Voice from the Field: Ecosystem Based Management (EBM)

Macuata Update

© WWF SPPO 2006. WWF Fiji Socioeconomic officer, Akisi Bolabola, surveys Macuata community members as part of an initiative to attain community and stakeholder consensus on project work.

© WWF SPPO 2006.

WWF Fiji Socioeconomic officer, Akisi Bolabola, surveys Macuata community members as part of an initiative to attain community and stakeholder consensus on project work.

WWF Fiji has established a ‘Community Messaging Network’ in a vigorous attempt to narrow the information gap between project managers, stakeholders and most importantly the grass-root communities of Macuata (Fiji Islands). This network engages the services of selected village head men to disseminate project information to each of the 37 village communities.

This has been necessary as one of the biggest challenges in implementing the Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) project in Macuata is securing community buy-in to this process. Attaining community and stakeholder consensus on the stipulated objectives of the project is paramount in successfully implementing tools/approaches for establishing a network of ecologically representative MPAs. As a direct result of the communities’ low levels of awareness on the project and its objectives, the progress towards achieving this has been likened to a turtle on land.

Ecosystem based management (EBM)
EBM aims to achieve ‘sustainability’ in exploiting natural resources. Two main themes run through the concept:

  1. the effect of the environment on the resource, and conversely,
  2. the effect of resource exploitation on the environment

EBM is a highly integrated approach that encompasses all the complexities of ecosystem dynamics, the social and economic needs of human communities, and the maintenance of divers, functioning and healthy ecosystems.

Several of the contributing factors include the absence of a dedicated on-site project officer to raise awareness and simultaneously address community queries. Also, while the Macuata Provincial Office (district governing body) has greatly supported WWF Fiji’s projects by disseminating information, it currently lacks the capacity to follow up on some of the more immediate needs of the project.

This information disseminating network aims to reach households levels of the 37 villages, administrators at the village, district, provincial office, including relevant government offices. Their feedback to project implementers is vital and will enable community ownership of the project and ensure sustainability of the impacts of activities through awareness raising and consensus building.

The process of this network will see WWF Fiji distributing information sheets on project themes to all of the 37 villages through its community messengers. A monitoring program has also been developed accordingly which requires the community messengers to provide a tally of recipient households. Simultaneously, they will collect and forward queries from each household to the project implementers. Upon receiving these records and queries, the project managers respond again using the Community messengers through Information sheets.

© WWF SPPO 2006. Coastline in Macuata Province, Vanua Levu, Fiji.

© WWF SPPO 2006. Coastline in Macuata Province, Vanua Levu, Fiji.

The Messaging Network essentially ensures that information reaches those who are direct users of the marine resources, and thus whose lives will be impacted by this project. It is the intention of WWF Fiji to better communicate the objectives of the project, set appropriate expectation for communities and most importantly, secure community ownership and sustainably of the project.