Vol 3 Land Resource Inventory Report - Department of Environment ...

Summary Report to Fiji Government Departments of Environment, Forestry & Agriculture, July 2010
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also be given some attention as they could well be directly impacted by the affects of climate
change.
In addition the families Diplommatinidae and Assimineidae, with 15 and 12 as yet
undescribed species respectively, should also be taxonomically revised for biodiversity
assessment purposes.
Conclusion
Fiji has a large number of native (endemic and non-endemic) land snail species that require
detailed conservation assessment.
Non-endemic natives are also important because Fiji could be significant for conservation if
these species become threatened or locally extinct elsewhere in their range.
Introduced species are widening their distribution within Fiji and creating a homogenisation
of the Fijian land snail fauna just like that already recorded across the Pacific Islands by
Solem (1964) and Cowie (2001).
There is a need for, scientific human resource capacity building, specialised training about
land snails and general awareness raising of the presence and significance of snails in the
environment, at a local level. Support for at least one postgraduate student scholarship,
funding for a two-day workshop on introduced snails every two years and an increase in
media coverage would substantially address these capacity, training and awareness issues.
For introduced, native and endemic fauna there is an immediate need for collation of existing
information into a form that can be made readily available for utilisation by resource
managers and other community stakeholders. Funding is required for the preparation of
photographic images in the Fiji land snail catalogue currently in progress and also for
obtaining expert curation of material held in Fiji, as well as repatriation of at least some Fijian
material held in overseas institutions.
The consequences of not collating and utilising existing information includes unrecognised
risks to, unique biodiversity, human and livestock health, agricultural crop production and in
turn will have potential economic implications for sustainable livelihoods and trade.
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