Community Training on Marine Monitoring Toolkit in North Efate
23-24 August & 29-30 August 2016
The Nguna-Pele Marine and Land Protected Area Network and the Tasivanua Network have been undertaking marine and terrestrial resource monitoring for over a decade. Their member communities have requested changes to the way monitoring is done to make results more useful for local-level decision-making and to ensure that community initiatives are recognized by national partners.
For this reason, the RESCCUE program is cooperating with the Nguna-Pele and Tasivanua Networks to improve monitoring approaches and has developed a Community Marine Monitoring Toolkit. The Nguna-Pele and TasiVanua Resource Monitoring Networks in North Efate, Vanuatu, have management objectives written into village management plans. Management actions are defined in these plans, and the community monitoring toolkit is intended to measure whether management is effective in maintaining important marine resources. The broad objectives of resource management in North Efate are to:
- Conserve marine resources for future generations.
- Control the overuse/overharvest of resources.
- Protect species (endemic) and prevent extinctions.
- Restore and/or rehabilitate resources that have been lost or damaged.
- Develop marine tourism attractions for income generation.
- Protect important breeding sites.
- Increase the size of species targeted by fisheries.
- Ensure there are sufficient resources for food and income generation.
- Obey national laws and regulations.
Training purpose:
This 4-day training is intended to teach the new monitoring toolkit modules for: intertidal invertebrates, reef health, fish catches and mangroves. Community monitoring is important, as it provides regular information from people who are familiar with their environment and is aimed at:
- Informing decision-making at a community (local) level.
- Providing information that is an early warning of unwanted changes or impacts (e.g. loss of habitats, increasing crown-of-thorns starfish numbers, or declines in target fisheries species).
- Sharing information to reach consensus on resource status and management actions.
- Raising awareness within communities about the condition of marine resources and their management.