For the latest ocean news, subscribe to Ocean Update and our other free newsletters.

Showcasing the Power of Pacific Island Community Conservation

SeaWeb's Asia Pacific Program brought Papua New Guinea journalists such as 100-FM reporter Nasayau Lurang (here, with two children from Pere) to a remote island community to see how it is protecting its fishing grounds with community-imposed regulations, as outlined on this sign at the village beachfront. Francis Gabriel

Coastal communities in Papua New Guinea depend heavily on their biodiverse marine ecosystems for food, income, medicine and storm protection. Increasingly, these resources are being depleted because of population growth, land-based pollution and unsustainable fishing practices. But some communities are fighting back, combining traditional marine management practices with Western management tools.

To show Papua New Guinea journalists what one coastal community is doing to stem the tide of resource depletion. SeaWeb's Asia Pacific Program took national newspaper and radio reporters to the village of Pere, a 1,500-person island community located in the Admiralty Islands about 186 miles (300 kilometres) north of the Papua New Guinea mainland.

The field trip to this remote community this past July was the conclusion of SeaWeb's six-month Sea Series, which is designed to give journalists a strong foundation in marine science, a clear understanding of the critical conservation challenges in their country and a network of expert sources. The trip allowed them a window into the issues they had learned about during the last six months, some of which are evident in Pere.

In 1997, the Titan people on Pere began to see that the fish populations around the island were decreasing. The community decided to create marine protected areas to help replenish their reefs. In 2006, Pere became a member of The Locally-Managed Marine Areas Network, which helps communities like Pere throughout Papua New Guinea and the Pacific region manage their resources. Working with The Nature Conservancy, Pere took another big step this past year: It created a management plan to more effectively manage its marine resources.

The journalists toured Pere's fishing grounds in dugout, outrigger canoes. Here, they are seen leaving Matam Pwak Island after visiting some spawning areas. Francis Gabriel

In Pere, the journalists travelled by dugout, outrigger canoe to see spawning areas of different fish species and marine protected areas. They also saw eroded coasts that need to be replanted with mangroves and others that are increasingly inundated by waves, to the point that recently, a sea wall was destroyed. The community attributes this increase in wave activity to climate change.

Pere community leaders shared with the media a set of community-instituted rules that are helping manage their resources. These rules include prohibiting nets with a mesh size less than two and a half inches, the use of spear guns with underwater lights, the collecting of undersized trochus sea snails and sea cucumbers, cutting down mangroves, fishing at spawning aggregation sites during spawning season and taking live corals. The community has also established rules for proper rubbish disposal. The reporters then learned about how the community is monitoring the health of its reefs with modern methods, such as fish transects The Nature Conservancy trainers have introduced.

As part of their field experience, the journalists were treated to a taste of Pere's developing eco-tourism offerings, which are part of an alternative income opportunity identified in the Pere management plan to relieve fishing pressure. The journalists toured caves, visited ancestral sites and open-air burial grounds, and bush trekked to the Londrum River waterfall. They also visited Nohang, the only remaining traditional market in Manus where coastal people exchange fish for garden-grown food, sago and fruits from the inland people. There, the journalists exchanged fish for pineapple, bananas and sugar cane.

For the journalists, the trip made a strong impression. "It's so sad to know that our local communities like Pere here are doing all they can for marine conservation, yet they are getting very little attention," said 100-FM radio journalist Nasayau Lurang. "To make matters worse, they are already feeling the impacts of climate change."

Pere Executive Council Women Representative Piwen Langarap said that environmental issues like climate change are complex and costly for a remote, mainly subsistence village like Pere to manage. Ultimately, she said, it will need more support from the government and conservation community to properly implement its marine management plan and be able to adapt to such environmental changes. Langarap was encouraged that the media might share their story with decision makers in the capital and beyond.

One of the activities the journalists were able to participate in during the field trip was trading fish for goods at the Nohang barter-system market, where Pere fishermen Kumalau, Katiwai Pakop and Pokas displayed their catch. Francis Gabriel

Wallace Kiala of The National newspaper wrote in the closing of his Sunday column on the experience: "The most important lesson we learn[ed] from our friends on Pere is that the responsibility to maintain the delicate balance between man and nature must be taken seriously by all citizens."

Back to SeaWeb in Action >>