Note from the editor

The global financial crisis has not spared SPC, so this year we will publish only a single edition of this Information Bulletin. We hope to be back to normal in 2010, but that is not yet certain. Hopefully, this will be only a temporary situation.

Related, is that Jean-Paul Gaudechoux has now left SPC. We wish him well. Although he long since handed over to Aymeric Desurmont, in the early years Jean-Paul worked hard to help launch and nurture this Information Bulletin, for which I was and remain most grateful. Maria Kalenchits and Patricia Kailola of PIMRIS (Pacific Islands Marine Resources Information System) have provided a progress report, which includes a request for project financial assistance, on the Robert E. Johannes collection of books and papers donated to the University of the South Pacific. The sub-collection of grey literature (maps, letters, field notes, unpublished manuscripts, original articles, and reports) remains unprocessed, and requires formal archiving and digitising. These have been delayed by lack of staff and funds. PIMRIS needs the help of a donor to digitise the materials. Even though the amount of financial assistance would be modest, these are not auspicious times to make any application for support. Nevertheless, if anybody has any ideas about this, please make suggestions directly to Maria Kalenchits and Patricia Kailola.

Two articles make up this 2009 edition. The first is, “Women of the coral gardens: The significance of marine gathering in Tonga”, by Thomas Malm. Although seaweeds and marine invertebrates of the lagoons and reefs remain a major source of food and raw materials for Tongans, marine gathering done by women has generally been overlooked by researchers. The knowledge and use of gathered marine organisms and their uses is vast, but could become partly forgotten in times of rapid economic and/or cultural change. As in most other places these days, Tonga’s reef and lagoon resources, together with the indigenous ecological knowledge of the marine environment, are under serious threat from population growth and globalisation.

In the second contribution, “Achieving the potential of locally managed marine areas (LMMAs) in the South Pacific”, Hugh Govan examines locally managed marine areas that build on existing community strengths in traditional knowledge, customary tenure and governance. However, success of the LMMA approach depends on broadening LMMAs to function as building blocks for the integrated management of island communities. The implications of that are examined in detail.

Kenneth Ruddle

Contents

Download the complete publication:

Traditional #25 (pdf: )