‘Use communities for marine conservation’

COMMUNITY-based management is the most appropriate approach in conserving marine resources in developing countries like Papua New Guinea, a group of conservation practitioners, mangers and experts highlighted at a media briefing for the International Coral Reef Symposium 2012 in Cairns, Australia.The briefing on “bottom-up conservation” was a call to scale up this work, with greater government support at all levels and great support from non-governmental organisations and the research community. “That can come in the form of policy, funding, capacity-building and research that helps fortify the sites and the expansion of the network to new sites,” Alifereti Tawake said.“So we must establish that, when done right, the model works and it is ultimately the foundation for any successful conservation initiative in this region,” Tawake, who is the technical adviser, Learning Committee, Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas Network and IUCN-WCPA North and South Pacific Marine coordinator, said.“Then we call for more support for the bottom-up approach from national governments and the international community.”The panellists included Tawake; Jovelyn Cleofe, country coordinator and chairperson of the board of trustees, LMMA Network in Philippines; Cliff Marlessy, country coordinator of Indonesian LMMA Network; Stacey Jupiter, Fiji Wildlife Conservancy Society country director and Alan White, senior scientist, The Nature Conservancy, Global Marine Initiative, Hawaii. “Scientific surveys have proven community-based management successful through the size of fishes and other marine species, resilience of reefs from stresses, increase in stocks and high energy and protein in people’s diets,” Jupiter said.She said through this approach it either restored or maintained the balance of marine ecosystems.“This is not a new approach to PNG, as there are many success stories of it from West New Britain, New Ireland and Manus, where communities are taking ownership of the initiative,” National CTI committee representative, Vagi Rei said.On behalf of the Department of Environment and Conservation secretary Varigini Badira, Rei urged coastal communities in the country that had not embraced the practice to do so and work closely with local level governments.He encouraged local engagement through direct planning and decision-making as the communities’ livelihood and survival depended on it. “One of the important immediate steps to take is to respect regulations put in place by communities to protect and conserve areas that have been reserved as no-take zones,” Rei said.