Emil Kanas, Siviri Village, Vanuatu
Emil Kanas cannot take his eyes away from the glittering waters offshore from Siviri village in Vanuatu. It is, in fact, his duty.
"I enforce the law in the community, so people understand how to look after the environment," says Mr. Kanas, appointed by the community as their resource monitor.
"If I find someone fishing in the Marine Protected Area, I report it to the chief's council and the community decides a date for a meeting. Then he has to pay a fine to the community and the chief gives an order that he cannot enter the Marine Protected Area again".
In Vanuatu, 'tabu' areas, where fishing and harvesting of shellfish from the reef are banned, have long been part of the traditional management of community marine resources.
"Marine Protected Area is a term we use for something that has been practiced in the past. You can close part of your reef and use it as a bank, where your marine resources breed and spawn and the overflows go to other areas where you harvest these resources," explains Jason Raubani, Manager of the Management and Policy Division at the Vanuatu Department of Fisheries.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is working with the Department of Fisheries to implement an Ecosystem-based Adaptation project with communities at Siviri and Anelkhout in Vanuatu. Implementing integrated coastal zone management planning to support the local Marine Protected Areas has been identified as one of the key objectives.
"If Marine Protected Areas have good coral reefs, good mangroves, these help in reducing climate change impacts," says Mr. Raubani.
Siviri Community
The Siviri community has identified sites where nearby development construction has removed coastal mangroves resulting in some rapid erosion. The project will build the community capacity to replant coastal vegetation in impacted areas and to control access to the foreshore, to prevent further coastal damage being caused by pedestrian and vehicle movements.
The Marine Protected Area of course brings much joy to the community from the extra fish that it brings.
Kali Steele, Assistant Chief of the Siviri Community, proudly states, "It gives us a lot of fish, because we fish out of the Marine Protected Areas and on the other side. Whenever people go for fishing, they always catch fish because when we have stocks here, they move out of the Marine Protected Area".
Local fishermen like Remon Huiare are aware of this and hope that it ensures their children will benefit like they have.
Remon Huiare and his son, Sirivi Village, Vanuatu
"The Marine Protected Area is good. It makes a lot of fish come in. Before the Marine Protected Area the fish were not plenty," says Mr. Huiare.
Mr. Huiare pats his young son, Terol, on the head and concludes, "So I think by the time he grows up, fish will still be here".
The Coastal Ecosystem based Adaptation (EbA) to Climate Change project is implemented by the Vanuatu Department of Fisheries with technical assistance from SPREP and funded by the AusAID International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative (ICCAI).