An Overview Of Our Solution
Integrating traditional knowledge and practices with science and modern technologies to ensure sustainable resource use and community well-being
Who is this solution impacting?
Ecosystem
Oceans/Coasts
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Asia
Problem
Describe the problem
The Korolevi-i-wai / Koroinasau locally-managed fishing area is a community-based marine resource management effort that blend traditional knowledge and resource tenure with science and modern technologies. Using culturally-appropriate participatory learning activities, co-management partners have assisted the tribal land and fishing right owners to develop, implement, monitor, review, and accordingly adapt a holistic ridges-to-reefs management plan that aims to address local ecosystem threats, community development needs, and national conservation goals in order to ensure the sustainability of people and the resources they depend on. Management activities are being undertaken to address over-fishing, pollution, poor land-use practices, and sustainable livelihood needs.
Biodiversity Impact
This solution promotes ecosystem health and creates sustainable fisheries by holistically addressing the threats to the ecosystem and fisheries through activities initiated by and with the full involvement of the local community. To ensure sustainable fisheries certain fishing methods - such as using traditional poisons, nets with small meshes, and SCUBA spearfishing - have been banned, both permanent and temporary no-take areas have been established across over 30% of the fishing ground, the commercial harvest of certain species such as beche-de-mer is not permitted, and the status of fisheries is being monitored through research by both local community members and scientists from partner organizations using various techniques such as temporal UVC surveys, fish tag and release studies, and catch-per-unit-effort comparisons. To further promote ecosystem health, additional measures are being undertaken by the local community including 1) wastewater management through the installation of low-tech, easy to maintain treatment and disposal systems in villages and settlements, 2) solid waste management through recycling, composting and organized trash pickups, 3) improving land-use practices to reduce sedimentation of coastal marine areas, and 4) experimenting with alternative pig farm waste management such as dry composting piggeries. Additionally, the local community has engaged with adjacent resorts to address environmental concerns with the resort operations.
Solution
This solution protect biodiversity against local threats by improving local knowledge and understanding of the threats through educational activities, facilitating a local management and action plan to address the threats, and providing technical assistance and the necessary resources to address them through the implementation of the communityƒ??s action plan while monitoring and evaluating the results. Benthic and fisheries monitoring and associated research have shown the following outcomes of the implemented management plan from 2002 to date: 1) coral cover and target fish abundance (grouper, snapper, emperor, parrotfish, rabbitfish, surgeonfish) have increased significantly both inside and outside the no-take areas, though more so in no-take areas, 2) macro-algal abundance has significantly decreased within the no-take areas due to higher herbivory rates than in the fished areas, and 3) no-take areas harbor both more and larger target fish that are more likely to be of reproductive size as well as greater species richness of hard corals than fished areas. Some fisherman have also noted the return of species in the fishing ground that they havenƒ??t seen or have been uncommon for decades. // Our integrated, community-based approach is being applied across the districts of Korolevu-i-wai and Koroinasau and covers the tribally-owned lands of the two districts and the creeks and streams contained within the lands as well as the adjacent tribal fishing ground where the rights to fish are owned by the tribal land owners in the two districts. The marine portion of the customary fishing ground is 9 km2 while the adjacent land area is over 50,000 hectares with numerous inland waters throughout the land area.
Replicability
How many years has your solution been applied? 9 years // Have others reproduced your solution elsewhere? Yes // Co-management partners Reef Explorer Fiji Ltd. and the University of the South Pacific work with the local community to develop, implement, monitor, and review resource management and community development plans. Co-management partners facilitate the development and review of the management plans through participatory activities and conduct educational programs to raise awareness and improve the community’s understanding of the issues affecting marine resources and potential actions that can be taken to address them. Additionally, community members have been trained in simple biological monitoring of marine resources and have also participated in joint research efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of the management actions taken and the state of the marine resources. Co-management partners conduct further research to address the questions and needs of the community so more informed management decisions can be made. Transferable information is shared with other communities in Fiji to bolster their management efforts through the Fiji Locally-Managed Marine Areas network (www.lmmanetwork.org). Reef Explorer is based in the Korolevu-i-wai community, and works daily with community members to coordinate ongoing activities and to plan for future activities. Capacity building is a key part of the daily interaction and essential to the sustainability of the solution. This occurs not only with local community members, but also with regional students in undergraduate and post-graduate programs at the University of the South Pacific.
Human Well Being and Livelihood Impact
As the local community is largely dependent upon subsistence fishing for their daily diet, the improvement in the fisheries and coral reef habitat quality has had a positive impact on their catches with more and bigger fish and octopus being caught which means more food for the families. The solid and liquid waste management efforts have improved not only the cleanliness of the villages and their surroundings, but have created a healthier living environment and improved the water quality in creeks and the nearshore marine environment which has led to noticeably less skin disease and infections and other water-associated illnesses. Some villages have been operating eco-tourism activities - snorkeling and coral restoration in the no-take areas and village tours that include their wetland wastewater management systems - which bring thousands of dollars to the villagers each year and help to reinforce the positive impact of and support their resource management efforts. There are over 2000 customary fishing right owners living in the 8 traditional villages (4 coastal, 4 inland) and another 900-plus people that live in surrounding settlements that are impacted by the current solution, along with three large four & five star resorts (200+ rooms) that also benefit from the solution. // The solution is co-managed by the local community and supporting partners with the local community taking the lead and making the management decisions based on their understanding of the state of resources from their observations, biological monitoring data and data collected by co-management partners with the approval and/or assistance of community members. Traditional leaders of the eight tribes owning the rights to the fishing ground oversee the resource management and community development activities. Under the supervision of the tribal leader, community-appointed Environment Committees (ECs) have been established in each of the traditional villages to oversee and monitor the management activities in their specific village section of the fishing ground and associated land area. District-wide ECs consisting of village representatives have also been created to oversee and coordinate common efforts across each district. A larger parent organization, the Korolevu-i-wai / Koroinasau Qoliqoli Trust, was established in 2006 as the legal representative of the customary fishing right owners and is controlled by the tribal leaders of the two districts. Fish wardens, selected from each village, have been trained by the Fiji Department of Fisheries and deputized by the legal authorities to help enforce Fiji fisheries laws in their customary fishing grounds. Issues of relevance and coordination of activities are discussed both within relevant committees and in the larger village forum in bi-weekly village meetings.