the lack of natural predators on the islands and the iguanas' high reproduction rate, their population has risen dramatically and they are now expanding their range and displacing local species, particularly in Fiji. Eradication can be difficult because of their camouflage.

"It is important for people to understand that exotic species may have negative impacts if they become established outside their native range," Falcn tells SciDev.Net. "Moreover, sometimes they can grow to unmanageable sizes up to two feet in length and they may become hard to deal with."

Randolph Thaman, a professor at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, says: "Both goats and green iguanas clearly constitute serious threats to small islands and their fragile native and cultural biodiversity and ecosystems, with goats having historically proven to be particularly disastrous".

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Non-native goats and iguanas threaten Pacific islands


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