Building fisheries management and resilience at the community level in Manus, Papua New Guinea: a bottom up approach to maximizing adaptive capacity

In Manus, Papua New Guinea, population growth and increasing access to modern fishing gears is placing additional pressure on its diverse fisheries: a trend observed by villagers keen for mitigation measures. The Wildlife... [ view full abstract ]

In Manus, Papua New Guinea, population growth and increasing access to modern fishing gears is placing additional pressure on its diverse fisheries: a trend observed by villagers keen for mitigation measures. The Wildlife Conservation Society recognised the need to assist communities in managing their fisheries, and is working with ten coastal villages to initiate community-level fisheries management. The adaptive capacity of villagers is being strengthened through marine ecology awareness, and the establishment of village-based Marine Management Committees to implement management initiatives. These include FADs (transferring fishing effort from reef fisheries to more resilient pelagic fisheries), rotational fishing zones, minimum size limits, and gillnet mesh-size restrictions. To assist villagers in complying with the latter, we implemented a ‘net exchange programme’ so fishers can swap small-meshed nets with less destructive larger-meshed nets. Key species catch-and-effort surveys and stock assessments provided baseline fisheries data in this poorly studied region and will continue to monitor the success of management initiatives, informing adaptive management. With the focus on key fisheries, management implementation combined modern science with customary needs, enabling the development of site-specific initiatives – approaches we hope can be used elsewhere in Melanesia.