Freshwater biodiversity data is under reported for the Oceanic islands due to lack of trained resident specialists, misreported dataset and or unpublished dataset mostly limited to grey literature. This can be improved by training freshwater project related representatives from targeted Oceania countries for collation and updating of the existing data on GBIF database.
The proposed project aims to directly engage the pool of freshwater experts in the Melanesian region to build capacity on regional freshwater biota data updating and mobilization. This will then contribute to inland wetland policy strengthening, national level ramsar commitments, National Biodiversity Strategic Assessment and Planning (NBSAP), Endangered and Protected Species (EPS) ACT Bill, Environment Management Act in Fiji for example, and eventually near future freshwater species and ecosystem Red Listing Assessments. The targeted countries are Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
