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• Past Interventions
• Current Issues for Nauru
• Programme Response

The physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the ocean and island ecosystems of Nauru create both opportunities and constraints to its development. The recognition of these ecosystems as components of the Earth system - a dynamic, complex blend of environmental, economic and social factors interacting in a myriad of ways - is absolutely fundamental to the understanding of sustainable development.

The overall goal of the Ocean and Islands Programme, to improve scientific knowledge of ocean and island ecosystems for the sustainable management of natural resources, demonstrates a clear role in ecosystem management, with interventions focused on mapping and monitoring the physical and chemical attributes of ecosystems, and providing resource use solutions and assessments to its Island States membership. The Ocean and Islands Programme also provides assistance and support towards the development of sound policies and regulations, and meeting obligations under various treaties and agreements.

Outputs under the ‘resource use solutions’ and ‘monitoring the physical and chemical change in ecosystems’ components of the Programme can address many of Nauru’s issues that relate to sustainable development. These issues will need to be considered by the Nauru Government when they develop their National Sustainable Development Strategy and related plan of action.

Past Interventions

Nauru’s biggest resource, phosphate lies in the land. Being a single island nation, it is imperative to safeguard its resources from natural occurrences and development of its coastal areas intended to cater for the increasing needs of their population. A number of interventions were undertaken for the Government of Nauru by SOPAC.

In 2000, 17 beach profiles were established around Nauru to monitor the changes in the beach areas. The intention was to identify coastal erosion around the Nauru coast as well as to collect information on countermeasures that were proposed at state level and to establish a baseline data set (He, 2001). One of the most affected coastal areas was the coastline of the Yaren District. The coastal area had suffered noticeable erosion and was threatening residential and public property as well as infrastructure. An appropriate coastal protection system and design elements for the eroding coastline was prepared immediately for Nauru (Maharaj 2000), while a full analysis to establish the context of this erosion followed with appropriate coastal protection strategies and recommendations for shoreline protection (Maharaj, 2001).

Other interventions to assist the Nauru government in the sustainable development of their coastal areas included an evaluation of the impacts of the harbour development in Anibare District located in the Eastern Part of Nauru. Funding was received from the Japanese Government for the construction of a port and harbour facility to provide additional docking, launch and berthing facilities to support their offshore tuna fishing fleet. The impact of this harbour engineering was undertaken in 2001 and subsequent impact assessment in 2003, where it was established that the management of Anibare Bay is a dynamic process based on assessments and re-assessments rather than a fixed set of activities (Maharaj 2003).

Current Issues for Nauru

The following environmental, economic and social issues and concerns that can be addressed under the Oceans and Islands Programme, either wholly or in part, have been cited in various assessment reports and national development plans of Nauru:

• Highly degraded state of the Nauru environment due to phosphate mining.
• Localised inland and coastal erosion.
• Siltation of lagoon and reef.
• Overexploitation of inshore and reef slope resources, but under-exploitation of pelagic and deep-sea fisheries resources.
• Significant loss of ecosystem diversity, and marine ecosystem degradation.
• Inadequate data on resources, particularly marine resources, and the impacts of development on Nauru’s environment upon which informed decision making and planning could be based. For example, there is little scientific information concerning maximum sustainable catch, resource profiles, and the extent of overexploitation of specific marine resources.
• Inadequate knowledge about the environment; loss of traditional environmental knowledge and awareness of the natural environment as a life support system.
• Limited environmental management capacity.
• Inadequate environmental and science education in the formal education system at all levels.
• Inadequacy or non-enforcement of environmental legislation. Need to integrate existing legislation for environmental management.
• Limited formal integration of environmental considerations into the policy making and development planning processes.
• Uncoordinated activities of government agencies and NGOs involved in environmental management.
• Limited environmental management capacity.
• Need for the establishment of an environmental database or Geographic Information System (GIS).
• Breakdown of traditional marine tenure systems and resource use systems.

Programme Response

The Ocean and Islands Programme address island ecosystems through the improvement of scientific knowledge for the sustainable development and management of natural resources. This is reflected in the components of the programme, which tackle sustainable development issues through regional programmes as well as through specific requests from the member countries themselves. SOPAC’s programme is designed to cut across all their member countries. These tasks main components being:

• The establishment and maintenance of a regional deep-sea minerals database.
• The Certificate of Earth Science and Marine Geology [CESMG] builds the capacity of island member nationals in the areas of applied geoscience and forms the basis, for some, to pursue higher education in degree courses in geoscience.
• SOPAC’s monitoring of the physical and chemical change in ecosystems of island member countries embraces the philosophy of Global Ocean Observing Systems [GOOS], which advocates public access to long-term oceanographic data and information. The recently established regional alliance of GOOS, the Pacific Islands – Global Ocean Observing System [PI-GOOS] , seeks to ensure that relevant applications for ocean observations and resulting products from global, regional and national long-term observing systems are developed and made available to Pacific Island end-users in order that they can make better decisions for sustainable development.
• The South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project provides tide gauge and other data, and related products, collected over the past fifteen years. SOPAC provides an important maintenance and operations role for project equipment installations.
• SOPAC also offers assistance in the area of Ocean Governance, by offering professional development programmes for strengthening legal and negotiation skills of advocates for maritime boundary delimitation , the implementation of Part XIII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS] through the provision of technical skills and policy advice , and the coordination of issues related to the law of the sea in their member country regions .

The regional components are implemented at national level. In Nauru these tasks are:

• Multibeam and Geophysical survey of Nauru from the shoreline to a water depth of 300m to be undertaken in conjunction with the SOPAC-EU EDF9 Reducing Vulnerabilities to Pacific Communities.