BY LORETTA B MANELE

Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology’s (MECDM) Environment and Conservation Division and Climate Change Division are working together to finalise the integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Mangrove Management Policy (MMP).

Agnetha Vave Karamui, Chief Conservation Officer with the Environment and Construction Division spoke about this to the paper at an Internal Review Workshop for the ICZM Mangrove Management Policy held for the ministry at Rock Haven yesterday.

She said they support government programs for environment conservation activities in the country and mangroves is an important ecosystem in the country.

“In the Solomon Islands, we have at least estimated to be 63,000 hectares of mangrove area.

Communities mainly depend on mangroves for food and livelihood and as means of earning money from resources taken from mangroves.”

She stressed that however managing mangroves can be difficult and a challenge for the Solomon Islands government and local communities.

“So, in this case, from the Environment and Conservation Division, we are working with the Climate Change Division, to develop a mangrove policy for the government.”

She explained that this is so that the government can be clear on how it can work with its partners to manage and look after mangroves.

Karamui said the workshop is for divisions in MECDM to come together and agree on the policy framework in terms of what it will look like, it’s mission, vision and the core objectives of it.

She mentioned that their aim is to finalize the mangroves framework by this year and with the support of the MACBLUE (Management and Conservation of Blue Carbon Ecosystems)  project implemented by GIZ, SPC and SPREP, they are conducting a series of consultations.

Karamui said because these two divisions have separate roles they have to sit down and come together and agree on the policy.

“Because the climate change division looks after climate change adaptation and mitigation issues and we, the environment division look after protection, conservation, management and restoration of mangroves.

So, we have to sit down together for agreement. So, that’s basically the purpose of the meeting today.”

Karamui stated that they have a draft that had undergone a lot of consultations last year and they have now come to a point of preparing a final draft of the policy.

She said the final draft will go through in-house consultation before stakeholders can have a look at it and finally it will then be put forward to cabinet for endorsement.

Karamui noted that this will be the first time for the government to get a policy on mangroves, a specific ecosystem policy.

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