This report summarizes ECEP (Ecology, Conservation, and Environmental Protection) activities under four points: I The Traditional Focus, II The New Focus, III The PABITRA Strategy, and IV Future Objectives
Since the PSA Congress in Vancouver 1975, I have occupied the chair of the ECEP Committee. The traditional program has been two-pronged: 1. To respond to major conservation crises in the Pacific area by letter writing campaigns, 2. To help organize symposia for each subsequent PSA Congress (Khabarovsk 1979, Dunedin 1983, Seoul 1987, Honolulu 1991, Beijing 1995, Sydney 1999) as well as most Inter-Congresses. Symposia were promoted under four broad topics: (1) Inventory, ecological surveys, and mapping of Pacific biota, (2) Research and monitoring of long-term changes in Pacific ecosystems, (3) Development of easily understandable methods, and (4) Promotion of conservation research, practices, and activities (Mueller-Dombois and Dahl 1981, Mueller-Dombois 1998a).
At the 1991 Honolulu Congress, the ECEP Committee became the Ecosystem Division of the PSA Task Force on Biodiversity. A new, more comprehensive program was subsequently developed, known as the PABITRA (Pacific-Asia Biodiversity Transect) Initiative. During a workshop held at the 8th Pacific Science Inter-Congress in Fiji, July 1997, the ECEP Division resolved to establish a biodiversity transect system across the Pacific islands from southeast Asia to the eastern oceanic islands (Kitayama and Mueller-Dombois 1997). The objectives were to study the function of biodiversity in an ecosystem context along the west-east attenuation gradient. This attenuation gradient refers to the impoverishment of indigenous colonizer biota from the biotically rich continental islands in the western Pacific to the Polynesian and eastern Pacific oceanic islands.
A design for cooperative research in conservation biology was suggested that would focus on the upland or inland forests of the Pacific high island archipelagoes as fragments of the Pacific-wide tropical forest biome. Many of these fragments occur in similar environmental settings, but for reasons of their biogeography are occupied by different sets of biodiversities (Mueller-Dombois and Fosberg 1998). These upland/inland forests have an important dual conservation function: (1) they harbor most of the remaining native terrestrial biodiversity, and (2) they serve as watershed cover, thereby regulating the fresh-water flow of the high island archipelagoes.
The first conservation function of biodiversity will be studied by connecting the upland/inland forest fragments by a horizontal transect system constituting the PABITRA network (see attached figure). The second conservation function will be studied by vertical transects traversing from the upland/inland forest watersheds to the coastal zones. These will follow the general direction of the fresh-water outflow through a number of functionally connected island ecosystems. This vertical ecosystem assemblage has been used as the traditional human support system in the Pacific islands. In Hawai`i it is known as the ahupua`a land management system (see Ahupua`a poster 1994). Biodiversity research at the landscape level of the ahupua`a system is the second major objective of the PABITRA Initiative.
The International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) together with the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) launched an International Forum on the research needs for conservation of Biodiversity at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, September 1994. At that time, I was invited to a workshop arranged by Japanese colleagues to initiate the Pacific-Asia regional approach under "Diversitas", the new world-wide umbrella program concerned with Biodiversity Science, Conservation, and Sustainable Use (UNESCO Brochure 1994). The new Pacific-Asia Regional Initiative was dubbed DIWPA (Diversitas in Western Pacific and Asia). When it came to defining the concept of Western Pacific, I argued for including the outlier islands of the Old World Tropics rather than using the date line as boundary (see Global Biodiversity map of Barthlott et al. 1998). This was unanimously accepted. Thus, the island region of Polynesia was to be included in the DIWPA Initiative (see DIWPA Newsletter 1, April 1995). However, at the next IUBS General Assembly in Taipei, November 1998, where I presented the PABITRA concept as the island branch of DIWPA (Mueller-Dombois 1998b), I was asked to develop this "island belt transect system" as a separate, but complementary component to the north-south ranging "green belt" and "blue belt" transects envisioned by DIWPA.
I then wrote a proposal to establish the PABITRA Initiative and the MacArthur Foundation provided initial funds. From these set-up funds, I financed a second workshop within the frame of the 9th Pacific Science Inter-Congress on "Sustainable Development in the Pacific", November 15-19, 1998, at the Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. The outcome of this second PABITRA workshop was recently published (see Mueller-Dombois et al. 1999). This document now serves as the starting point for the symposium/workshop organized for this 19th Pacific Science Congress in Sydney, July 4-9, 1999. PABITRA project funds were used as "seed money" also for this Sydney workshop/symposium, in particular, to bring ecosystem researchers and experts together who work and reside in the PABITRA islands.
(1) After being accepted by the Scientific Community, the PABITRA initiative is planned to be discussed with representatives of the individual island governments and biodiversity management agencies involved. Provided that government management agency and landowner community support can be achieved, new proposals for major funding support will be written and submitted only with the special endorsement of the land owners. It is anticipated that the PABITRA Initiative will become a network of long-term ecological research sites (LTERs) for a comprehensive approach to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the Pacific island region. (2) A near-future objective is to have the PABITRA network in place by the year 2001, stipulated by DIWPA as the International Biodiversity Observation Year, now widely known as IBOY. This is considered a target date for program preparation, presentation of site reviews, and pilot studies. (3) The ECEP (Ecology, Conservation, and Environmental Protection) Committee was absorbed at the 1991 Honolulu Congress into the PSA Task Force on Biodiversity. Here it fulfills the function as the "Ecosystem Division" in the Task Force. It seems now appropriate to transfer the task of "Environmental Protection" to a new PSA Committee. The combination of the three task aspects, ecology, conservation, and environmental protection, are too much for one chair and a dedicated group of Pacific scientists to manage adequately. (4) I have held the position as chair of ECEP for 24 years (since the Vancouver Congress in 1975). Prior to that, I helped organize symposia in the PSA Committee on Botany since the Tokyo Congress in 1966. It is time now to find a successor for the Ecosystem Division in the PSA Task Force on Biodiversity. Ideally, this new person will take over the PABITRA Initiative and develop it into a cooperative PABITRA network of LTERs. In addition to developing cooperative research objectives, this network will facilitate exchange of scientists, students, managers, planners, and policy makers, for the benefit of "capacity building' and "sustainable resource development." Increasing our understanding of ecosystem dynamics and the functions of biodiversity under the aspect of global change continue to be essential prerequisites for a wise approach to biological conservation and land management.
Ahupua`a Poster 1994. The Ahupua`a, Life in early Hawai`i. Brochure and Poster published by Kamehameha Schools Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate. Third Edition. Kamehameha Schools Press. Honolulu. 59 pp.
Barthlott, W., Lauer, W., and A. Placke. 1996. Global distribution of species diversity in vascular plants: Towards a world map of phytodiversity. Erdkunde 50: 317-327 plus World Map at 1:85 million.
DIWPA Newsletter No. 1. The International Network for DIVERSITAS in Western Pacific and Asia. History and Preparation (including the Polynesian regions). Publ. by Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Japan.
Kitayama, K. and D. Mueller-Dombois.1997. Workshop on biodiversity transect initiative held at the VIIIth Pacific Science Inter-Congress, Fiji. Pac. Sci. Assoc. Inform. Bull. 49 (1/2): 10-11.
Mueller-Dombois D. 1998a. Vegetation and ecosystem research for biodiversity conservation in the Pacific islands. Pac. Sci. Assoc. Inform. Bull. 50 (1/2): 1-10.
Mueller-Dombois, D. 1998b. Plant biodiversity in tropical ecosystems across the Asia-Pacific region. Pages 105-113 in "Frontiers in Biology: the Challenges of Biodiversity, Biotechnology, and Sustainable Agriculture." C.-H. Chou and K.-T. Shao, eds. Proceed. of the IUBS Symposium Academia Sinica, Taipei. 289 pp.
Mueller-Dombois, D. and A. L. Dahl. 1981. Monitoring island ecosystems: an approach for conservation purposes. Pages 110-118 in "Ecology and Environmental Protection in the Pacific Region." V. I. Kontrimarichus and I. P. Kartachov, eds. United Nations Environment Program,14th. Pac Sci. Congress, and Center of Intern. Projects GKNT. Publ. Office NAUKA, Moscow. 272 pp.
Mueller-Dombois, D. and F. R. Fosberg. 1998. Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands. Springer-Verlag, Ecol. Studies Series Vol. 132. 733 pp.
Mueller-Dombois, D., Thaman, R. A., Juvik, J. O., and K. Kitayama. 1999. The Pacific-Asia biodiversity transect (PABITRA), a new conservation biology initiative. In Proceed. of Symposium on Biodiversity and Allelopathy in the Pacific. Chang-Hung Chou and G. R. Waller, eds. Academia Sinica, Taipei. In press.
UNESCO Brochure 1994. Biodiversity Science, Conservation, and Sustainable Use. UNESCO Environment & Developments Briefs. Gisbert Glaser, Project Director and Jeanne Damlamian, Managing Editor. Published by UNESCO, Paris. 16 pp. illustrated.