lUCN Directory of Protected Areas Oceania in Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre lUCN - The World Conservation Union mi ^oi^ AyV crj III lUCN Directory of Protected Areas Oceania in lUCN -THE WORLD CONSERVATION UNION Founded in 1948, lUCN - the World Conservation Union - is a membership organisation comprising governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), research institutions, and conservationagenciesinover 100countries. TheUnion'sobjectiveistopromoteandencourage the protection and sustainable utilisation oflivingresources. Several thousand scientists and experts from all continents form part of a network supporting the work of its six Commissions: threatened species, protected areas, ecology, strategy and planning, environmental law, and education and communication. Its thematic programmes include forest conservation, wetiands, marine ecosystems, plants, the Sahel, Antarctica, and population and sustainable development. These activities enable lUCN and its members to develop sound poUcies and programmes for the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable developmentofnaturalresources. WCMC -THE WORLD CONSERVATION MONITORING CENTRE The World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) is a joint venture between the three partners in the World Conservation Strategy, lUCN - the World Conservation Union, the WorldWideFundforNature(WWF),andtheUnitedNationsEnvironmentProgramme(UNEP). Its mission is to supportconservation and sustainable development by collecting and analysing global conservation data so that decisions affecting biological resources are based on the best availableinformation. WCMC has developed a global overview database of the world's biological diversity that includes threatened plant and animal species, habitats of conservation concern, critical sites, protected areas of the world, and the utilisation and trade in wildlife species and products. WCMC Drawing on this database, provides an information service to the conservation and developmentcommunities,governmentsandUnitedNationsagencies,scientificinstitutions,the WCMC business and commercial sector, and the media. produces a wide variety of specialist outputs andreports basedon analyses ofits data. lUCN Directory of Protected Areas Oceania in Compiled by James R. Paine World Conservation Monitoring Centre in collaboration with the lUCN Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas and the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme lUCN - The World Conservation Union 1991 UK Publishedby: lUCN, Gland, Switzerlandand Cambridge, UK Prepared by: The WorldConservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, ProductionofthisDirectory was supportedin partby dieEast-West Centerof Honolulu,Hawaii,throughagranttotheCenterfromtheJohnD.andCatherine T. MacArthurFoundation. A contribution toGEMS -the Global Environment Monitoring System. X pi «ORlDaJMSERVATION MONITORINGCENTRE Copyright: (1991) InternationalUnionforConservationofNatureandNaturalResources Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorised withoutpriorpermission from the copyrightholder. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without the prior written permission ofthe copyrightholder. Citation: lUCN(1991).lUCNDirectoryofProtectedAreasinOceania. Preparedbythe World Conservation Monitoring Centre. lUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge,UK. xxiii + 447 pp. ISBN: 2-8317-0069-8 Compiled by: James R. Paine UK Printed by: Page Bros (Norwich) Ltd., Coverphotos: NgerukewidIslands WUdlifePreserve, Republic ofPalau. WWF/IUCN: Douglas Faulkner Producedby: lUCNPublicationsServices Unitondesktoppublishingequipmentpurchased through a gift from Mrs JuliaWard Availablefrom: lUCNPublications Services Unit, 219c Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CBS ODL, UK or lUCN Communications Unit Avenue du Mont-Blanc, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland The designations ofgeographical entities in this book, and die presentation ofdie material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of lUCN or WCMC or other participatingorganisations concerningthe legal statusofany country, territory, orarea, orofits authorities, orconcerning the delimitation ofits frontiers or boundaries. CONTENTS Page Foreword vii Introduction ix Acknowledgements x WCMC Managinginformation onprotectedareas at xiii Infonnation sheets: guidelines to theircontents xv Information sheets onprotected areas xvii References xxi Annex 1: Categories andmanagementobjectives ofprotectedareas xxii Annex 2: lUCN threatened species categories xxiii CookIslands 1 Summary ofprotected areas 8 Map ofprotectedareas 9 Information sheets 10 FederatedStatesofMicronesia 21 25 FUi Summaryofprotectedareas 30 Mapofprotectedareas 32 33 Information sheets France-French Polynesia ^5 Summary ofprotected areas 49 Map ofprotected areas 50 51 Information sheets France-New Caledonia 59 ^ Summary ofprotected areas Map ofprotected areas 66 67 Information sheets France-Wallis and Futuna 89 Summary ofprotected areas 92 93 Kiribati,Republicof Summary ofprotectedareas 98 Map ofprotected areas 99 ^00 Information sheets Mar^alllslands, Republic of 119 Summary ofprotectedareas 122 Map ofprotectedareas 123 12'+ Information sheets Nauru 131 135 Niue Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth of 139 Summaryofprotected areas 1'*^ Map ofprotectedareas 1^3 1^ Information sheets Page Palau,Republicof 157 Summary ofprotectedareas 160 Map ofprotected areas 161 Information sheets 162 Papua New Guinea 167 Summary ofprotected areas 177 Map ofprotected areas 181 Information sheets 182 Solomon Islands 239 Summary ofprotectedareas 247 Tokelau 253 Tonga, Kingdom of 257 Summary ofprotected areas 265 Map ofprotected areas 266 Information sheets 267 Tuvalu 281 USA -American Samoa 285 Summary ofprotected areas 290 Map ofprotectedareas 291 Information sheets 292 USA-Guam 301 Summary ofprotectedareas 306 Mapofprotected areas 307 Information sheets 308 USA -Hawaii 327 Summary ofprotected areas 335 Map ofF*rotected Areas 338 Information sheets 339 Vanuatu 371 Summary ofprotected areas 378 Map ofprotectedareas 379 Information sheets 380 Western Samoa 387 Summary ofprotected areas 395 Map ofprotected areas 397 Information sheets 398 Other Pacificlslands 407 Summaryofprotectedareas 407 Map ofprotectedareas 408 Information sheets 409 Geographical Index 431 Taxonomic Index 435 VI FOREWORD The islands of the Pacific conjure up visions of warmth, beauty and colour set in a vast ocean ... aparadisecapturedinwordsbyJamesMichenerandOscarHammerstein.Thisimage perhaps accounts for the fact that, for too long, Oceania has been a backwater in the world's conservationpriorities. Ithasconsiderableconservationneeds,butlacksthelargeanimalspecies which capture public imagination andfunding support. Oceania is blessed with great diversity but saddled with the vulnerability of small islands and the limitedresources ofmicro nations, while many ofits people seek a consumer-oriented lifestyle. NGO Fortunately,in-countrygovernmentand efforts,backedbyregionalinitiativesandgrowing international support, are tacklingtheparticularproblems which besetconservation in this vast regionofscatteredislands. The publication of this lUCN Directory ofProtected Areas in Oceania is a positive step in building uppublic awareness in the Pacific nations and territories, in the Oceaniaregionandin the world at large. Oceania, as covered by this Directory,extends fromits largest landmassin PapuaNewGuinea intheeasttoChile's IsladePascua (EasterIsland) in thewestandfromtheislandsofHawaiiin the north to Australia'sLordHowe Islands and New Zealand's Kermadecs in the south. Setdedinitially some 20,000 years ago and subsequentiy colonised by voyagers across its vast AD expanse ofwater, most ofthe habitable islands ofOceania were occupied by around 1000 variouslybyMelanesian, MicronesianandPolynesianpeople. Theirislandhomeswerediverse. Low coral islands or atolls, coral islands orreefs lifted from the ocean floor, emerging as high atollsonlimestoneplatforms,islandsofvolcanicorigin,andcontinentalislands.Isolatedislands saw theevolution ofunique floraandfaunawith many endemic species. Traditional constraintsonresource use and, in largerareas andsurrounding seas, an abundance ofnatural resources meant thatcommunities lived inrelative harmony with theirenvironment European "discovery" between the 16th and 18th centuries and then Western colonisation impacted significantiy onthe situation, with the introduction ofalien species,changingpattems ofresource use, and exploitation of forests combining to have a devastating impact on many indigenous species and theiroften small andfragile habitats. Independence brought a new range ofchallenges to often tiny nations made up ofsmall island communitiesacrossanoceanwhosefisheriesattractedsometimesdestructivefishingtechniques fromoutside the region and whose community-basedland tenure systems foundithardtocope with Western concepts ofprivate ownership. In such acontext,regional cooperation andinnovative approaches toresourcemanagementand protectedareas arevital andare having apositive impact, as theDirectory shows, withprogress intheestablishmentofprotectedareas,includingsomewithadistinctiveSouthPacificcharacter, suchasPapuaNewGuinea'swildlifemanagementareasestablishedandmanagedbycustomary landowners. vii lUCNDirectoryofProtectedAreas in Oceania In 1975,NewZealandhostedtheFirstSouthPacificConferenceonNationalPariesandReserves in Wellington and in 1976 a key initiative was taken by the South Pacific Forum, the political associationofindependentPacificcountries. Consultation withotherregional bodies, including theSouthPacific Commission (SPC),ledin 1982toadecisiontosetupaSouthPacificRegional Environment Programme (SPREP) located with SPC in Noumea, New Caledonia. The small SPREP Secretariat implements a wide-ranging work progranime among which the field of protectedareasandnatureconservationisofparticularimportance.RelatedSPREPprojectsdeal with problems of introduced species, bird conservation, and the establishment and effective managementofterrestrial andmarine protected areas. TheSecondSouthPacificconferenceonprotectedareaswasheldinAustraliain 1979,but,since itsestablishment, SPREP has taken the leadinorganising the two subsequent suchconferences atministerial level, heldinWestern Samoain 1985 andVanuatuin 1989. SPREPworks,too, to implementtworegionalconventions,theConventionontheConservationofNatureintheSouth Pacific (Apia Convention) andthe Convention forthe Protection ofthe Natural Resources and Environmentofthe South Pacific Region (SPREP Convention). While SPREPdoes notquitecoverthe whole ofthe Oceaniaregiondealt with in theDirectory, its definition ofthe South Pacific is wide enough to cover 22 island states or territories across 29million sq. kmofocean, approximately the size ofAfrica. Themostencouraging signforthe future is theconfidence theOceanic states have in SPREPas a coordinating and innovating body working in cooperation with UNEP, lUCN - The World ConservationUnion,andotherbodies such as theHonolulu-basedEast-WestCenter, theWorld WideFundforNature andothernon-governmental organisations. The publication ofthis Directory is welcomed by lUCNandits Commission onNationalParks andProtectedAreas,whoseVice-ChairforOceania,losefatuRetiofWesternSamoa,isaformer SPREPCoordinator. Theconfident hope is thattheDirectory willencourage the island states andterritories to focus evenmoreon the importanceofprotectedareas, workingthroughSPREP'scoordinatingefforts andwithgreatersupportfromtheworldconservationcommunity.Suchareasarevitaltopreserve thebiologicaldiversitywhichis theregion'soften uniquenatural heritageandtoprovide a base for environmentally sensitive tourism which can capitalise on the world's positive image of Oceania as aregion ofbeauty andpeace. P.H.C. Lucas Chair, lUCN Commission on National Parks andProtectedAreas Wellington, NewZealand vin