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International Waters Project

Improving management of bêche-de-mer in the Solomons

9/24/2004

The $US400 000 Solomon Islands’ International Waters Project is designed to help coastal communities improve the management of important commercial resources such as bêche-de-mer. The project is managed by the Solomon Island’s Government in partnership with the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Global Environment Facility.

Sea cucumbers that are harvested, cooked, and dried for consumption are known as bêche-de-mer. In Asia this product is highly regarded as delicacy with powerful qualities as a traditional medicine and as an aphrodisiac. The Solomon Islands is home to the most valuable species such as the white teatfish (Holothuria fuscogilva) and the sandfish (H. scabra) and the wholesale price for these species has more than doubled in recent years.

The ease of harvesting and processing means that bêche-de-mer has become one of the largest sources of cash in many coastal communities throughout the Solomon Islands. During the recent tensions bêche-de-mer provided one of the few reliable sources of income for many Solomon Islanders. However the increasing demand, coupled with new and unsustainable harvesting practices, has led to a drastic decline in the number of these higher value species.

Bêche-de-mer expert, Dr Christain Ramofiafia, who is based at the WorldFish Center’s Field Station at Nusa Tupe in the Solomon Island’s Western Province, says that with rising prices the use of unsustainable, and often dangerous, practices has also increased. “Ten years ago people were happy to free dive or simply collect the sea cucumbers at low tide. Now people are night diving with torches, using weighted “bombs” with steel barbs, and even using dredges to harvest from deeper waters.” Dr Ramofafia says the growing use of “hookah”, or diving using air compressors and long hoses, has even contributed to a growing number of deaths in the Western Province.

In 1991 the white teatfish was worth only SB$30 a kilo but it now fetches SB$220-270. In 1999, more than 50% of the total catch was white teatfish but by 2002 this species accounted for only 2% of the total catch. In fact catches and exports have fallen from 715 tonnes in 1992 to less than half this figure today.

Dr Ramofafia says that local fishers tend to harvest all species found, regardless of their value, and that heavily harvested stocks can take more than fifty years to recover. “Economically, bêche-de-mer is a very important resource for the Solomons but the Government’s ‘top-down’ approach to management simply isn’t working. The Government doesn’t presently have the capacity or resources to enforce regulations such as size limits, bag limits, gear restrictions, and seasonal closures. In fact, there aren’t any national regulations or guidelines to safeguard the fishery, except for a 1998 ban on fishing for Sandfish and this was repealed in 2000.”

Dr Ramofafia believes that the only way to protect these resources is to actively involve the fishing communities and resource owners in developing and implementing their own management strategies. "Management of these resources should be transferred to communities and they should be responsible for enforcing regulations such as bag limits, gear restriction, seasonal closures, species rotation and area restrictions. These regulations should be implemented in accordance with the local system of customary marine tenure and the national government should develop policy and regulatory frameworks that help to support this community-based management."

Kenneth Bulehite, the National Coordinator for the Solomon Islands International Waters Project, is based within the Fisheries Department in Honiara. He says the project is taking a new and innovative approach that involves working directly with “pilot communities” to try to find more effective ways to manage their bêche-de-mer resources.

“Our primary objective is to work with the villages of Chea and Mbili in Marovo Lagoon to help them find practical ways to maintain both their resources and their standard of living over the long-term. We want to find cost-effective ways to promote sustainable coastal fisheries at the community level that can also be supported and encouraged at the provincial and national level.”

Kenneth says that focusing on important marine resources such as bêche-de-mer is an effective way to focus attention on managing all their coastal resources. “We are carrying out baseline surveys to understand the current status of the bêche-de-mer resources in the area and working together with the communities to help them get a better picture of the root causes of their resource management problems. We believe that this process will help the communities to develop solutions that they can “own” and implement themselves.”

Although the communities were only selected late last year, Kenneth says their Local Project Committees are already working to set up marine protected areas and considering other regulations relating to harvesting techniques and minimum size limits.

“We obviously want to stop the most damaging harvesting practices but we also need to work with the communities to find other ways to generate cash. The divers are mostly young men between the ages of 15 and 25 and they want to know what other alternatives they will have for making money. Carving is the other main form of generating cash and we may look to develop more sustainable markets for these products, explore opportunities to promote tourism, and we may even look at options for low-tech aquaculture such as seaweed farming.”

Kenneth says the project will also develop a national resource management plan for bêche-de-mer that can be effectively implemented at the community level. “To date the Government’s main focus has been on tuna and while we have a national management plan for tuna we don’t have any similar plans for resources like bêche-de-mer that are so important for our coastal communities. Currently only 10% of fisheries staff are dedicated to managing coastal resources and, although legislation exists at national and provincial levels to protect and manage our coastal marine resources we do not have the capacity to make sure that they are applied or enforced.”

In 2005 the Kenneth says the Department of Fisheries will effectively turn the International Waters Project into the country’s first dedicated “Coastal Fisheries Management Unit” to help promote community-based management of coastal fisheries.

Kenneth says the project is also supporting two postgraduate scholarships to directly help the Fisheries Department find ways to improve community-based management of bêche-de-mer.

“Julia Manioli is a marine biologist and she is looking at how bêche-de-mer can be harvested sustainably through the traditional management systems currently used by our pilot communities. David Lidimani is a lawyer and he will be looking to see if there are practical ways we can transfer some government functions such as monitoring, enforcement, and licensing, back to communities as customary rights holders," he says.

The Solomon Islands International Waters Project is scheduled for completion in December 2006 but Kenneth is confident that project is on track to provide a model for how the Government can support the community-based management of coastal fisheries throughout the rest of the country.

“I believe the International Waters Project has provided the Solomon’s with a real opportunity to strengthen the management of our most important natural resources. Now it’s up to our Government and our communities to make sure we take this opportunity with both hands and try our best make sure it works.”

Contact Name	Steve Menzies
e-mail	sprep@sprep.org.ws
Phone	(685) 21929
Fax	(685) 20231

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