Description
Coastal communities in the region face a range of threats and opportunities. Principal among them is climate change, which is recognised as the single most significant threat to Pacific economies and societies. COVID-19 has further tested the resilience of Pacific Islands and Territories by compromising connectivity and capacity to absorb extreme weather events and other external shocks.
Securing the sustainable supply of coastal fish is recognised as a priority response to the region’s food security challenges. Effective and socially inclusive community-based fisheries management (CBFM) has shown to make significant contributions to the ability of communities to adapt to change and absorb shocks. This project contributes to this broad challenge by building on and leveraging over a decade of Australian investment in innovative CBFM research in development.
The project contributes to the ongoing evolution of CBFM by supporting the establishment of selfsustaining national CBFM programs, as part of a regional network of investments. Building on long term national partnerships, the project energises existing momentum of institutional change in the coastal fisheries sectors of Kiribati (KIR), Solomon Islands (SLB), and Vanuatu (VUT). Through partnership with SPC-FAME, the project aligns with regionally coordinated CBFM initiatives and seeks to contribute to coherent and connected learning across the Pacific.
The overarching goal of the project is to co-develop self-sustaining national CBFM programs in KIR, SLB, and VUT. These programs seek to ensure all coastal communities in these countries become aware of CBFM principles, and that coastal fisheries are sustainably managed in a meaningful proportion of the coastlines so that they contribute to peoples’ long-term food and nutrition security. To ensure continued growth of effective CBFM, the project strengthens both national agencies and community-based organisations. The project builds on a critical partnership with SPC-FAME across several areas of work, so as to integrate with regional SPC-led CBFM scaling initiatives and significantly contribute knowledge and lessons learned that can inform and strengthen CBFM across the Pacific.