Growing the Wealth of the Poor - World Resources Institute

central to a community’s LMMA management (Leisher et al.2007a:10). For instance, in Kadavu alone (Fiji’s third largestisland), some 52 fish wardens provide enforcement for 26LMMAs and their protected zones (LMMA 2006a:15).In many communities, poaching can undermine the levels ofcooperation and social cohesion that are needed for successfulmanagement. That is especially true when poachers are internal.Rata Aca Vitukawalu, a tribal chief in Daku village inKadavu province, observes: “The biggest obstacle we are facingright now is people are still fishing illegally in our marineprotected area. People have been stealing not only fish but alsothe buoys which have been left as marks for our MPA boundaries”(LMMA Network 2007b).In order to ensure tabu compliance, communities select avoluntary fish warden, who patrols local waters, reports illegalentries and collects evidence. Fish wardens are given specialtraining by the fisheries ministry to enable them to arrest violators(LMMA Network 2006a:15).Developing CapacityMonitoring and AnalysisWhen the first LMMAs were established, scientists from USPtaught villagers to use simple techniques of sampling andstatistical analysis in order to determine a baseline of speciesabundance in the tabu area and in adjacent, down-currentsites. The resulting baseline was then combined with results ofannual biological monitoring surveys in order to determine theimpact of the LMMA on species numbers (LMMA Network2006a:6–7).By 2006, almost 3,000 people—more than 1,000 people eachin Fiji and Indonesia, and another 800 or so in other countries,including Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Micronesia—hadreceived training in LMMA Network methodologies(LMMA Network 2007a:8). The network has also produced abiological monitoring training DVD for communities.One example of this refinement is USP’s Learning Framework(LF), which serves as a common language across the LMMANetwork. The LF contains methods to measure biological andsocioeconomic conditions at LMMA sites, allowing communitiesto help identify the factors that correlate most strongly withpoverty reduction and successful marine resource conservation.Recently, this tool has been translated into local languages,enhancing its accessibility for current and potential LMMAparticipants (LMMA Network 2006a:7, 35).The overarching goal of the training provided to LMMA communitiesis to build their capacity for “adaptive management”—theability to adjust management practices and rules over time,based on monitoring results (LMMA 2006a:6). Now that communitieshave been collecting and analyzing monitoring data forseveral years, many sites are “at the stage where we expect to seemore adaptive management happening soon,” says Professor BillAalbersberg of USP (Aalbersberg 2008).Enterprise DevelopmentSome LMMA communities are experiencing new economicopportunities, now that villagers spend less time fishing andoften have fish surpluses. In communities with good infrastructureand access to urban centers, the men have found jobs incities or towns and commute daily from the village. InNavakavu, a recently established public bus service has givenwomen access to markets in the capital city of Suva where theycan sell their surplus fish and shellfish catch at higher prices,increasing their ability to earn significant amounts of cash (VanBeukering et al. 2007:9–10).In general, training provided to communities by the LMMANetwork and its partners have focused so far on biologicalmonitoring and analysis, with the aim of empowering communitiesto manage their marine resources better. Yet only a smallsubsection of the population learns these skills, namely fishwardens, those involved in biological monitoring, and membersAs community-based management has grown, the methodologiesused for monitoring and analysis of results have alsoevolved. Over the past 2 years, the LMMA Network has devotedparticular effort to refining, clarifying, and streamlining datacollection and analysis techniques taught to LMMA communities.This has helped to scale up the effort by making it easierto roll out the LMMA approach in new areas (LMMA Network2006a:7).