Low cost technology for monitoring sustainable development

The term \u27sustainable development\u27 first appeared in a significant way in the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN 1980), but the basic ideas had been discussed much earlier. \u27Ecologically sustainable development\u27 became particularly popular after the publication of Our Common Future, the Brundtland report (WCED 1987). Many agencies claim that their work is highly dependent on, or governed by, sustainable development or sustainability principles. One of the major problems with the concept of sustainability, however, is that, while many people claim to be utilising sustainability principles, there is often little evidence to confirm this. Supporting data are frequently absent, perhaps because people are uncertain about the information they should collect

Mainstreaming resource conservation: the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network and its influence on National Policy Development

The experience of the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMA) network provides an illustration of how to mainstream community-based resource management practices that began with local communities, and were in-turn supported by a Government which has witnessed the success of community-based intervention. To improve the success of conservation in the communities and attract attention to its approach, FLMMA formed a learning portfolio. This is a network of projects that use a common strategy to achieve a common end and agree to work together to collect, test and communicate information about the conditions under which the strategy works, to enable the partners to exchange ideas and experiences. The learning portfolio enhances collaboration and also ensures that lessons learnt are shared widely with people in the network. FLMMA is working to increase the effectiveness of conservation and to ensure that the involvement of people in the management of their marine resources is both satisfying and meaningful. Modern science is an important part of the FLMMA approach because it is used to demonstrate the effects of the use of traditional resource management practices. Using simple biological, social, and economic monitoring methods, the villagers are collecting impressive results on resources and habitat recovery and the associated social and economic improvements in living conditions. The objectives of improving conservation to protect biodiversity and improve people’s living conditions are important features of the kind of community-based resource conservation that is now being undertaken in the Pacific and Asia region. The objectives are also consistent with national policies for inshore fisheries development and global concerns about poverty alleviation. The success of community-based conservation in different parts of Fiji has resulted in long-term support from the communities. It has also facilitated the articulation of Government fisheries development policies. The Government has set up a new conservation unit and has formalised its support, and adopted the FLMMA method of involving local community units in the sustainable use of their marine resources. Under FLMMA, the success and combined experiences of conservation practitioners are being used to mainstream resource conservation and influence policy development in Fiji

Adaptation in locally managed marine areas in Fiji

[Extract] On small islands, adaptive management and planning is the cornerstone for survival. Climate change is putting additional stress on islands’ limited resources, thereby threatening livelihoods. The need for local solutions that are flexible and responsive to the local context is paramount.\ud \ud The Republic of Fiji has recently gained valuable experience with local adaptive management. In an archipelago of more than 300 islands in the South Pacific Ocean, Fijians have learned to coexist with the ocean for centuries and to make a living through the management of limited resources. As the sea level rises and severe storms become more frequent and damaging due to the changing climate, this management is being put to the test

Community-based refugia management in Fiji

Many coastal communities in Fiji depend on the sea particularly on mangrove, seagrass and reef ecosystems, for their livelihood and the use of "tabu" or refuge areas are increasingly being revitalized by resource owners as a tool to sustain local fisheries. One of the main challenges is the limitation in the scientific or appropriate skills to judge their effectiveness, which is traditionally based upon beliefs and casual observations. Through a Biodiversity Conservation Network (BCN) project, people in the Verata district in Fiji have developed skills to help address marine issues. Using participatory techniques,communities determined threats to marine resources and developed a marine resource management plan. Community members were also trained to perform simple biological monitoring techniques to assess the effectiveness of the use of refuge areas. Two target species; mud lobsters (Thallasina anomala) and clams (Anadara sp.) have been monitored. Since the baseline surveys in 1997, there has been a 13-fold increase in clam abundance in the refuge area and a 5-fold increase in the harvest area indicating the success of these interventions. Mud lobster numbers have also increased. Consequently, new refuge areas involving five target species have been set up and monitored by the communities. In collaboration with the government and other NGOs, efforts are also underway to replicate this 'Veratavou model' in other parts of Fiji and to create a learning network of community-managed refuge areas. This will help determine conditions under which the declaration and monitoring of community-managed fishery refugia can be an effective tool in sustaining local fisheries in Fiji

Village by village - recovering Fiji’s coastal fisheries

IN THE EARLY 1990s, RESIDENTS OF UCUNIVANUA VILLAGE, ON THE EASTERN COAST OF Fiji's largest island, realized that the marine resources they depended on were becoming scarce. Village elders remembered when a woman could collect several bags of large kaikoso clams, a food staple and important source of income, in just a few hours. By the 1990s, however, a woman could spend all day on the mudflats and come home with only half a bag of small clams. The decline of Ucunivanua's marine heritage reflects a larger pattern of depletion repeated throughout the Fiji islands. A combination of greater commercial fishing and larger local subsistence harvests have left most of Fiji's coastal waters overfished, sometimes heavily so. Rural Fijians, who constitute half of Fiji's population of nearly 900,000, have been hurt. Most of these villagers still lead a traditional subsistence-based livelihood, communally drawing on local marine resources for at least part of their daily protein and income. In the past, the abundance of the marine catch meant a moderate level of affluence and food security. With that abundance gone, the pressure on village economies has mounted, leaving 30-35 percent of rural households in Fiji below the official poverty line. But Fijians are fighting back, village by village, linked by a network of communities that carefully regulate the use of their coastal waters, slowly restoring their productivity. Although these locally managed marine areas (LMMAs) are an innovation of the last decade, they call on a rich tradition of village management of ocean resources. In this new incarnation, traditional local conservation practices are blended with modern methods of monitoring and energized by the full participation of members of the community, who design and implement the marine management plans. The goal is to bolster local incomes and traditions by replenishing local waters, a grassroots approach to rural development. Ucunivanua was the site of the first locally managed marine area in Fiji, and its results have been dramatic. Since local management began seven years ago, the kaikoso clam has once again become abundant, and village incomes have risen significantly. The Ucunivanua project set aside the usual mind-set that only experts know best and that development occurs only when planned by governments. Instead, it let the ultimate choices, the decisions that determine a project's success or failure, rest with the people most dependent on the resources for their livelihoods. The success in Ucunivanua has led to the adoption of LMMAs throughout Fiji, Asia, and the Pacific region (Aalbersberg 2003; Aalbersberg and Tawake 2005; Gell and Tawake 2002; Tawake and Aalbersberg 2002; Tawake et al. 2001)

Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and fisheries management in the Torres Strait, Australia: the catalytic role of turtles and dugong as cultural keystone species

In many developing regions of Melanesia, fishers’ traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has been integrated with western science and management knowledge (SMK) to generate innovative and effective fisheries management. Previous research suggests that three factors initiate this process: depleted fishery stocks, limited SMK, and ownership of resources by local communities. In other contexts the extent of power-sharing through comanagement, and the cultural significance of species may also be important determinants of knowledge integration. Here we assess the role of these factors in the application of TEK in the Torres Strait Islands, Australia, where commercial and subsistence fisheries are fundamental to the Indigenous Melanesian culture and livelihoods. In 2009 we surveyed fishery managers and scientists who revealed that TEK had only been recently and sparingly applied in four fisheries (turtle, dugong, lobster, and hand collectables), and only two of the seven species concerned had a combination of depleted stocks, low SMK, and high community ownership. Instead, comanagement characteristics and the cultural value of species were the primary determinants of TEK application. We suggest that turtles and dugong are cultural keystone species that simultaneously provide important ecosystem services to both islanders’ livelihoods and international conservation interests. Combined with their ecological scale these species have catalyzed comanagement between indigenous and government stakeholders, precipitating the application of TEK in other fisheries of lesser cultural importance. We discuss modifications to governance required to enable knowledge integration to evolve further through adaptive comanagement, and its role in enhancing fisheries management and thus the resilience of the Torres Strait social-ecological system. Our study highlights the potential utility of cultural keystone species in stimulating cross-cultural resource governance in developed economies such as Australia