7. CONCLUSION

Since the 1970s, many practical actions have been taken and research implemented in New Caledonia. The results are real and concrete. In order to encourage and preserve the beauty of the landscape, the local way of life, the biological diversity, the development of tourism, industry and agriculture, focused activities must continue, and synergies developed through collaborative activities with all stakeholders and partnerships developed with interested parties, especially community groups. For the present and the future, the main objectives could be:

• to improve current knowledge of local fauna and flora;
• to limit logging to some natural forests where the richness, the amount of commercial woods, the access and the local agreements are satisfactory; these forests represent 5-10 per cent of the total forest surface and are found especially in the Northern Province (they can be used for in situ conservation);
• to preserve the majority of the native forests;
• to avoid or limit damage by wild pigs and deer;
• to improve controls on hunting, fishing, pollution, erosion and fire;
• to better regulate mining activities and damage to the higher altitude flora;
• to evaluate the dynamism and regeneration of the different forest types;
• to realize effective and participatory monitoring of the current conservation areas, parks and protected forests;
• to preserve the last areas of sclerophyllous forests; the best locations of mangrove, chalky forest and rain forest; rare ecotypes (Santalum, Agathis, etc.); the stands of the species in marginal areas where genetic diversity is large (e.g. Araucaria);
• to develop the timber industry of Pinus caribaea for local purposes;
• to maintain control over plant and animal introductions;
• to plan ex situ conservation for some rare or noteworthy local species (Sandal, Araucaria, Agathis, Terminalia, etc.) that have special significance for the people of New Caledonia;
• to continue genetic selection for major forest species (Pinus, Agathis, etc.); and
• to conserve the forest genetic resources of New Caledonia for coming generations.

These objectives, their application to the various ecosystems and indicative assessments of current achievements are summarized in Table 7.

In order to attain these objectives, focused and regional cooperation would be very useful in several areas, including policy; regulation; reduced-impact logging; status and encouragement of natural regeneration; silvicultural management and its effects in tropical forests; and collaboration with local communities. As members of the Pacific Commission and the South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), New Caledonia wishes to develop extensive regional cooperation.

Table 7. Summary of actions for continuing present achievements in protection of forest genetic resources in New Caledonia

Actions
Improving knowledge and conservation of habitats of special interest, addressing: ecology; regeneration; threats; growth; development; awareness raising among visitors, landowners and users; census; plantations; regulations; conservation areas; ecotypes and provenances; monitoring; and education.
Objective	Conservation rate (1)	Major target species and genera
Forests and trees on the ultrabasic mountains and mining areas	30 %	Agathis lanceolata Agathis ovata Araucaria montana, A. nemorosa, A. rulei, A. scopulorum, A. bernieri, and A. biramulata Arillastum gumiferum
Chalky forests	0 %	Araucaria columnaris Intsia bijuga Manilkara pancheri Santalum austrocaledonicum
Trees and other plants of the sclerophyllous forests	3 %	Terminalia cherrieri, plus species from the genera Cupaniopsis, Diospyros, Eugenia, Phyllanthus and Syzygium
Rain forests and high altitude forests on schist	5 %	Agathis sp. Araucaria schmidii Calophyllum caledonicum Crossostylis sp. Elaeocarpus sp. Kermadecia sp. Montrouziera cauliflora Sclefflera sp.
Mangroves	0 %	The genera Avicennia, Bruguiera, Exoecaria, Rhyzophora, etc.

Note: (1) Conservation rate is an indicative assessment of the current level of conservation in an ecosystem, derived from Conservation rate = Protected area/Total area.