Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative

Overview

The PICCC provides a range of scientific and technical tools to help managers in Hawai‘i, the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and other Pacific Island groups make informed decisions for landscape-scale conservation of natural and cultural resources including climate models at the archipelagic and island scales, ecological response models, and implementation and monitoring strategies for island species, resources, and communities. Our goal is to help managers reach explicit biocultural conservation objectives in the face of climate change and ongoing threats such as fire, land conservation, and invasive species.

The PICCC provides scientific and technical support for landscape-scale conservation in an adaptive management framework by supporting biological planning, conservation design in a cultural context, prioritization and coordination of research, and inventory and monitoring program design. These functions are accomplished by a core team working at the direction of the PICCC Steering Committee and interacting at multiple levels with the technical and executive staffs of the member organizations. Specific functions include:

  • Iterative science-based planning and landscape-level prioritization that focuses conservation programs on the components of the landscape most sensitive to environmental change, to include analyses of landscape components of particular cultural use or other significance.
  • Development of a collaborative infrastructure that allows the full spectrum of conservation activities (planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and research) to function as an integrated yet iterative endeavor.
  • Coordinated application of geospatial and other information management technologies as necessary to plan, monitor, and evaluate activities and outcomes at various eco-regional scales.
  • Coordinated and leveraged delivery of private, state, and federal conservation program actions targeted at priority species, habitats, and other natural and cultural resources.
  • Active engagement with communities regarding future directions in island ecosystems and conservation priorities.
  • Analyses of alternatives and formulation of recommendations for policy makers, resource managers, and Pacific Island communities.