“This document was the first of its kind to come out anywhere in the territory.” |
|
| Emily Gaskin, Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary | |
South Pacific islands are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Coastal resource managers in American Samoa are taking advantage of a new Climate-Smart Sanctuary planning process to ensure that the island territory is prepared.
“We’re moving ahead,” says Emily Gaskin, policy analyst for Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary. “In spite of some uncertainty, we recognized that we needed to go ahead and begin the planning process.”
The Climate-Smart Sanctuary Initiative was developed by the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary System to help national marine sanctuaries and other marine protected areas plan for, adapt to, and manage for impacts associated with climate change.
Using the Climate-Smart process, Fagatele Bay has recently completed two planning documents—a climate impacts report and a climate action plan—that will not only help the sanctuary and American Samoa adapt to climate change impacts, but may also be models that could help other Pacific island nations and territories plan and respond.
Seeing Impacts
Fagatele Bay is nestled within an eroded volcanic crater on the southern coast of Tutuila, American Samoa. It is the smallest and most remote of the national marine sanctuaries, but its coral reefs may have the highest marine life diversity in the sanctuary system.
The bay’s habitats are home to a variety of tropical fish, invertebrates, and algae. Surveys show that the sanctuary provides habitat for at least 2,700 species, including 271 species of fish and 200 species of coral.
Gaskin notes that coral bleaching is already occurring in American Samoa. Bleaching frequency and intensity will increase with rising sea temperatures fueled by climate change.
On September 29, 2009, an earthquake-generated tsunami caused substantial damage and loss of life on American Samoa and surrounding islands. While the tsunami was not linked to climate change, Gaskin says that it demonstrated the islands’ vulnerability to extreme hazard events, such as storm surge from hurricanes, which could be exacerbated by climate change.
Getting Climate Smart
The Climate-Smart Sanctuary Initiative is being developed as a way to organize and implement a climate action plan at each of the nation’s 14 national marine sanctuaries.
Being piloted in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in San Francisco Bay, the Climate-Smart Sanctuary certification process includes creating a climate impacts report and climate change action plan, obtaining advisory-council and other public input, conducting training for staff members and partners, and greening operations.
Public Input
Eager to begin the Climate-Smart planning process, Fagatele Bay hosted a climate workshop in 2010 to encourage the sharing of planning experiences among participating coastal managers and community members. The workshop resulted in managers and community leaders working together to begin to develop an adaptation planning framework as a model for addressing areas in American Samoa that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Earlier this year, sanctuary staff members collaborated with the American Samoa government to host a climate change summit to build local capacity, establish local and regional partnerships, and engage local residents in the adaptation planning process. Summit participants also established the Territorial Climate Change Adaptation Advisory Group to implement the adaptation planning framework.
Indentifying Impacts
Working with island and regional scientists, Fagatele Bay recently completed a climate impacts report to identify and synthesize potential climate impacts in American Samoa and the region over the next 50 years, Gaskin says.
With few climate change studies that discuss sanctuary and surrounding waters, Gaskin says the report became much more regional in scope than originally intended. The report found that climate change may have significant consequences for area coral reef ecosystems, coastal communities, and maritime heritage resources relevant to the sanctuary.
The key physical drivers in the region include climate variability (including extreme events), sea surface warming, ocean acidification, and sea level rise.
“This document was the first of its kind to come out anywhere in the territory,” Gaskin says. “Some climate science on the islands has been done, but this was the first document that attempted to synthesize the information. We believe it will be valuable for planning, not just for us but for other agencies in the territory.”
Planning Ahead
The information in the impacts report was used to update the sanctuary’s draft management plan (DMP), which is used to guide the management of the sanctuary over the next 5 to 10 years. The plan serves as a nonregulatory policy framework for addressing the issues facing the sanctuary.
The DMP includes specific action plans designed to directly address high-priority management issues. Included in the updated DMP is a climate change action plan, which identifies four strategies and a wide variety of related management tools and activities that sanctuary staff members will use to address the issues identified in the climate impacts report.
The strategies in the plan include reducing vulnerability and increasing education, outreach, and research, Gaskin says.
“As far as we are aware,” she says, “no other management plan in the sanctuary system currently includes climate impacts.”
Starting Place
The climate impacts report was released at the end of August. The climate change action plan was released to the public this fall. Gaskin says that while both documents are important for moving the region forward in planning for climate change, they are also a starting place.
“Our plan now is to share it with as many local communities as possible and work with them to identify community actions that are plausible and are things they want to incorporate,” Gaskin says. Sanctuary staff members will also continue to work with local and regional climate scientists to gather information on the potential impacts of climate change.
She adds, “We are moving forward. Our efforts will continue to evolve as we identify more specific information. And we are continuing our overall efforts to be one of the first to get certified as a Climate-Smart Sanctuary.”
To view the Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s climate change impacts report and the climate change action plan, go to http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/conservation/welcome.html. For more information, contact Emily Gaskin at (684) 633-5155, ext. 271, or Emily.Gaskin@noaa.gov.
