The Roundtable for Nature Conservation

The Roundtable is the Pacific’s largest cross-sectoral coalition of organizations working to increase effective conservation action in the region. The Roundtable was formed in 1997 on request from Pacific island countries and territories for stronger for collaboration and coordination of conservation initiatives and activities. This partnership mechanism is the only forum in which key stakeholders come together to discuss and develop new ways to address the main issues of nature conservation facing the Pacific Islands. The Roundtable exists as the coordination mechanism of organizations and governments that have a role in implementing the Action Strategy for Nature Conservation in the Pacific Islands Region 2003 – 2007.

  The Roundtable's mandate

To increase effective conservation action in the Pacific islands by: Fostering greater coordination and collaboration among national, regional and international organizations; Identifying critical gaps in the Action Strategy and developing new conservation activities in the region;

Communicating and linking with countries through NBSAPs or alternative processes to promote implementation and monitoring of the Action Strategy;

Strengthening linkages with CROP agencies to promote multi-sectoral mainstreaming at the regional level;

CROP agencies to promote multi-sectoral mainstreaming at the regional level;

• Regional and national NGOs for more effective coordination; Countries through NBSAPs or alternative processes to promote the Action Strategy.

  Strengths of the Roundtable

• Only forum in which major regional players in conservation come together to discuss and develop new ways to address the main issues of nature conservation facing the Pacific islands.
• Participation is totally voluntary and representatives regularly attend the Roundtable from international and regional NGOs, intergovernmental agencies and donor bodies.
• Allows members to share expertise and learn from the experience of others.
• Coordinates the activities of regional players and facilitates partnerships in activities of mutual interest.
• There is a strong and growing commitment to the Roundtable from a core group of NGOs, donors, USP and SPREP.
• Through the new monitoring and evaluation consultancy the Roundtable has the ability to understand how the region is tracking in terms of achieving its outcomes and is able to refine the targets in relation to the Action Strategy.
• It has the official endorsement of all Pacific island governments and representatives from local and national Pacific island groups.

  The Action Strategy for Nature Conservation in the Pacific Islands Region (2003 – 2007)

Endorsed by SPREP’s members, the Action Strategy highlights the priority concerns for conservation in the Pacific region, and outlines a roadmap for achieving the key goals.

Social Goal: Pacific peoples, their governments, and institutions are leading activities for the sustainable and equitable use of natural resources in the Pacific region

Membership criteria

Roundtable members represent national, regional, and international organizations implementing, funding or coordinating:

Greater national and regional collaboration

The Roundtable is committed to linking national and regional initiatives and the Roundtable now includes the coordinators of the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plans.

Who are Roundtable members?

Of these groups:

Roundtable Tools

Roundtable Working Groups
Inventory of activities
Volunteer tasks
Protected areas database

Roundtable Working Groups

The Working Groups are the most important tool of the Roundtable. The Working Groups are comprised of Roundtable members focused on achieving particular objectives of the Action Strategy. The Working Groups provide a forum for members to identify gaps in the Action Strategy, and develop collaborative activities to achieve Strategy objectives. The Working Groups select a Chair of each group, that acts as the coordinator who is responsible for liaising between the Roundtable management group and the Group’s members.

New working groups for Roundtable 9

Three new working groups are forming at Roundtable 9. They are:

1. Bird conservation working group
   At the recent regional Bird Conservation Strategy meeting held in Suva (a meeting of countries and NGOs) the meeting decided to create a new sub working group to the Threatened Species and Ecosystems Working Group of the Roundtable and to replace the current Bird Strategy with an implementation plan to achieve bird related targets of the Action Strategy.
2. Coastal and Marine Working Group
   Forming to help improve collaboration and understanding among the diverse members working on coastal and marine issues. Will focus on these within the context of the Action Strategy.
3. Communities, customs and traditional ecological knowledge.
   This working group was identified at RT8 but did not have a chair identified and no meeting has taken place as yet. Refer to the Working Group information sheet to identify the Action Strategy objectives relevant to this working group.

For specific information about the working groups refer to the document: Roundtable Working Groups 2005. Also available is information for the Working Group chairs.

Inventory of activities

The online database of conservation activities in the Pacific is available at www.devzone.net/pirnc. This database lists all conservation activities involving Roundtable members in the region. This tool enables members to identify proposed actions in the Action Strategy that are not being adequately addressed, as well as those that are adequately covered. The physical distribution of conservation projects indicates if hotspots are adequately covered. Similarly, knowing what activities are being undertaken around the region provides information on potential partnerships and complementary initiatives. In this way, real coordination and targeting of conservation resources is achieved. You will have the opportunity at the Roundtable to either fill an excel spreadsheet representing the Inventory which SPREP staff will later input – or to input directly into the inventory itself.

Monitoring

With funding from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and NZAID, the Roundtable has engaged a monitoring and evaluation consultant who is supporting the development of indicators to evaluate the achievement of Action Strategy objectives.

Volunteer tasks

Another Roundtable tool - members volunteer during the meeting for specific tasks of what can be achieved in a reasonable time. They have to be volunteered by the RT member present at the meeting and are usually initiated by the next RT meeting. Volunteer tasks should be:

• Specific, telling who will do what by when.
• Can be achieved in a reasonable time (eg one year)
• Volunteered for by a Roundtable member present at the meeting (ie. You can’t volunteer a task for another person but you can ask them to do something.)
• Ideally initiated by the next Roundtable meeting.

These tasks are reported on in between and during Roundtable meetings.
The volunteer task lists from RT8 are in your files.