11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

23-33
Integrated Research, Development, And Education Activities Enhance The Success
Of Community-Based, Marine Resource Management in The Korolevu-I-Wai
District, Fiji
Victor BONITO* 1 , Bill AALBERSBERG 2 , Kini RAVINALOA 3
1 Reef Explorer Fiji, Votua village, Fiji, 2 Institute of Applied Sciences, University of the
South Pacific, Suva, Fiji, 3 FLMMA Representative, Votua Village, Votua village, Fiji
Community-based management is an effective means to accomplish biodiversity
conservation and replenish depleted inshore fish stocks, particularly on Pacific islands
whose indigenous communities have significant control over their resources. The Fiji
Locally-Managed Marine Areas (FLMMA) Network involves the participation of over
200 communities across Fiji and covers approximately 30% of near-shore areas. Active
participation in and contribution to FLMMA was complimented by a village-based coral
reef ecologist who undertook and assisted with the implementation of a suite of research,
development, and educational activities in the Korolevu-I-Wai district. Having an
ecologist based on-site and living within the community boosted local initiative and
support for resource management and conservation activities, as well as facilitated and
improved the implementation of management actions, development activities, and
research programs. Simultaneously targeting community development priorities and
economic needs along with resource management strengthened support for resource
management and conservation actions. Governance issues and the growing economic
needs of traditional resource owners are perhaps the greatest obstacles to community
support for management actions and resource management success. Poor land-use
practices and waste from land-based development remain as major threats to marine
resources. With considerable threats to resources coming from people who have no legal
or traditional ties to the resources nor are under the influence of local traditional
governance, compliance to and enforcement of community management initiatives
remains a challenge to traditional resources owners.
23-34
Reef Management Using Traditional Management Practices in Vanuatu
Zaidy KHAN* 1,2 , Tevi MALTALI 3,4 , Sompert RENA 3,5
1 Communites and Coast, Foundation of the People of the South Pacific International,
Suva, Fiji, 2 Locally Managed Marine Area Network, Suva, Fiji, 3 Coastal Program,
Foundation of the People of the South Pacific Vanuatu, Villa, Vanuatu, 4 Village Based
Resource Managed Area Network, Villa, Vanuatu, 5 Department of Fisheries, Ministry of
Agriculture,Forestry and Fisheries, Villa, Vanuatu
In 2005, the Foundation of the People of the South Pacific international ( FSPI) and its
network partner FSP Vanuatu (FSPV) initiated pilot projects on community based coastal
resource management together with the Vanuatu Department of Fisheries (VDF), and
WanSmol Bag Theatre . In 1990 the VDF started a village based trochus
(Trochusniloticus) management program which included a yearly harvest plan. This
concept was favorably received by many villages and later extended by implementing
control on other marine resource harvest by setting traditional “tabus” or Marine
Protected areas (MPAs) to manage their reef resources. The MPAs were ceremonially
demarcated by village chiefs.
Although the benefits of tradition protection is recognized by the government and other
stakeholders in marine resource management, in recent years this management practices
has faded due to loss of traditional and cultural values and limited government resources.
With the technical assistance from VDF, FSPV has been supporting indigenous
communities in assisting reef management models and tools such as MPAs through
developing community coastal resource management plans and reviving tradition
practices during demarcation of MPAs. So far the project have launched management
plans for Paunagisu and Marou in North Efate, Aneityum Mystery island after a 3 year
community process through reviving their customary ceremonies on pig killing and turtle
tagging together with national governments. This tradition and ceremonial launching of
community based coastal management plans with national government has drawn a high
level of respect, unity and recognition for village base MPAs and has highlighted
spiritual importance of respect for chiefly governance systems. The traditional
management approach by communities is spreading across Vanuatu, together with words
of success of restocking and spill over benefits experienced from MPAs and is becoming
a model and nation wide strategies for community based coastal management.
Oral Mini-Symposium 23: Reef Management
23-35
Coral Reef Management in The Pacific Islands: Governance At Risk
Jean-Brice HERRENSCHMIDT* 1,2 , Sven MENU 2 , Pascal HÉBERT 2 , Pascal DUMAS 1,3
1 IRD, Noumea, New Caledonia, 2 GIE Oceanide, Noumea, New Caledonia, 3 University of New
Caledonia, Noumea, New Caledonia
The Pacific Islands populations rely on their coral reefs. Some Pacific countries are therefore
involved in International and Regional initiatives to protect them at a large scale with the
International Community support. The authors are in charge of the implementation of
community-based management plans and of scientific assessments within the framework of two
major initiatives: the nomination of the coral reefs of New Caledonia on the World Heritage
List and the Coral Reef Initiatives for the Pacific (CRISP) in Vanuatu, Fiji and French
Polynesia.
The integrated and participative approach developed aims at avoiding some traps from the
predominant ideologies led by most of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), community-based
management and sustainable development processes. Pacific cultures and customs are rich and
their linkages with marine resources management are real, but the predominant methodologies
either phantasm about them, either promote ideological maladjusted and simple recipes, which
reveals post-colonial Governance difficulties and risks.
The Pacific societies organisations, Coral reef ecosystems and the management of archipelago
countries are extremely complex. Many Pacific countries are politically unstable and their
colonial heritage is diverse. The World Heritage nomination process of New Caledonia coral
reefs, in a political context of decolonisation and in comparison with other Pacific countries,
contributes to imagine new directions for coral reef management effectiveness. Interdisciplinary
approaches and Island management from the reach down to the reef help to handle complexity.
The adaptation of legal tools, Public Service capacity building and collective critical
discussions about the public vs private status of the marine environment are complementary
actions needed to promote modern integration of skills and competences. Responsible Coral
reef and marine areas management thus play an important role in integrating Pacific cultures
and modern tools, and more generally, in strengthening citizenship and state policies in order to
contribute to better governance and political stability.
23-36
Conserving Ecological Integrity Only If “Absolutely Necessary” – How Florida and
National Park Service Policies on Marine Reserves Threaten Coral Reef Ecosystems in
Biscayne National Park, Florida
David WHITE 1 , Jack SOBEL* 2
1 Southeast Regional Office, Ocean Conservancy, St Petersburg, FL, 2 Strategic Conservation,
Science & Policy, Ocean Conservancy, Washington, DC
When Congress created Biscayne National Park in 1980, healthy coral reefs in the park
supported robust fish and invertebrate populations. In 1983, the National Park Service (NPS)
adopted a management plan establishing intent to manage recreational and commercial fishing
to “sustain a composition of native marine populations similar to that which existed prior to
fishing pressure.” A 2001 assessment of fisheries resources and habitats in the park concluded
that, following decades of significant recreational and commercial fishing pressure and related
habitat impacts, the extremely poor status of reef fish resources signaled “imminent resource
collapse.” In 2002, NPS and the State of Florida, which share jurisdiction over fishing in the
park, agreed to jointly develop a plan to manage fishing for the next 10-15 years. The
state/federal agreement, codified in a Memorandum of Understanding, establishes and adopts
Florida’s policy that marine reserves (no-take areas) are overly restrictive and will not be
implemented unless both parties agree it is “absolutely necessary.” This agreement was
renewed until 2012, despite a draft environmental impact statement acknowledging that marine
reserves would be required to protect and conserve ecosystem biodiversity, function, and
services, and to begin to restore fishery-impacted ecosystems to natural levels. A policy of only
considering marine reserves within the park if all parties agree it is “absolutely necessary” sets
too high a bar for ecosystem management of coral reefs in urban areas, precludes efforts to
protect natural resources from impairment in national parks in the United States, and
undermines a “key conservation objective” of the United States Coral Reef Task Force to
protect twenty percent of Florida’s coral reefs as marine reserves by 2010.
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