Land Use Change, Ecotourism, and the Marine Environment

This project examines land use change and the associated shifts in ecotourism and marine environmental conditions one decade after a three-year study of these issues produced a report documenting current conditions and making recommendations for land use planning and policy to mitigate the impacts of sediment and nutrient loading associated with land use development on Moorea. It will include visual assessment of conditions and documentation of the status of (1) hillside agricultural practices and associated road networks that are implicated in sediment transfer to the marine environment; (2) piggery operations implicated in nutrient transfer to the marine environment; (3) ecotourism development and associated septic system replacement with sewers and wastewater treatment and their impact on nutrient loading on the marine environment. This initial scoping research will be only a two-day trip to visually determine these conditions.