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Focus on Community Based Marine Conservation:
community fisheries,
dive tourism,
and reef bioprospecting
Forests make up the majority of BCN project sites. However, BCN is also involved in a number of critical areas of marine biodiversity. BCN is one of very few groups (if not the only) that is simultaneously testing three relatively new approaches to marine conservation: community fisheries, reef ecotourism, and marine bioprospecting. Community fisheries and reef ecotourism are akin to the more familiar land-based ventures of rainforest products and ecotours. Bioprospecting, which began in rainforests, is also beginning to move offshore into coral reefs, places that may be even more diverse than the Amazon - and just as threatened.
The distinct ecologies of coral reefs and other marine systems means that there are challenges and opportunities at these project sites that are different from what we have encountered on land. However, we are still dealing with communities of people, whether they live near coral reefs, mountain forests, or grasslands. What we learn in the marine projects is relevant to all community-based conservation.
BCN's marine projects include the Padaido Islands in Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji. In this update, we further narrow our focus by concentrating on Fiji and the Solomons. We've posted some recent papers that focus on Fiji and the Solomon Islands, including the potential and pitfalls of community-based marine bioprospecting (Fiji papers 1, 2, 3) and an account of how communities in the Solomon Islands implemented a marine management area.
Interest in conservation in the South Pacific has been growing, as evidenced by the diverse attendance at meetings of the UN's Southern Pacific Environment Programme (SPREP). BCN director Balachander Ganesan attended a SPREP workshop last month (Feb. 98). The participants developed an Action Strategy for Nature Conservation in the Pacific Islands. The goals for the plan had been adopted at a previous SPREP conference in 1997, in which BCN actively participated. The goals are:
- Identifying threats to biodiversity in the region
- Developing a planning and legal framework for resource management
- Involving local communities and customs in resource management
- Strengthening local expertise and technical ability
- Increasing awareness and information sharing
- Finding ways to fund conservation in the region
To find out more about the SPREP action plan and other developments in the South Pacific, try the South Pacific Information Network
Other News
A manual on community participation and project design, Measures of Success, will soon be available from Island Press.
Analytical Framework & Communications Strategy
Community Monitoring of Ngali Nuts in the Solomon Islands
Looking for the old 'What's New?'
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WHY BIODIVERSITY FIELD STORIES PARTICIPATE RESULTS MARKETSPACE ABOUT THE NETWORK WHAT'S NEW LEARNING MATERIALS SEARCH LINKS SITE MAP HOME |