Coastal fisheries are vital to the livelihoods, cultures and local economies of Pacific Island nations. They provide most of the seafood contribution to nutrition and nearly half of the fisheries-related contribution to gross domestic product in the region. Coastal communities often have very strong tenure rights, which gives them a strong basis to sustainably manage and protect these natural resources. Traditionally, such an intimate connection seems to have ensured successful stewardship of these coastal resources but, since colonial and post-colonial times, their status has generally entered into decline.
The past three decades have seen some relatively successful initiatives where a few governments were able to empower and support communities to better manage coastal fisheries. In addition, a multitude of community pilot programmes in other countries resulted in some support reaching nearly 10% of coastal communities in the Pacific overall. These experiences established community-based fisheries management as the agreed foundation of coastal fisheries management in the region (FFA and SPC 2015).
Nearly 80% of the population in the region still reside in communities, and the worryingly large proportion of communities and coastal resources that remain substantially unmanaged led the Noumea Strategy (SPC 2015) to warn that “small pockets of effective coastal fisheries management” (i.e. CBFM sites) will not be adequate to address the continuous decline of coastal resources. The first two Regional Fisheries Ministers Meetings (SPC 2020 and 2021), therefore, stressed the importance of scaling-up sustainable CBFM, and called for and ultimately endorsed the Pacific Framework for Action on Scaling up Community-based Fisheries Management: 2021–2030 (SPC 2024).
Objective 4 of the Framework for Action calls for fisheries agencies to develop their organisational and individual capacity to adequately support the scaling up of CBFM at the national and subnational level. In response, the Pacific Community (SPC) developed and piloted the first CBFM scaling up course in 2024. The course modules are based on the strategies detailed in the Framework for Action and priorities expressed by nearly 100 practitioners in the Regional CBFM Workshop on the Implementation of the Pacific Framework for Action on Scaling-up CBFM 29 April–3 May 2024.
To find out more, read the full article here https://bit.ly/4qNgJXk of SPC's Fisheries Newsletter #177
