Biodiversity Conservation Network
18. Fish from the Arnavon Island Marine Reserve
Location: Arnavon Islands Resource Management Area, Solomon Islands Partners: The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
Ministry of Forests and Environmental Conservation (MFEC)
Arnavon Islands Management CommitteeProject Title: Community Marine Conservation and Enterprise Development BCN Funding: $545,372 Partner Contribution: $281,610 Grant Period: October 1, 1995 - September 30, 1998
Project Overview
The Arnavon Islands, midway between the islands of Santa Isabel and Choiseul of the Solomon Islands, lie in the midst of an area rich in marine biodiversity. The Arnavon Islands are one of the most important rookeries in the western Pacific for the endangered hawksbill turtle. The area's marine environment also supports commercially valuable species such as beche-de-mer, trochus, black and gold lip pearl oysters, and giant clams.Three villages -- Kia, Posarae, and Waghena -- form the Greater Arnavon Resource Management Area (GARMA). GARMA fishermen and turtle hunters make regular visits to the Arnavon Islands to harvest their resources. The area's cash economy has traditionally been oriented toward extractive commodities. Extractive activity in the GARMA has been carried out on an "open access" basis according to tenurial rights vested in villages. Collection rates increased dramatically in the 1980s in response to a sharp increase in prices for shellfish and other products. The result has been a series of "boom and bust" cycles for harvesting marine products.
To reverse this decline in invertebrate species, the project team established a representative management committee, hired a squad of six conservation officers (two from each community), established the Arnavon Islands Community Marine Conservation Area (CMCA), obtained legal designation for the area, developed a management plan for the CMCA, and are developing a sustainable deep-water finfish enterprise. By providing viable alternative marine enterprises, partners are hoping to reduce pressure on marine invertebrates. The CMCA marks the first time that a community of the Solomon Islands has created a sanctuary, as well as the country's first cooperatively managed marine conservation area. If successful, it will demonstrate the economic and ecological benefits of a community-based approach to development and resource conservation to other communities of the Solomon Islands and the national government.
1996 Accomplishments
The fisheries project is now in the construction phase and we hope to be fishing by November 1996. Kia already has an operating fisheries center developed by the European Community and it is serving as the model for the AMCA project. Two staff houses have been completed at Waghena, and construction has begun on their fisheries center. The third community, Posarae, has a provincial fisheries center, but it is small and will be expanded to meet the needs of the community there in the enterprise project. All of the equipment has been ordered; the generators, ice machines, coolers, and fishing gear, and fishing vessels are under construction in Kia. There is a local center manager in place at Kia and Posarae and applications are now being taken in Waghena for the position there. Biological monitoring with sustainability of the fish stocks as the goal will be an integral part of the center managers' responsibilities. A workshop will be held in November to train several women from the three villages to conduct socio-economic monitoring to determine the effects of the fisheries project on the livelihoods of the local people.
Success Stories
One story involves the continued productive cooperation of the members of the Management Committee. Management Committee meetings were held in November 1995, and April and September 1996. Issues concerning the balance of conservation in the area and the desires of the communities were brought up, discussed, and voted on. The next meeting will take place in November 1996.A second story concerns the Management Committee's unsolicited expression of a desire to raise funds themselves to help finance the day-to-day activities of the AMCA. This step is setting the tone for not only self-reliance in their conservation efforts, but is also demonstrating a firm belief that this is their project and not just another aid hand-out.
A third story is about the pending adoption of the AMCA regulation regarding sea turtle hunting into the Solomon Islands National Legislation. This is significant in that it responds to the question of "What is this project doing to help the Solomons as a nation?" Turtles are an endangered species and to preserve the biodiversity of a nation is to promote wealth of their natural resources.
Challenges
During the construction of the staff houses of the fisheries center in Waghena, there was a serious misconception regarding the "ownership" of the project. This, as with many problems that have come up, is attributable to lack of communication. The TNC Project Manager held a meeting recently with the Waghena Community, and the position of center manager was announced as open to members of the Waghena Community only. It was later learned that this seemingly minor detail went a long way in convincing the Waghena people that this, like the Conservation Area, is indeed their project.In the early stages of the AMCA project, the greatest challenge was getting the elders and chiefs of the three very diverse communities to sit and work collectively and with cooperation and compromise. Now they are a strong team and even talk about forming a smaller emissary group within themselves to go to neighboring communities and give advice on starting similar community-based conservation projects there. The next few years to come will most likely hold the greatest challenges in the development of a successful fisheries project. The history of fisheries projects in the South Pacific is full of examples of failures, but this project has a few things going for it that no other project ever had: 1) strong cooperation between all partners involved and 2) a shining success in Kia to model the other two centers from. The challenges look tough, but the future of this project looks bright.
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