May 27th: Changing Plans

My work here is starting to take a more defined shape so I thought I ought to give a little explanation of what I’m getting up to.

My Assignment

Prior to departure my assignment description said that I would be working firstly, in the Kia community doing waste management work on behalf of the nearby Arnavons Community Marine Conservation Area (ACMCA), and secondly, assisting with the Sasakolo Conservation Area. Since then all of that has gone out the window; I’m still working with the ACMCA but my objective now is to work with all three of their partner communities to try to bring some benefits from the conservation area to the people.

Rodeo/data collection.

The ACMCA

The conservation area is managed by a board of management made up of:

• two representatives from each of the three partner communities (Kia, Wagina and Katupika),
• one representative from each of the two provinces that boarder the area (Isabel and Choisel),
• one from each of the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry of Fisheries,
• and one from a non-governmental organisation that I shall neglect to name here.

It sounds like an ideal system but there’s a lot to be done before the board starts working effectively. In essence, it is currently run by the conservation officers from the three communities. They man the conservation centre, collect data on turtle nesting daily and patrol for poachers. The major problems at present are poaching inside the conservation area, overharvesting outside the area and lack of funds due, in part to misspending.

Conservation officers, Lesley and Philip, and my fellow volunteer,
Gary measuring and tagging a young hawksbill turtle.

Poaching

One of the major contributing factors to poaching is the lack of feedback to or from the communities regarding the activities and management of the conservation area – no matter that it is supposedly a “community managed” project. Consequently there is very little respect for the conservation area and not much more for the idea of sustainable resource use. It’s not however, simply a problem of good governance structures; if community management is to succeed there needs to be an understanding within the board of management, of the idea of deliberative leadership. This is an unfamiliar concept in a culture where leadership has traditionally been a one-way, chiefs-to-communities process.

With a bit of luck, I’ll be chatting to people in the communities and in the conservation area and trying to resolve some of these issues. It looks like I have my work cut out for me. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.