Manus islanders profit from bech-de-mer

The National Weekender

By RUTH KONIA
Wuroh! wuroh! wuroh! echoed through the packed community hall as tribal leaders representing a tribal network covering approximately a third of Manus Province embraced the successful outcome of their collective effort in community-based fisheries management.
Established in June 2013, the Mwanus Endras Asi Resource Development Network, consists of eight tribal areas of more than 10,000 people across the south coast of Manus who came together after a study on Fish Spawning Aggregations in early 2000. They agreed to establish a community-based management vehicle to provide local benefits from a wide range of fishery species.
Registered as a co-operative, the network developed a strategic plan on three main pillars including sustainable governance, sustainable financing and sustainable eco-systems. The group also established formal relationships with the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) to coordinate fisheries management activities under which shallow water fish aggregating devices (FADs) were given to each community in the network to reduce fishing pressure on the reefs.
Last year, when the nine-year ban on sea cucumber harvest was uplifted, the group organised local fishers who gathered sea cucumbers in their respective small customary marine tenures and sold their produce to the Mwanus Endras Asi Resource Development Network (MENAR). With assistance from The Nature Conservancy, MENAR bought the sea cucumbers from local fishers in the network, dried, packed and shipped them to Hong Kong.
The bech-de-mer were sold in Hong Kong at premium price that enabled enough returns for debts to be repaid and profits to be invested in community projects.
The Nature Conservancy carried out ecological surveys on sandfish densities before and after the 2017 bech-de-mer fishing season and results were presented back to the community early this year at the eighth MENAR tribal council meeting to guide communities to sustainably manage sandfish in their small customary marine tenures to enable a constant supply to the Hong Kong market to maintain a premium price.
The network was established around existing socio-cultural boundaries, with all members sharing a common language (Titan), common religion (Wind Nation), and a maritime culture. The group’s mission is to advocate for and support equitable and sustainable development to improve livelihoods, preservation of cultural heritage, developing a learning forum to share experiences among network members to build local capacity, improving the communities’ resilience to climate change through community-based projects, supporting research partnerships between communities and scientists that benefit communities, and establishing a network of management and protected areas.
Theirs is a taste of success and a fine example of investing in community-based natural resource management.

  •  Ruth Konia a communications officer with The Nature Conservancy.