BY IRWIN ANGIKI
Government has announced its Coral Reef Rescue programme currently being rolled out in some parts of the country.
This programme is being led by the ministries of fisheries and marine resources (MFMR) and environment and climate change (MECDM).
It is being run in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and their stakeholders.
The Coral Reef Rescue (CRR) is funded by the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Coral Reef Rescue (CRR): Resilient Coral Reefs, Resilient Communities Project, which aims at bolstering resilience of coral reef ecosystems, ensuring their long-term survival and supporting the blue economies of Solomon Islands.
The project is implemented by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF-US), with the University of Queensland (UQ) as the Lead Executing Agency and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) as the National Technical Facilitator in Solomon Islands, a media statement by MECDM yesterday explained.
The project is a vital component of the Global Coral Reef Rescue Initiative (CRRI), a global multi-stakeholder partnership dedicated to protecting coral reefs endangered by climate change.
It focuses on capacity building to find nature-based solutions to conserve coral reef biodiversity and support the communities who rely on these ecosystems.
One of the key elements of the project is conducting workshops (tokstori) that aim to enhance community representation in national coral reef conservation strategies.
These workshops will integrate traditional knowledge and community visions while ensuring gender equality, the MECDM statement said.
So far three workshops covering three provinces have been conducted. The most recent ones were held in Oibola village in the Langalanga Lagoon, Malaita Province and Khumagha village in Isabel Province.
In both places village elders spoke highly of the initiative and thanked the government, WCS and all stakeholders involved for taking the initiative to protect the country’s fragile coral reef and marine ecosystems.
Chairman of Khumagha Marine Conservation Paul Katoragi told MECDM that since going into conservation his community has already seen a lot of changes to their marine resources.
He said the tokstori has given them insight to take their conservation efforts to the next level with the aim to declare it under the Protected Areas Act administered by MECDM
Through participatory visioning exercises, the workshop aims to empower communities, allowing women, men, and youth to share their perspectives on resilient coral reef conservation and the integration of traditional knowledge, the MECDM statement said.
This announcement by government is timely since the world’s largest standalone coral was found on the Three Sisters island group in Makira-Ulawa province last month.
The finding was made by the National Geographic Pristine project, which studied few areas in the eastern Solomons when its scientists chanced upon the finding.
Solomon Islands is known for its diverse coral reefs including fringing, barrier, patch and atoll reefs that make up the country’s marine biodiversity and is a cornerstone of its economy through fisheries and tourism.
However, these vibrant reefs face severe threats from climate change, overfishing and pollution.
