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Project Leader	Prof. D. MUELLER-DOMBOIS University of Hawai`i Botany Department 3190 Maile Way, Honolulu, Hawai`i 96822 USA Tel: +1-808-254-1873 Fax: +1-808-956-3923 Email: amdhawaii@aol.com
Funding	US$ 45,000
Participating countries	Participants from the following countries were funded: Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, and USA.

Details of participating countries funded from sources other than APN: USP/IAS (Institute of Applied Sciences) contributed additional funding for ground transportation, food, villager cooperation in Fiji, and local guides.

Brief introduction and background
PABITRA is a network of sites and scientists concerned with biodiversity research and ecosystem conservation.  A major objective is capacity building for integrated resource management in insular environments for coping with the processes of Global Change.  Insular environments have narrowly limited biological resource zones.  These include upland/inland forests, agro-ecosystems, freshwater streams, and coastal ecosystems.  Any one of these is easily overexploited. Overexploitation shows through loss of indigenous biodiversity and unwanted invasion of alien species. Both factors can change the function of island ecosystems into an unhealthy trajectory.  To avoid such a trajectory, it is necessary to acquire a basic knowledge of how island ecosystems have evolved and how their services remain in balance with global change pressures.  It is equally necessary to adapt this knowledge to resources management and policy.

PABITRA began in 1997 as a project of the Ecosystem Division of the Pacific Science Association.  PABITRA is also a sister network of DIWPA and DIVERSITAS in the Western Pacific and Asia.

Outline of activities conducted
PABITRA received funding from APN in April 2002 with the immediate objective to establish the PABITRA Gateway Transect in Fiji.  An Initial Synthesis Meeting was held from 15-19 July 2002 at the University of the South Pacific's Institute of Applied Sciences.  Two overseas collaborators (Harley Manner from Guam and Dieter Mueller-Dombois from Hawai`i) met with 12 Fijian collaborators.  Together we lined out a broad landscape transect from Mt. Tomaniivi to Laucala Bay on Viti Levu and determined six biodiversity study sites from the Wabu Watershed to the Rewa River Delta. We discussed the preparation of background data.  A second meeting took place from 18 November to 3 December 2002 in two sections.  In section I, the PABITRA Fiji Group carried out a Field Biology Training course in accordance with the new PABITRA Manual.  Section II, the Joint Analysis Workshop, followed immediately (from 25 November to 3 December 2002).  Marika Tuiwawa, the Fiji PABITRA coordinator, invited eight overseas collaborators with different specialities for this workshop.  We spent six days of the nine-day workshop in the field with a number of students, USP faculty, as well as Fiji Government and NGO Delegates.  We visited all pre-selected biodiversity sampling sites, discussed and demonstrated our PABITRA Biodiversity Assessment Methodology, and stayed overnight in Fijian villages.  Here, our objectives were clarified in colloquial terms and sanctioned in Sevu-Sevu ceremonies with the village elders.
 

Outcomes and products
During the Joint Analysis Workshop, we established the Fiji PABITRA Landscape Transect.  At the conclusion of the workshop, students reported on what inspired them and what they had learned.  Twenty-five students received Certificates of Participation.  We also discussed plans for the final meeting at the 20th Pacific Science Congress in Bangkok, 17-21 March 2003.  The PABITRA Symposium at that Congress is "Island Landscapes under Global Change".  Six Fijian PABITRA collaborators are invited with APN funds to present papers on their new Landscape Transect.  A similar number of PABITRA Manual Contributors are also invited to present papers.  The best papers will be selected for publication in Pacific Science.
 

Future directions and follow-up work
At the Pacific Science Congress in Bangkok, a PABITRA workshop will be conducted.  Plans for establishing similar landscape transects in other island areas will be discussed.  The next target island areas are Samoa and Micronesia.  Biodiversity study sites will be established along each transect from sea to summit and follow-up research cooperation is planned with island resident scientists and students.  They will be given the lead authority and help will be offered to them for writing proposals for scholarships.

Further details can be seen at our website < http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/pabitra/>.