Coastal Solomon islanders rely on fish and other marine creatures for their protein diet but the environment is under severe pressure, mostly from population growth and uncontrolled harvesting, which decimate the reefs located closest to the villages. Villages up in North Vella are large, up to 1000 inhabitants. Fish is used for food or sold at the nearby markets, here the big market of Gizo.
Women also harvest shells in the mangroves (called Sibele in local language). They find them by feeling them with their feet in the soft mangrove mud.
Worldfish also helps people creating and implementing new marine resources management plans so communities take control of their resources and look after them, more closely for a better sustainability. The challenge here (it is also the object of yet another DVD project) is to weave and revive traditional reef management into newer, more science- based techniques. It is not always easy because communities are often suffering from the lack of leadership.
This breakdown prevents the respect of rules such as Tambu reefs, which is a way of protecting the reef that tribes have used for thousands of years.
For example, in some villages, traditionally, a reef was closed when a man died, so it could be remembered. The chief has the right to re open the reef for special occasions such as feasts for weddings, etc..
In the region of Jorio, which encompasses 20 miles of coast on the North west of Vella LaVella island, a new management plan was started in 2008. It consists of protecting some reef and mangrove areas and rotating opening and closure of the various reefs when the resources have recovered on them. Sign posts help making other communities aware of the closure but poaching at night is still a problem so some communities have introduced a fine in SBD or shell money.
Certain missions (churches) have been more successful in maintaining community harmony than others. But in return, the church collects a lot of donations form the adepts and the money is raised by selling more fish, which in turns contribute to ripping the reefs even more!
Meanwhile, the kuna sat nice and snug in the safety of Liapari cove (see previous post)
