East Rennell was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2013. Threats to the site's Outstanding Universal Value include logging, mining, invasive species, and climate change. The site is ...unlikely to be removed unless actions identified in the 2015 Desired state of conservation for removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) are implemented. While the Solomon Islands Government has taken some steps towards implementing the DSOCR, overall progress has been minimal, partly due to competing priorities and lack of resources. Consequently, it is unlikely that the DSOCR will be achieved by the target date of 2021. East Rennellese have received little financial benefit from the site's listing and their support for World Heritage may be wavering. To be effective, World Heritage conservation measures must be aligned with local peoples' aspirations and priorities, which include improving livelihoods and preserving culture.
Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are often cited as being the most vulnerable to the future impacts of a changing climate. Furthermore, being located in the ‘Pacific Rim of Fire’, PICs have long been ...exposed to the impacts of a range of natural and climate-related extreme events—such as earthquakes and cyclones—and are considered to be amongst the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters. The physical vulnerability of Pacific towns and cities is further exaggerated by development deficits, geographical isolation, weak governance, and complex issues of land tenure. This paper, based on substantive project experience in the Pacific region by each of the authors, reviews the resilience challenges facing Melanesian cities in the context of rapid urbanization and global environmental change. It then sets this in the context of the global ‘New Urban Agenda’ which was launched at Habitat III in Quito at the end of 2016, setting out the critical implementation challenges and opportunities for enhancing urban resilience in the Pacific.
This article details findings from research to re‐design a postgraduate course on development practices in Development Studies in Aotearoa New Zealand, aiming to include the impact of the Covid‐19 ...pandemic. Reviewing literature, surveying recently graduated students and interviewing senior staff in international development organisations, five topics emerged as forces shaping development practices in a post‐covid‐19 world. Analysis suggests interviewed staff aligned with views in literature. However, comparing views of the current and next generation of development practitioners reveals quite diverging views as to what would be most important for a course on development practices.
Many coastal peri-urban and urban populations in Oceania are heavily reliant on terrestrial and marine ecosystem services for subsistence and wellbeing. However, climate change and urbanisation have ...put significant pressure on ecosystems and compelled nations and territories in Oceania to urgently adapt. This article, with a focus on Pacific Island Oceania but some insight from Aotearoa New Zealand, reviews key literature focused on ecosystem health and human health and wellbeing in Oceania and the important potential contribution of nature-based solutions to limiting the negative impacts of climate change and urbanisation. The inextricable link between human wellbeing and provision of ecosystem services is well established. However, given the uniqueness of Oceania, rich in cultural and biological diversity and traditional ecological knowledge, these links require further examination leading potentially to a new conceptualisation of wellbeing frameworks in relation to human/nature relationships. Rapidly urbanising Oceania has a growing body of rural, peri-urban and urban nature-based solutions experience to draw from. However, important gaps in knowledge and practice remain. Pertinently, there is a need, potential—and therefore opportunity—to define an urban design agenda positioned within an urban ecosystem services framework, focused on human wellbeing and informed by traditional ecological knowledge, determined by and relevant for those living in the islands of Oceania as a means to work towards effective urban climate change adaptation.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) offer significant potential for climate change adaptation and resilience. NbS strengthen biodiversity and ecosystems, and premise approaches that centre human wellbeing. ...But understandings and models of wellbeing differ and continue to evolve. This paper reviews wellbeing models and thinking from Aotearoa New Zealand, with focus on
Te Ao Māori
(the Māori world and worldview) as well as other Indigenous models of wellbeing from wider
Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa
Oceania. We highlight how holistic understandings of human-ecology-climate connections are fundamental for the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples of
Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa
Oceania and that they should underpin NbS approaches in the region. We profile case study experience from Aotearoa New Zealand and the Cook Islands emerging out of the Nature-based Urban design for Wellbeing and Adaptation in Oceania (NUWAO) research project, that aims to develop nature-based urban design solutions, rooted in Indigenous knowledges that support climate change adaptation and wellbeing. We show that there is great potential for nature-based urban adaptation agendas to be more effective if linked closely to Indigenous ecological knowledge and understandings of wellbeing.
•Pacific Ocean Cities at forefront of urbanisation and climate change pressures.•Ocean-centric, climate-responsive approaches essential for islands.•Nature-based solutions in islands show human ...wellbeing and biodiversity benefits.
‘Ocean Cities’ of the Pacific are where urban landscapes and seascapes meet, where built and natural environments interface, and where human behaviour and urban development have profound impacts on both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Ocean Cities are at the forefront of climate change consequences, urbanisation challenges, and other development pressures. This article discusses the potential for nature-based solutions (NbS), including those focused on ecosystem services, in Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as a response to climate change, population growth, and urbanisation. Attention is directed to identifying the benefits of NbS and case-studies from Pacific SIDS, and if not available regionally, further afield. The article provides focus on possible barriers to implementation of NbS in a Pacific SIDS context and potential policy responses to these. Conclusions are threefold: (i) addressing interlinked ecological, climate, and human wellbeing issues in an integrated, ocean-focused and climate-responsive manner is vital for sustainable development in island systems; (ii) NbS can provide significant human wellbeing and biodiversity benefits in this context; and (iii) Pacific Ocean Cities, with a significant body of relevant traditional knowledge and emerging NbS experience, can inform global understanding of how to address converging urbanisation and climate change issues in Ocean Cities.
Looks to improve understanding of the nature of Fijian squatter, or informal, settlements, including the process of housing consolidation, through a perceived security of tenure framework. Aims to ...identify the factors influencing perceptions of tenure security and the extent of housing consolidation in informal settlements. Describes the growth and nature of Fijian informal settlements. Summarises the theory shaping the research. Outlines the case studies and research methods. Details key results concerning the perceived security of tenure and housing consolidation, along with additional basic data highlighting the nature of the case-study settlements. Discusses the results and flags policy suggestions. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Continued global urbanisation has resulted in a proliferation of squatter or informal settlements across the globe. Debate, shaping international housing policy, has always raged about how best to ...improve conditions for households living in such areas. The paper introduces key early theory shaping housing policy; traces evolving international housing policy and particularly focuses on summarising the recent policy debate (and how recent practise has responded to this). This recent debate is focused around: (i) legalisation approaches that attempt to increase legal or de jure security of tenure (largely through titling) and (ii) alternative approaches that rather seek to increase perceived or de facto security of tenure in settlements. Recent international low‐income housing policy now reflects the understanding that increasing de facto or perceived security of tenure, through a variety of different means, is a pragmatic and affordable approach to improving shelter standards in settlements.
In Oceania, buildings and landscapes have evolved in various ways and forms over centuries and showcase the inextricable connection between Pacific peoples and their island and ocean environments. ...The continued existence of Pacific Island traditional architecture and landscape design (ALD) demonstrates the resilience of Pacific Island peoples and cultural knowledge. This chapter employs a place-based and Indigenous-centric approach to exploring traditional, nature-based ALD in Oceania using Samoa as a case study. The chapter argues that traditional knowledge must be front and center in the development of ALD strategies to produce interconnected ecological and human well-being benefits. Traditional knowledge must also be the foundation of ongoing efforts to adapt to changing climatic, political, and social contexts in the region. Models of urban design for climate change adaptation must adapt local traditional architecture centered upon circular and open style living, small-scale buildings, and the development of green spaces.
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