FSPI

"Pacific Island peoples have developed a close relationship with the ocean over millennia and the sea is a key part of the region’s rich cultures. The capacity and vast knowledge of coastal communities provide the fundamental pillar for achieving sustainable livelihoods based on healthy natural resources and within the context of cash-strapped economies.Helping communities build on these strengths towards self-reliance, in combination with new knowledge and institutions, is the core of the FSPI Communities and Coasts Programme".

One of the most promising appraoches towards sustainable marine resource management is securing livelihoods emerging from the region involve community based management relying on local governance and facilitated with Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) tools. This provides communites with the means to improve theri own resource managment practices. The community development experiene of the FSPI Network Partners suggest that working at the community level entails a series of best practices with a clear focus on helping communities meet theie aspirations and set theie own agendas

We acknowledge the kind support and funding from the Coral Reef Initiative in the Pacific (CRISP), Mac Arthur Foundation, South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Packard Foundation and NZAID for our current projects (2008 to 2013)

“The Communities and Coasts Programme works with communities through projects that ensure the sustainable and integrated management of natural resources. At the same time these projects help develop the communities’ self-reliance and improve quality of life”.

We work with Network Partners in four Pacific countries in three strategic action areas

1. Programme Development : The program’s core business is in developing sustainable community-benefit natural resource management programmes with FSPI’s Network Partners through innovative applied research, participatory programme design, implementation and monitoring.
2. Networking and building programme sustainability strategies: Focuses in supporting and strengthening national, regional and international networks in natural resource management and biodiversity conservation. The programme works with Network Partners to develop sustainable strategies to ensure no communities are left behind but strengthen self-reliance in the long-term.
3. Communication and Advocacy for Change: Communication, policy development and advocacy activities to support and promote community-based approaches and appropriate policy and legal frameworks.

The Communities and Coasts Programme currently has programmes in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Fiji to assist communities, government and NGOs to improve their own resource management practices and processes. Initial results from the setting up of these “tabu” areas in Paunagisu Village, Efate in Vanuatu, Marau Sound in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands and Nanumea in Tuvalu, have been promising. Many communities are so enthused by their success and the gains they have noticed that some have extended fishing ban areas.