24 March 2024, Honiara Solomon Islands – A newly published study for the Central Province in the Solomon Islands highlights how healthy ecosystems are critical to the long-term resilience and prosperity of any local community, and even more so when building community resilience to climate change.
The Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) study calls for urgent actions to protect priority key ecosystems and services through ecosystem-based responses and sustaining ecosystem services.
The assessment was conducted in eight targeted communities in Central Province at the end of 2024 as part of the Pacific BioScape Programme.
The majority of people in the Province are conducting subsistence activities to sustain their livelihoods. An example of this is where a farmer produces enough food to feed their family, but not any extra to sell or trade. Cash income is typically generated through agriculture such as fruit, vegetables and nuts, copra production, fish for market sales in Honiara, harvesting of marine products, tourism and timber exports. All of these benefits come from ecosystem services from the surrounding environment.
The ESRAM report for the Central Province highlights the key ecosystems and services that Central Province communities rely on including freshwater; coastal and marine; and terrestrial ecosystems and services. It also provides analysis and mapping of the sensitivities and threats faced by these ecosystems with recommendations on what can be done to address these threats.
“This field work really helps me in advocating for conservation and how important their environment and ecosystem is, risks and threats to it and ways to restore it. It also helps to support resource management policy for the Central Province Government” said Mr. Isaac Qoloni, GIS officer and local field biologist.
The report further stated that there are significant opportunities to improve community practices and promote sustainable use of ecosystems to reduce environmental degradation and conserve and manage critical ecosystem services for future generations.
“For me, this work is a very important for our communities to know the value of their environment and ecosystem to help them properly manage them. This work is also very important for our provincial government and national government as well.” Mr. David Boseto, Co-Director, Ecological Solutions Solomon Islands.
The Pacific BioScapes Programme is a European Union funded action, managed, and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment which aims at effectively managing our coastal and marine resources and adapting to climate change through ecosystem-based responses. In Solomon Islands, the overall goal of the project is to develop integrated island and ocean management plans in Central Island Province, to support biodiversity, livelihoods, and wellbeing outcomes. This component implemented by SPREP and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in collaboration with the Central Provincial Government, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management, and Meteorology (MECDM), Ministry of Fisheries Community Based Resource Management (CBRM) Unit.
Please download the new report at: https://library.sprep.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/ecosystem-socio-economic-ESRAM.pdf
Lead image: Douglas Junior Pikacha