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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Evolution
of Village-based Marine Resource Management in Vanuatu between l993
and 2001
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Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
After sufficiently long closures, reef MPAs have proven to benefit fisheries through the export of fish into adjacent fishing grounds (reviewed by Roberts and Hawkins, 2000). The establishment of MPAs in countries such as Vanuatu where community-based marine tenure exists, raises both novel problems and novel opportunities. Briefly, establishing MPAs in traditionally tenured Pacific Island waters requires obtaining the permission and cooperation of tenure owners after providing incentives to reassure them that they have more to gain than to lose from them. Larger MPAs would often require obtaining the permission and agreement of several groups of tenure owners. This would seldom be an easy task. On the other hand, once established, MPAs would be more likely to attract strong surveillance and enforcement by local people because of their traditional defence of local fishing grounds.
Two of the villages we surveyed had declared portions of their fishing grounds as permanent marine protected areas - Ringi te Suh of Pelongk and Narong Park of Uri. Two other communities, Mele and Paunangisu, were indefinitely protecting their marine resources in areas important to tourists. In addition, several other communities said they were planning to introduce MPAs.
In developing countries where, unlike Vanuatu, local marine tenure is weak or non-existent, surveillance and enforcement in MPAs are also often weak to non-existent. Hence the preponderance of 'paper' MPAs in some of these countries (e.g. Alder, l996; McClanahan, 1999).
Department of Fisheries Extension Activities
Since l993 the Department focussed less effort on fisheries development and more on fisheries extension work. The new focus for Fisheries Extension Officers (FEOs) was to assist with the management of nearshore resources by providing advice and information to fishing communities. The FEOs were provided with preliminary training in cooperative management by means of a ten-day workshop. The Research Section of the Department played an active role in this training and followed this up by working with the FEOs in the field to help introduce this cooperative management approach. The Enforcement Officer was also involved.
Since then FEOs have made numerous 'awareness tours' to villages in most parts of the country and have broadened their focus from trochus to all nearshore living resources. Their work, says the Department, has been responsible for numerous communities re-vitalising their traditional system of putting tabus on select resources, reef areas and fishing methods. This process was in part constrained by the loss of some Department personnel in a civil service strike in late 1993 and some were not re-recruited until 1997.
Starting in 1999 the Extension Services decided to help provide alternative sources of income for rural communities, in part to compensate for the sacrifices required in order to rebuild nearshore seafood stocks through closures and other tabus. It now spends roughly half its time on cooperative management and the other half to promote some new (and old) development initiatives. The Extension Services underwent a name change to reflect this shift in focus and is now termed the Rural Fisheries Development Program. The new initiatives to date include the culture of Eucheuma seaweed, giant clams and blacklip pearls, re-vitalising the canoe enhancement program (using local canoes for the deepwater fishery), deploying new fishing aggregation devices to promote the pelagic fishery and the reseeding of reefs with trochus juveniles and adults. The Department has also purchased five new ice-plants to be placed at provincial centres to help re-develop the deepwater and pelagic fisheries.
Most of the above-noted initiatives are donor-funded. Ongoing training will also be provided to FEOs to enhance their ability to continue to provide the cooperative management needs of communities. For example, a workshop to train FEOs in basic reef assessment techniques is planned in 2002. With these skills the FEOs will be able to better assist communities in monitoring the impacts of exploitation and management of their reefs.
A Local Conservation Ethic?
A conservation ethic can be defined as an awareness of one's ability to overharvest or otherwise damage one's natural resources coupled with a commitment to reduce or eliminate the problem. Marine conservation ethics can be found in some tropical fishing cultures but not in others (Johannes, in press). Determining whether it exists or not is important; it determines how one goes about education for conservation. If a marine conservation ethic does not exist then village educators, such as fisheries extension officers, must begin at the beginning - they must first inculcate this ethic, which can be a very challenging job. Only then can they take the next step and promote specific conservation measures.
A marine conservation ethic is clearly in evidence in Vanuatu today. Anderson (l999) summarised the reasons given in the mid-l990s by representatives of 12 Vanuatu fishing villages for employing a total of 48 individual MRM measures 'enhancing', 'preserving' or 'protecting' resources was the explicit reason given for 43 of these measures. To 'finance village development' was given for five, 'to protect spawning fish' was given by three and 'a source of occasional income' was given by one (more than one reason was given in several instances).
Anderson stated that it was apparent that additional 'implicit' reasons were operative in six instances. All of these related to protection or establishment of property rights. Villagers' appraisals of the observance of the 48 measures by fishers was 'good' in 37 instances, 'fair' in ten instances and 'poor' in one instance.
This offers independent support for our observations that most villages we surveyed did manifest a marine conservation ethic; they were not only aware of the need for marine resource management in their waters but were also taking concrete actions to address this need. (Young men were sometimes singled out as the group least imbued with this ethic, and were usually identified as the main breakers of MRM tabus and government regulations).
Marine Tenure Disputes
While CMT provides the basic foundation on which sound, village-based MRM in Vanuatu can operate, it does not guarantee it. Johannes (l998a) reported that reef ownership disputes interfered to varying degrees with MRM in Vanuatu in l993. Ownership disputes were reported in five of the 21 villages in l993 and in eight in 2001. While the difference is not statistically significant, it is consistent with the prediction made by some village leaders to Johannes during his l993 study; namely, that such disputes will increase as cash economies become increasingly important in rural Vanuatu and export markets and local populations increase; i.e. that disputes over natural resources will increase as they become more valuable (Johannes, l998a).
Such disputes sometimes related initially to land tenure but had spilled over into contiguous fishing grounds. Aswani (l997) and Foale and Macintyre (2000) report similar disputes in areas in nearby Solomon Islands.
In 2001 the eight Vanuatu villages reporting ownership disputes had a mean of 2.25 MRM measures in place. In two of these villages there were none. In the 13 villages where no management disputes were reported, the mean number of MRM measures was 5.3. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). Our findings thus provide strong statistical support for the conclusion of the Vanuatu Fisheries Department that village-based MRM is stronger in the absence of CMT disputes.
There are six levels of resolution of fishing disputes available to Vanuatu fishing rights owners, ranging from adjudications involving heads of families, clans or villages up to the Supreme Court of Vanuatu (Johannes, l998). Certain disputes were being adjudicated at the time of Johannes' l993 study as well as the present study. The Fisheries Department's decision to withhold its support from villages with unresolved marine tenure dispute provides one incentive for villagers to resolve them. (see the addendum for further relevant information).
Reasons for Quick Adoption of New MRM Measures
Clearly the upsurge in community interest in village-based MRM in the early l990s has not abated. Some readers may be surprised at the alacrity with which Vanuatu villagers have continued to introduce new marine resource management measures that entail reducing their own fishing pressure.
One reason, already discussed, is that customary marine tenure provides the foundation for MRM in Vanuatu. Fishing by uninvited outsiders (mainly people from nearby villages) is a relatively minor problem in most communities (especially in those with easily monitored fishing grounds) because it is against cultural norms. Villagers thus reap most of the benefits of their self-restraint on the fishing grounds. Improved trochus yields due to sound management is a good example.
In addition, because Vanuatu nearshore habitat consists mainly of narrow fringing reefs, village fishing grounds are typically small enough and close enough to the village for surveillance to be relatively easy. (Nevertheless poaching among adjacent communities, especially for trochus and other commercial species such as lobster was reportedly increasing, although it was still not a major problem in most villages surveyed).
Another reason is that most individuals, families and/or clans own their own land. Raising of various vegetable crops, pigs, fowl and cattle is widely practiced. Thus villagers have other foods to fall back on when they forego fishing. In addition, excess produce and cash crops such as kava, copra, cacao, and nuts can be sold for consumption in the capital, Port Vila and other district centres or for export. This provides money to buy such things as cheap canned mackerel, and corned beef that are often available in village stores and have the advantage of an indefinite shelf life. In addition, as mentioned above, the Department of Fisheries is helping some villages to set up additional alternative income projects.
In addition, over centuries the people of Vanuatu have developed strong traditions of community organisation, leadership and systems of decision-making that govern their use and allocation of natural resources. Development and the introduction of a money economy are weakening this organisation to varying degrees, especially in urban and peri-urban centres. Yet traditional rules and customs still provide the foundation of rural community organisation, leadership and collective behaviour. Thus, when rural village leaders declare tabus relating to fishing they tend to be respected and observed by most.
Finally, villagers are becoming increasingly aware of the relationship between maintaining their marine resources and attracting tourist dollars.
Police Support for Customary Law
Another interesting trend we encountered in some peri-urban villages during this study is the increasing use of state police to informally back up decisions made by the chiefs. Individuals who repeatedly ignore their chief's rulings and fines for breaking village tabus, including tabus relating to MRM, may be turned over to the police.
This is only done when a chief has exhausted other possibilities within the village to bring an individual into compliance. The miscreant is typically held by police overnight or longer in the local 'calaboose' (accommodation that is less than appealing) and encouraged to rethink his or her position on ignoring their chief's wishes. In this way, chiefs and police cooperate to maintain order within the village. The chief still makes the decisions, generally through consensus within his community, but the police are there to help enforce his rulings where necessary. This cooperation, to date, is done on an informal basis.
Unlike peri-urban communities, rural communities do not have police readily available to intervene in such situations. On most islands it is the chiefs who manage to maintain order and social harmony among their communities, as has been done for centuries.
However, with the recent social changes brought about by the intrusion of western lifestyles and a gradual loss of respect for traditional institutions, many chiefs are feeling the need for some sort of support from the Government to formalise their ability to enforce their rulings. As it is now, decisions made by chiefs in the village courts are not legally recognised. This situation is currently under review by the Government, which has commissioned a 'Chief's Legislation Project' to explore this issue and survey the nations' chiefs' viewpoints on this matter. Depending on the recommendations of the project, the Government may consider enacting legislation to formally empower the chiefs' village court decisions.
