Food on the Table: Human Responses and Changing Coastal Fisheries in Solomon Islands
- Albert, Simon, Aswani, Shankar, Fisher, Paul L, Albert, Joelle
- Authors: Albert, Simon , Aswani, Shankar , Fisher, Paul L , Albert, Joelle
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421887 , vital:71893 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130800"
- Description: Globally the majority of commercial fisheries have experienced dramatic declines in stock and catch. Likewise, projections for many subsistence fisheries in the tropics indicate a dramatic decline is looming in the coming decades. In the Pacific Islands coastal fisheries provide basic subsistence needs for millions of people. A decline in fish catch would therefore have profound impacts on the health and livelihoods of these coastal communities. Given the decrease in local catch rates reported for many coastal communities in the Pacific, it is important to understand if fishers have responded to ecological change (either by expanding their fishing range and/or increasing their fishing effort), and if so, to evaluate the costs or benefits of these responses. We compare data from fish catches in 1995 and 2011 from a rural coastal community in Solomon Islands to examine the potentially changing coastal reef fishery at these time points. In particular we found changes in preferred fishing locations, fishing methodology and catch composition between these data sets. The results indicate that despite changes in catch rates (catch per unit effort) between data collected in 2011 and 16 years previously, the study community was able to increase gross catches through visiting fishing sites further away, diversifying fishing methods and targeting pelagic species through trolling. Such insight into local-scale responses to changing resources and/or fisheries development will help scientists and policy makers throughout the Pacific region in managing the region’s fisheries in the future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Albert, Simon , Aswani, Shankar , Fisher, Paul L , Albert, Joelle
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421887 , vital:71893 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130800"
- Description: Globally the majority of commercial fisheries have experienced dramatic declines in stock and catch. Likewise, projections for many subsistence fisheries in the tropics indicate a dramatic decline is looming in the coming decades. In the Pacific Islands coastal fisheries provide basic subsistence needs for millions of people. A decline in fish catch would therefore have profound impacts on the health and livelihoods of these coastal communities. Given the decrease in local catch rates reported for many coastal communities in the Pacific, it is important to understand if fishers have responded to ecological change (either by expanding their fishing range and/or increasing their fishing effort), and if so, to evaluate the costs or benefits of these responses. We compare data from fish catches in 1995 and 2011 from a rural coastal community in Solomon Islands to examine the potentially changing coastal reef fishery at these time points. In particular we found changes in preferred fishing locations, fishing methodology and catch composition between these data sets. The results indicate that despite changes in catch rates (catch per unit effort) between data collected in 2011 and 16 years previously, the study community was able to increase gross catches through visiting fishing sites further away, diversifying fishing methods and targeting pelagic species through trolling. Such insight into local-scale responses to changing resources and/or fisheries development will help scientists and policy makers throughout the Pacific region in managing the region’s fisheries in the future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Human harvesting impacts on managed areas: ecological effects of socially-compatible shellfish reserves
- Aswani, Shankar, Flores, Carola F, Broitman, Bernardo R
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Flores, Carola F , Broitman, Bernardo R
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124664 , vital:35644 , https://doi.10.1007/s11160-014-9376-4
- Description: We examined how human harvesting impacts on managed areas affect the abundance and size distribution of the edible mangrove shellfish Anadara granosa and Polymesoda spp. in the Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. We tested two hypotheses: (1) in areas permanently and temporally closed to human exploitation, abundance and size distribution of these shellfish species is significantly greater than in sites open to exploitation and (2) moderate human disturbance of shell beds, particularly of Polymesoda spp., increases their abundance. Firstly, we studied perceptions of environmental states and processes coupled to foraging and management interventions to assess sociocultural influences on harvesting practices and ascertain the types of management regime that people would consider in a context where poaching and interloping are common practices. Secondly, we compared shellfish abundance and shell size from areas that were permanently protected, temporally reserved for communal harvest, and permanently open for exploitation. Thirdly, drawing from women’s local knowledge, we measured the abundance of Polymesoda spp. in relation to mud compactness in quadrats across the three management regimes. Results showed that both species were significantly more abundant in permanent and temporally closed sites than in open sites. In the mud compactness study, however, while shell abundance was greater in moderately compacted quadrats, there was no statistical relationship between mud compactness and shell abundance within or across the three management regimes. Results suggest that even under the strong impacts of poaching, temporally closed areas have more clams than open areas and are as effective as areas that are permanently closed nominally. The results also suggest that human harvesting regimes can influence the effectiveness of local management decisions and thus are important when designing community-based conservation programs in the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Flores, Carola F , Broitman, Bernardo R
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124664 , vital:35644 , https://doi.10.1007/s11160-014-9376-4
- Description: We examined how human harvesting impacts on managed areas affect the abundance and size distribution of the edible mangrove shellfish Anadara granosa and Polymesoda spp. in the Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. We tested two hypotheses: (1) in areas permanently and temporally closed to human exploitation, abundance and size distribution of these shellfish species is significantly greater than in sites open to exploitation and (2) moderate human disturbance of shell beds, particularly of Polymesoda spp., increases their abundance. Firstly, we studied perceptions of environmental states and processes coupled to foraging and management interventions to assess sociocultural influences on harvesting practices and ascertain the types of management regime that people would consider in a context where poaching and interloping are common practices. Secondly, we compared shellfish abundance and shell size from areas that were permanently protected, temporally reserved for communal harvest, and permanently open for exploitation. Thirdly, drawing from women’s local knowledge, we measured the abundance of Polymesoda spp. in relation to mud compactness in quadrats across the three management regimes. Results showed that both species were significantly more abundant in permanent and temporally closed sites than in open sites. In the mud compactness study, however, while shell abundance was greater in moderately compacted quadrats, there was no statistical relationship between mud compactness and shell abundance within or across the three management regimes. Results suggest that even under the strong impacts of poaching, temporally closed areas have more clams than open areas and are as effective as areas that are permanently closed nominally. The results also suggest that human harvesting regimes can influence the effectiveness of local management decisions and thus are important when designing community-based conservation programs in the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Keeping food on the table: responses and changing coastal fisheries in Solomon Islands
- Albert, Simon, Aswani, Shankar, Fisher, Paul L, Albert, Joelle
- Authors: Albert, Simon , Aswani, Shankar , Fisher, Paul L , Albert, Joelle
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70593 , vital:29678 , https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130800
- Description: Globally the majority of commercial fisheries have experienced dramatic declines in stock and catch. Likewise, projections for many subsistence fisheries in the tropics indicate a dramatic decline is looming in the coming decades. In the Pacific Islands coastal fisheries provide basic subsistence needs for millions of people. A decline in fish catch would therefore have profound impacts on the health and livelihoods of these coastal communities. Given the decrease in local catch rates reported for many coastal communities in the Pacific, it is important to understand if fishers have responded to ecological change (either by expanding their fishing range and/or increasing their fishing effort), and if so, to evaluate the costs or benefits of these responses. We compare data from fish catches in 1995 and 2011 from a rural coastal community in Solomon Islands to examine the potentially changing coastal reef fishery at these time points. In particular we found changes in preferred fishing locations, fishing methodology and catch composition between these data sets. The results indicate that despite changes in catch rates (catch per unit effort) between data collected in 2011 and 16 years previously, the study community was able to increase gross catches through visiting fishing sites further away, diversifying fishing methods and targeting pelagic species through trolling. Such insight into local-scale responses to changing resources and/ or fisheries development will help scientists and policy makers throughout the Pacific region in managing the region’s fisheries in the future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Albert, Simon , Aswani, Shankar , Fisher, Paul L , Albert, Joelle
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70593 , vital:29678 , https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130800
- Description: Globally the majority of commercial fisheries have experienced dramatic declines in stock and catch. Likewise, projections for many subsistence fisheries in the tropics indicate a dramatic decline is looming in the coming decades. In the Pacific Islands coastal fisheries provide basic subsistence needs for millions of people. A decline in fish catch would therefore have profound impacts on the health and livelihoods of these coastal communities. Given the decrease in local catch rates reported for many coastal communities in the Pacific, it is important to understand if fishers have responded to ecological change (either by expanding their fishing range and/or increasing their fishing effort), and if so, to evaluate the costs or benefits of these responses. We compare data from fish catches in 1995 and 2011 from a rural coastal community in Solomon Islands to examine the potentially changing coastal reef fishery at these time points. In particular we found changes in preferred fishing locations, fishing methodology and catch composition between these data sets. The results indicate that despite changes in catch rates (catch per unit effort) between data collected in 2011 and 16 years previously, the study community was able to increase gross catches through visiting fishing sites further away, diversifying fishing methods and targeting pelagic species through trolling. Such insight into local-scale responses to changing resources and/ or fisheries development will help scientists and policy makers throughout the Pacific region in managing the region’s fisheries in the future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Planning for the future: mapping anticipated environmental and social impacts in a nascent tourism destination
- Aswani, Shankar, Diedrich, Amy, Currier, Kitty
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Diedrich, Amy , Currier, Kitty
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145415 , vital:38436 , DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2015.1020582
- Description: Tourism is a significant driver of social and ecological change in developing countries, particularly in small-island states, which are susceptible to tourism impacts due to their particular social and environmental characteristics. In this article we present a participatory mapping approach to obtaining spatially explicit local perceptions of future environmental and social change resulting from tourism development, as well as addressing the different community conflicts that may arise through the introduction of tourism in the future in a Solomon Islands community. The results show that spatial conflicts within a community over territory and associated resources are likely to occur when designing natural resource management and tourism development plans. This knowledge can help us increase the future sustainability of tourism in nascent small-islands destinations, particularly in vulnerable regions such as Roviana, which have experienced very little tourism development and will likely experience more in the near future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Diedrich, Amy , Currier, Kitty
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145415 , vital:38436 , DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2015.1020582
- Description: Tourism is a significant driver of social and ecological change in developing countries, particularly in small-island states, which are susceptible to tourism impacts due to their particular social and environmental characteristics. In this article we present a participatory mapping approach to obtaining spatially explicit local perceptions of future environmental and social change resulting from tourism development, as well as addressing the different community conflicts that may arise through the introduction of tourism in the future in a Solomon Islands community. The results show that spatial conflicts within a community over territory and associated resources are likely to occur when designing natural resource management and tourism development plans. This knowledge can help us increase the future sustainability of tourism in nascent small-islands destinations, particularly in vulnerable regions such as Roviana, which have experienced very little tourism development and will likely experience more in the near future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Scientific frontiers in the management of coral reefs
- Aswani, Shankar, Mumby, Peter J, Baker, Andrew, Christie, Patrick, McCook, Laurence J, Steneck, Robert S, Richmond, Robert H
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Mumby, Peter J , Baker, Andrew , Christie, Patrick , McCook, Laurence J , Steneck, Robert S , Richmond, Robert H
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70582 , vital:29677 , https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00050
- Description: Coral reefs are subjected globally to a variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors that often act synergistically. Today, reversing ongoing and future coral reef degradation presents significant challenges and countering this negative trend will take considerable efforts and investments. Scientific knowledge can inform and guide the requisite decision-making process and offer practical solutions to the problem of protection as the effects of climate change exacerbate. However, implementation of solutions presently lags far behind the pace required to reverse global declines, and there is a need for an urgent and significant step-up in the extent and range of strategies being implemented. In this paper, we consider scientific frontiers in natural and social science research that can help build stronger support for reef management and improve the efficacy of interventions. We cover various areas including: (1) enhancing the case for reef conservation and management, (2) dealing with local stressors on reefs, (3) addressing global climate change impacts, (4) and reviewing various approaches to the governance of coral reefs. In sum, we consider scientific frontiers in natural and social science that will require further attention in coming years as managers work toward building stronger support for reef management and improve the efficacy of local interventions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Mumby, Peter J , Baker, Andrew , Christie, Patrick , McCook, Laurence J , Steneck, Robert S , Richmond, Robert H
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70582 , vital:29677 , https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00050
- Description: Coral reefs are subjected globally to a variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors that often act synergistically. Today, reversing ongoing and future coral reef degradation presents significant challenges and countering this negative trend will take considerable efforts and investments. Scientific knowledge can inform and guide the requisite decision-making process and offer practical solutions to the problem of protection as the effects of climate change exacerbate. However, implementation of solutions presently lags far behind the pace required to reverse global declines, and there is a need for an urgent and significant step-up in the extent and range of strategies being implemented. In this paper, we consider scientific frontiers in natural and social science research that can help build stronger support for reef management and improve the efficacy of interventions. We cover various areas including: (1) enhancing the case for reef conservation and management, (2) dealing with local stressors on reefs, (3) addressing global climate change impacts, (4) and reviewing various approaches to the governance of coral reefs. In sum, we consider scientific frontiers in natural and social science that will require further attention in coming years as managers work toward building stronger support for reef management and improve the efficacy of local interventions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Incorporating surrogate species and seascape connectivity to improve marine conservation outcomes
- Olds, Andrew D, Connolly, Rod M, Pitt, Kylie A, Maxwell, Paul S, Aswani, Shankar, Albert, Simon
- Authors: Olds, Andrew D , Connolly, Rod M , Pitt, Kylie A , Maxwell, Paul S , Aswani, Shankar , Albert, Simon
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124722 , vital:35655 , https://doi.10.1111/cobi.12242
- Description: Conservation focuses on maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, but gaps in our knowledge of species biology and ecological processes often impede progress. For this reason, focal species and habitats are used as surrogates for multispecies conservation, but species-based approaches are not widely adopted in marine ecosystems. Reserves in the Solomon Islands were designed on the basis of local ecological knowledge to conserve bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) and to protect food security and ecosystem functioning. Bumphead parrotfish are an iconic threatened species and may be a useful surrogate for multispecies conservation. They move across tropical seascapes throughout their life history, in a pattern of habitat use that is shared with many other species. We examined their value as a conservation surrogate and assessed the importance of seascape connectivity (i.e., the physical connectedness of patches in the seascape) among reefs, mangroves, and seagrass to marine reserve performance. Reserves were designed for bumphead parrotfish, but also enhanced the abundance of other species. Integration of local ecological knowledge and seascape connectivity enhanced the abundance of 17 other harvested fish species in local reserves. This result has important implications for ecosystem functioning and local villagers because many of these species perform important ecological processes and provide the foundation for extensive subsistence fisheries. Our findings suggest greater success in maintaining and restoring marine ecosystems may be achieved when they are managed to conserve surrogate species and preserve functional seascape connections.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Olds, Andrew D , Connolly, Rod M , Pitt, Kylie A , Maxwell, Paul S , Aswani, Shankar , Albert, Simon
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124722 , vital:35655 , https://doi.10.1111/cobi.12242
- Description: Conservation focuses on maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, but gaps in our knowledge of species biology and ecological processes often impede progress. For this reason, focal species and habitats are used as surrogates for multispecies conservation, but species-based approaches are not widely adopted in marine ecosystems. Reserves in the Solomon Islands were designed on the basis of local ecological knowledge to conserve bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) and to protect food security and ecosystem functioning. Bumphead parrotfish are an iconic threatened species and may be a useful surrogate for multispecies conservation. They move across tropical seascapes throughout their life history, in a pattern of habitat use that is shared with many other species. We examined their value as a conservation surrogate and assessed the importance of seascape connectivity (i.e., the physical connectedness of patches in the seascape) among reefs, mangroves, and seagrass to marine reserve performance. Reserves were designed for bumphead parrotfish, but also enhanced the abundance of other species. Integration of local ecological knowledge and seascape connectivity enhanced the abundance of 17 other harvested fish species in local reserves. This result has important implications for ecosystem functioning and local villagers because many of these species perform important ecological processes and provide the foundation for extensive subsistence fisheries. Our findings suggest greater success in maintaining and restoring marine ecosystems may be achieved when they are managed to conserve surrogate species and preserve functional seascape connections.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Indigenous People’s Detection of Rapid Ecological Change
- Lauer, Matthew, Aswani, Shankar
- Authors: Lauer, Matthew , Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124811 , vital:35699 , https://doi.10.1111/cobi.12250
- Description: When sudden catastrophic events occur, it becomes critical for coastal communities to detect and respond to environmental transformations because failure to do so may undermine overall ecosystem resilience and threaten people’s livelihoods. We therefore asked how capable of detecting rapid ecological change following massive environmental disruptions local, indigenous people are. We assessed the direction and periodicity of experimental learning of people in the Western Solomon Islands after a tsunami in 2007. We compared the results of marine science surveys with local ecological knowledge of the benthos across 3 affected villages and 3 periods before and after the tsunami. We sought to determine how people recognize biophysical changes in the environment before and after catastrophic events such as earthquakes and tsunamis and whether people have the ability to detect ecological changes over short time scales or need longer time scales to recognize changes. Indigenous people were able to detect changes in the benthos over time. Detection levels differed between marine science surveys and local ecological knowledge sources over time, but overall patterns of statistically significant detection of change were evident for various habitats. Our findings have implications for marine conservation, coastal management policies, and disaster-relief efforts because when people are able to detect ecological changes, this, in turn, affects how they exploit and manage their marine resources.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Lauer, Matthew , Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124811 , vital:35699 , https://doi.10.1111/cobi.12250
- Description: When sudden catastrophic events occur, it becomes critical for coastal communities to detect and respond to environmental transformations because failure to do so may undermine overall ecosystem resilience and threaten people’s livelihoods. We therefore asked how capable of detecting rapid ecological change following massive environmental disruptions local, indigenous people are. We assessed the direction and periodicity of experimental learning of people in the Western Solomon Islands after a tsunami in 2007. We compared the results of marine science surveys with local ecological knowledge of the benthos across 3 affected villages and 3 periods before and after the tsunami. We sought to determine how people recognize biophysical changes in the environment before and after catastrophic events such as earthquakes and tsunamis and whether people have the ability to detect ecological changes over short time scales or need longer time scales to recognize changes. Indigenous people were able to detect changes in the benthos over time. Detection levels differed between marine science surveys and local ecological knowledge sources over time, but overall patterns of statistically significant detection of change were evident for various habitats. Our findings have implications for marine conservation, coastal management policies, and disaster-relief efforts because when people are able to detect ecological changes, this, in turn, affects how they exploit and manage their marine resources.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Integrating customary practices and institutions into comanagement of small-scale fisheries:
- Kittinger, J N, Cinner, J E, Aswani, Shankar, White, A T
- Authors: Kittinger, J N , Cinner, J E , Aswani, Shankar , White, A T
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/178975 , vital:40099 , ISBN 9780520959606
- Description: This pioneering volume provides a blueprint for managing the challenges of ocean conservation using marine historical ecology—an interdisciplinary area of study that is helping society to gain a more in-depth understanding of past human-environmental interactions in coastal and marine ecosystems and of the ecological and social outcomes associated with these interactions. Developed by groundbreaking practitioners in the field, Marine Historical Ecology in Conservation highlights the innovative ways that historical ecology can be applied to improve conservation and management efforts in the oceans. The book focuses on four key challenges that confront marine conservation: (1) recovering endangered species, (2) conserving fisheries, (3) restoring ecosystems, and (4) engaging the public. Chapters emphasize real-world conservation scenarios appropriate for students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners in marine science, conservation biology, natural resource management, paleoecology, and marine and coastal archaeology. By focusing on success stories and applied solutions, this volume delivers the required up-to-date science and tools needed for restoration and protection of ocean and coastal ecosystems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Kittinger, J N , Cinner, J E , Aswani, Shankar , White, A T
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/178975 , vital:40099 , ISBN 9780520959606
- Description: This pioneering volume provides a blueprint for managing the challenges of ocean conservation using marine historical ecology—an interdisciplinary area of study that is helping society to gain a more in-depth understanding of past human-environmental interactions in coastal and marine ecosystems and of the ecological and social outcomes associated with these interactions. Developed by groundbreaking practitioners in the field, Marine Historical Ecology in Conservation highlights the innovative ways that historical ecology can be applied to improve conservation and management efforts in the oceans. The book focuses on four key challenges that confront marine conservation: (1) recovering endangered species, (2) conserving fisheries, (3) restoring ecosystems, and (4) engaging the public. Chapters emphasize real-world conservation scenarios appropriate for students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners in marine science, conservation biology, natural resource management, paleoecology, and marine and coastal archaeology. By focusing on success stories and applied solutions, this volume delivers the required up-to-date science and tools needed for restoration and protection of ocean and coastal ecosystems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Investigating coral reef ethnobiology in the western Solomon Islands for enhancing livelihood resilience:
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145425 , vital:38437 , DOI: 10.15286/jps.123.3.237-276
- Description: Coral reefs are of great socio-economic and cultural importance for many coastal communities across the tropics, yet little is known about people's local classifications and their social and ecological relationships with these habitats. In the case of island peoples, coral reefs are more than just resource exploitation areas; they are also géomorphologie features that allow or bar people from navigating, markers that define property rights of the seascape in relation to other coastal and terrestrial habitats, and cultural and historical features that embody tribal identity and ideology. Building upon over two decades of research, this paper uses published and unpublished data to describe people's ecological and socio-economic relationships with coral reefs in two extensive lagoon ecosystems in the Western Solomon Islands.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145425 , vital:38437 , DOI: 10.15286/jps.123.3.237-276
- Description: Coral reefs are of great socio-economic and cultural importance for many coastal communities across the tropics, yet little is known about people's local classifications and their social and ecological relationships with these habitats. In the case of island peoples, coral reefs are more than just resource exploitation areas; they are also géomorphologie features that allow or bar people from navigating, markers that define property rights of the seascape in relation to other coastal and terrestrial habitats, and cultural and historical features that embody tribal identity and ideology. Building upon over two decades of research, this paper uses published and unpublished data to describe people's ecological and socio-economic relationships with coral reefs in two extensive lagoon ecosystems in the Western Solomon Islands.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Design of Realistic Hybrid Marine Resource Management Programs in Oceania
- Aswani, Shankar, Ruddle, Kenneth
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Ruddle, Kenneth
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422721 , vital:71972 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.2984/67.3.11"
- Description: This review article synthesizes the authors' several decades of multidisciplinary natural and social science and applied marine resource management experience in the Asia-Pacific region to examine the strengthening of coastal and marine resource management and conservation using alliances between local communities and external institutions. The objective is to assist the design of resource management and conservation programs that enhance the capacity of coastal communities in Oceania to confront both diminishing marine resources and the effects of climate change by providing guidelines for protecting marine biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystem functions. This article describes a management framework that hybridizes local beliefs and institutions expressed in customary management (CM) with such modern management concepts as marine protected areas (MPAs) and ecosystem-based management (EBM). Hybrid management accommodates the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts of Oceanic communities and, compared with recent or conventional management approaches, can therefore better address fundamental local concerns such as coastal degradation, climate change, sea level rise, weak governance, corruption, limited resources and staff to manage and monitor marine resources, and increasing poverty. Research on the hybridization of management systems demonstrates opportunities to establish context-appropriate EBM and/or other managerial arrangements that include terrestrial and adjacent coastal-marine ecosystems. Formal and informal CM systems are widespread in Oceania and in some parts of Southeast Asia, and if appropriate strategies are employed rapid progress toward hybrid CM-EBM could be enabled.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Ruddle, Kenneth
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422721 , vital:71972 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.2984/67.3.11"
- Description: This review article synthesizes the authors' several decades of multidisciplinary natural and social science and applied marine resource management experience in the Asia-Pacific region to examine the strengthening of coastal and marine resource management and conservation using alliances between local communities and external institutions. The objective is to assist the design of resource management and conservation programs that enhance the capacity of coastal communities in Oceania to confront both diminishing marine resources and the effects of climate change by providing guidelines for protecting marine biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystem functions. This article describes a management framework that hybridizes local beliefs and institutions expressed in customary management (CM) with such modern management concepts as marine protected areas (MPAs) and ecosystem-based management (EBM). Hybrid management accommodates the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts of Oceanic communities and, compared with recent or conventional management approaches, can therefore better address fundamental local concerns such as coastal degradation, climate change, sea level rise, weak governance, corruption, limited resources and staff to manage and monitor marine resources, and increasing poverty. Research on the hybridization of management systems demonstrates opportunities to establish context-appropriate EBM and/or other managerial arrangements that include terrestrial and adjacent coastal-marine ecosystems. Formal and informal CM systems are widespread in Oceania and in some parts of Southeast Asia, and if appropriate strategies are employed rapid progress toward hybrid CM-EBM could be enabled.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Insights from experimental economics on local cooperation in a small-scale fishery management system:
- Aswani, Shankar, Gurney, Georgina G, Mulville, Sara, Matera, Jaime, Gurven, Michael
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Gurney, Georgina G , Mulville, Sara , Matera, Jaime , Gurven, Michael
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145437 , vital:38438 , DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.08.003
- Description: Cooperation is central to collective management of small-scale fisheries management, including marine protected areas. Thus an understanding of the factors influencing stakeholders’ propensity to cooperate to achieve shared benefits is essential to accomplishing successful collective fisheries management. In this paper we study stakeholders’ cooperative behavioral disposition and elucidate the role of various socio-economic factors in influencing it in the Roviana Lagoon, Western Solomon Islands. We employed a Public Goods Game from experimental economics tailored to mimic the problem of common pool fisheries management to elucidate peoples’ cooperative behavior. Using Ostrom's framework for analyzing social-ecological systems to guide our analysis, we examined how individual-scale variables (e.g., age, education, family size, ethnicity, occupational status, personal norms), in the context of village-scale variables (e.g., village, governance institutions, group coercive action), influence cooperative behavior, as indexed by game contribution. Ostrom's framework provides an effective window for conceptually peeling back the various socio-economic and governance layers which influence cooperation within these communities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Gurney, Georgina G , Mulville, Sara , Matera, Jaime , Gurven, Michael
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145437 , vital:38438 , DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.08.003
- Description: Cooperation is central to collective management of small-scale fisheries management, including marine protected areas. Thus an understanding of the factors influencing stakeholders’ propensity to cooperate to achieve shared benefits is essential to accomplishing successful collective fisheries management. In this paper we study stakeholders’ cooperative behavioral disposition and elucidate the role of various socio-economic factors in influencing it in the Roviana Lagoon, Western Solomon Islands. We employed a Public Goods Game from experimental economics tailored to mimic the problem of common pool fisheries management to elucidate peoples’ cooperative behavior. Using Ostrom's framework for analyzing social-ecological systems to guide our analysis, we examined how individual-scale variables (e.g., age, education, family size, ethnicity, occupational status, personal norms), in the context of village-scale variables (e.g., village, governance institutions, group coercive action), influence cooperative behavior, as indexed by game contribution. Ostrom's framework provides an effective window for conceptually peeling back the various socio-economic and governance layers which influence cooperation within these communities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Design of realistic hybrid marine resource management programs in Oceania
- Aswani, Shankar, Ruddle, Kenneth
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Ruddle, Kenneth
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70615 , vital:29681 , https://doi.org/10.2984/67.3.11
- Description: This review article synthesizes the authors' several decades of multidisciplinary natural and social science and applied marine resource management experience in the Asia-Pacific region to examine the strengthening of coastal and marine resource management and conservation using alliances between local communities and external institutions. The objective is to assist the design of resource management and conservation programs that enhance the capacity of coastal communities in Oceania to confront both diminishing marine resources and the effects of climate change by providing guidelines for protecting marine biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystem functions. This article describes a management framework that hybridizes local beliefs and institutions expressed in customary management (CM) with such modern management concepts as marine protected areas (MPAs) and ecosystem-based management (EBM). Hybrid management accommodates the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts of Oceanic communities and, compared with recent or conventional management approaches, can therefore better address fundamental local concerns such as coastal degradation, climate change, sea level rise, weak governance, corruption, limited resources and staff to manage and monitor marine resources, and increasing poverty. Research on the hybridization of management systems demonstrates opportunities to establish context-appropriate EBM and/or other managerial arrangements that include terrestrial and adjacent coastal-marine ecosystems. Formal and informal CM systems are widespread in Oceania and in some parts of Southeast Asia, and if appropriate strategies are employed rapid progress toward hybrid CM-EBM could be enabled.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Ruddle, Kenneth
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70615 , vital:29681 , https://doi.org/10.2984/67.3.11
- Description: This review article synthesizes the authors' several decades of multidisciplinary natural and social science and applied marine resource management experience in the Asia-Pacific region to examine the strengthening of coastal and marine resource management and conservation using alliances between local communities and external institutions. The objective is to assist the design of resource management and conservation programs that enhance the capacity of coastal communities in Oceania to confront both diminishing marine resources and the effects of climate change by providing guidelines for protecting marine biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystem functions. This article describes a management framework that hybridizes local beliefs and institutions expressed in customary management (CM) with such modern management concepts as marine protected areas (MPAs) and ecosystem-based management (EBM). Hybrid management accommodates the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts of Oceanic communities and, compared with recent or conventional management approaches, can therefore better address fundamental local concerns such as coastal degradation, climate change, sea level rise, weak governance, corruption, limited resources and staff to manage and monitor marine resources, and increasing poverty. Research on the hybridization of management systems demonstrates opportunities to establish context-appropriate EBM and/or other managerial arrangements that include terrestrial and adjacent coastal-marine ecosystems. Formal and informal CM systems are widespread in Oceania and in some parts of Southeast Asia, and if appropriate strategies are employed rapid progress toward hybrid CM-EBM could be enabled.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Oral tradition and the creation of late prehistory in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands
- Sheppard, Peter, Walter, Richard, Aswani, Shankar
- Authors: Sheppard, Peter , Walter, Richard , Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439958 , vital:73723 , ISBN 0975047639
- Description: The use of oral tradition or oral history in archaeology is often a contentious issue. In this paper we briefly review methodological issues surrounding the use of such data and follow this with a case study using our research into the last 1,000 years of prehistory in Roviana Lagoon (New Georgia Group, Solomon Islands). We argue that it is not possible to generalize cross-culturally about the historicity of oral tradition/history. However, in the Roviana case, careful use of ethnohistory and archaeology together indicates that:(a) Roviana oral history is linear;(b) there is a close relationship between genealogical age and radiocarbon age; and (c) the modern uses of the oral tradition by Roviana provide a theory of their use in the past. We conclude that the model for the formation of the Roviana Chiefdom which emerges from the working back and forth between archaeology and ethnohistory has much more explanatory power than one based on either source of data by itself.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
- Authors: Sheppard, Peter , Walter, Richard , Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439958 , vital:73723 , ISBN 0975047639
- Description: The use of oral tradition or oral history in archaeology is often a contentious issue. In this paper we briefly review methodological issues surrounding the use of such data and follow this with a case study using our research into the last 1,000 years of prehistory in Roviana Lagoon (New Georgia Group, Solomon Islands). We argue that it is not possible to generalize cross-culturally about the historicity of oral tradition/history. However, in the Roviana case, careful use of ethnohistory and archaeology together indicates that:(a) Roviana oral history is linear;(b) there is a close relationship between genealogical age and radiocarbon age; and (c) the modern uses of the oral tradition by Roviana provide a theory of their use in the past. We conclude that the model for the formation of the Roviana Chiefdom which emerges from the working back and forth between archaeology and ethnohistory has much more explanatory power than one based on either source of data by itself.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004