Threats to Pacific island biodiversity - Mounting and interlinked
Our islands face a biodiversity crisis, both above and below water. Pacific island countries and territories are many and small - both physically and in human population terms, isolated, particularly vulnerable to change and ill-equipped to manage the serious and growing range of threats to their biodiversity. The people of these islands, developing countries, rely more directly on their biodiversity for sustenance, livelihood, and cultural identity than do their more developed neighbours.
Climate change – increasing temperatures, rising sealevels, changes to seawater chemistry, increases to extreme events - is exacerbating the impacts of more established threats to island biodiversity, such as land use change, over-harvesting and invasive species. The invasive species threat has been increasingly recognised and addressed as a serious threat to Pacific island biodiversity over the past decade. Climate change is increasing the risk of new invasions becoming established, increasing the risk of alien species already present but previously benign becoming invasive, and increasing the risk of existing invasive species becoming a worse problem. A range of examples of these threats will be discussed.
Regardless of how quickly the global community can reduce the global greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global climate change, the world still faces significant climate change over coming centuries because of inertia in global systems. Adaptation is therefore essential and the challenge for every sector, including biodiversity. A risk management approach is advocated – assess the likelihood of high impact consequences and plan for those eventualities that would have the most serious consequences. Two aspects of risk management will need to be addressed. The first is the risk of climate change itself, how climate change will affect various components of biodiversity. The second is how climate change risks can be incorporated into other risk management processes in planning and management relevant to biodiversity.