Nourishing island food systems in Solomon Islands: Operational Plan 2023

The WorldFish program in Solomon Islands is organized around four main research pathways (see figure). The first three are the agreed-upon impact areas of WorldFish, which aligns toward our adopted goal from the Solomon Islands National Fisheries Policy 2019–2029 of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR). The fourth research pathway places a deliberate emphasis on integrated planning and partnerships. Although WorldFish in Solomon Islands has many partners, we particularly integrate our research with MFMR to support national strategies toward its policy goal

Community Based Resource Management Training Package

In the Solomon Islands, more than 80% of the population are rural dwellers who commonly build livelihoods from subsistence agriculture and fisheries. Indigenous people own more than 80% of the land including the shorelines. Recognizing this customary land tenure, the Solomon Islands Government has decided that Community Based Resource Management (CBRM) is the main strategy for coastal resource management in the country (sometimes also referred to as CBFM or Community Based Fisheries Management). This CBRM training package aims at improving existing knowledge, understanding, and capacity of provincial fisheries officers (PFO) to support them in their mandated as CBRM facilitators. The PFOs are the lead facilitators in information dissemination in community engagement. Thus, it is vital that PFOs fully understand the various topics and facilitating techniques that are relevant to implementing and scaling CBRM at the community level. This requires PFOs to undertake three to four days training on various topics ranging from fisheries biology to fisheries regulations and applicable activities for conducting awareness and developing community management plans. The modules contain objectives, key messages, content which is structured according to the key messages, assessment, resources, and favorite asked questions (FAQ). Each module would be facilitated by staff of WorldFish and MFMR

Livelihoods and fisheries governance in a contemporary Pacific Island setting

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Inshore marine resources play an important role in the livelihoods of Pacific Island coastal communities. However, such reliance can be detrimental to inshore marine ecosystems. Understanding the livelihoods of coastal communities is important for devising relevant and effective fisheries management strategies. Semi-structured household interviews were conducted with householders in Langalanga Lagoon, Solomon Islands, to understand household livelihoods and resource governance in fishing-dependent communities. Households were engaged in a diverse range of livelihoods. Fishing, shell money production and gardening were the most important livelihoods. Proximity to an urban centre influenced how households accessed some livelihoods. Perceptions of management rules varied and different reasons were cited for why rules were broken, the most common reason being to meet livelihood needs. Current models of inshore small-scale fisheries management that are based on the notion of community-based resource management may not work in locations where customary management systems are weak and livelihoods are heavily reliant on marine resources. An important step for fisheries management in such locations should include elucidating community priorities through participatory development planning, taking into consideration livelihoods as well as governance and development aspirations

SSF guidelines: The Pacific ways

The geography, histories and cultures of the Pacific island region, and its 14 small island developing states, represent unique challenges and opportunities

Patterns of catch and trophic signatures illustrate diverse management requirements of coastal fisheries at island scale in Solomon Islands

Coastal fisheries are a critical component of Pacific island food systems; they power village economies and provide nutritious aquatic foods. Many coastal women and men actively fishing in this region rely on multi-species fisheries, which given their extraordinary diversity are notoriously difficult to both characterize, and to manage. Understanding patterns of fishing, diversity of target species and drivers of these patterns can help define requirements for sustainable management and enhanced livelihoods. Here we use a 12-month data set of 8535 fishing trips undertaken by fishers across Malaita province, Solomon Islands, to create fisheries signatures for 13 communities based on the combination of two metrics; catch per unit effort (CPUE) and catch trophic levels. These signatures are in turn used as a framework for guiding suitable management recommendations in the context of community-based resource management. While a key proximate driver of these patterns was fishing gear (e.g. angling, nets or spearguns), market surveys and qualitative environmental information suggest that community fishing characteristics are coupled to local environmental features more than the market value of specific species they target. Our results demonstrate that even within a single island not all small-scale fisheries are equal, and effective management solutions ultimately depend on catering to the specific environmental characteristics around individual communities

Patterns of catch and trophic signatures illustrate diverse management requirements of coastal fisheries in Solomon Islands

Coastal fisheries are a critical component of Pacific island food systems; they power village economies and provide nutritious aquatic foods. Many coastal women and men actively fishing in this region rely on multi-species fisheries, which given their extraordinary diversity are notoriously difficult to both characterize, and to manage. Understanding patterns of fishing, diversity of target species and drivers of these patterns can help define requirements for sustainable management and enhanced livelihoods. Here we use a 12-month data set of 8535 fishing trips undertaken by fishers across Malaita province, Solomon Islands, to create fisheries signatures for 13 communities based on the combination of two metrics; catch per unit effort (CPUE) and catch trophic levels. These signatures are in turn used as a framework for guiding suitable management recommendations in the context of community-based resource management. While a key proximate driver of these patterns was fishing gear (e.g. angling, nets or spearguns), market surveys and qualitative environmental information suggest that community fishing characteristics are coupled to local environmental features more than the market value of specific species they target. Our results demonstrate that even within a single island not all small-scale fisheries are equal, and effective management solutions ultimately depend on catering to the specific environmental characteristics around individual communities

Distribution of livelihood activities across family members.

<p>Multinomial logistic regression plot of the probability of involvement in the six most common livelihood activities, and all other livelihood activities combined, as a function of household members and proximity to Auki.</p

Map of Langalanga Lagoon, Solomon Islands.

<p>(A) Solomon Islands are located in the Western Pacific. (B) Langalanga lagoon is situated on the west coast of Malaita Province. (C) Many communities in the lagoon live on the high-water mark on artificial islands. (D) The lagoon extends south of the provincial capital Auki; twelve communities were included in the study.</p

Categories of different resource management rules according to type and level of compliance (%); n = number of responses given in each category (not number of respondents).

<p>Categories of different resource management rules according to type and level of compliance (%); n = number of responses given in each category (not number of respondents).</p

Food groups consumed by households in Langalanga lagoon.

<p>Main food groups consumed by study households in the 24 hours prior to the dietary survey.</p