Status of Coral Reefs of the World 2000

Status of Coral Reefs in the Southwest Pacific
marine conservation in Samoa.
Solomon Islands
• Extensive traditional conservation practises still dominate nearshore marine and
island resources management;
• The Arnavon Marine Conservation Area (Isabel and Choiseul Islands area of
1000ha) has been established with an important turtle nesting area, but needs
increased management and training capacity at the village level;
• There are plans to establish other community-based marine conservation areas.
Tuvalu
• The traditional marine tenure system has broken down, but a conservation ethic
remains;
• The first marine park was established at Funafuti Lagoon.
Vanuatu
• Extensive traditional conservation practices remain, utilising a network of
customary marine tenure protected areas that are established jointly with the
government;
• The draft Environmental Resource Management Bill (1999) provides for the
VILLAGE LEVEL CORAL REEF MONITORING IN SAMOA
Most surveys and monitoring of marine resources are done by scientists and
government officials in the Pacific to develop management policies, with only limited
information reaching village users of coral reefs. There is also no coordinated database
on coral reef monitoring in the Pacific. The GCRMN IOI-Pacific Islands node
collaborated with the Fisheries Division, the Division of Environment and Conservation
of the Government of Samoa and SPREP in a 1998 pilot study to train villagers to
monitor their reefs. This complemented the successful Village Level Fisheries
Management Project (VLFMP) by the Fisheries Division’s Extension Unit with assistance
from Australia (AusAID). Ten Fisheries and Environment staff were trained in the local
language to monitor coral reefs, and they trained over 40 villagers who had set up fish
reserves in 6 villages. They were trained to use the ‘Manta Tow Technique, Under-Water
Visual Census (UVC) and Line Intercept Transect (LIT)’ with the focus on marine
organisms that the villagers could recognise and can be used to show changes to the
ecosystem over time. The aim today is to enable village chiefs and people to make
informed management decisions to protect their fisheries. This 18 month project is
continuing with Fisheries staff training more villagers and expanding efforts to raise
awareness by distributing coral reef monitoring forms to the villagers. These data are
being collated as an IOI-Pacific Islands contribution to GCRMN global reports. Projects
of this type are an important step towards empowering coral reef users to take control
of managing their environment through understanding how their actions can be
transferred to other islands in the near term and passed on through generations.
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