Fiji was the site of the first Fish for the Future? workshop held to introduce the idea of forming the LMMA Network. Community-based marine conservation projects taking place in Fiji in the 1990s were so successful at integrating stakeholders into the management and monitoring of their resources that joining the Network helped catalyze the spread of the LMMA approach rapidly through the country. The Fiji LMMA (FLMMA) Network is the first country-level network to operate independently of the overall Network. FLMMA received the prestigious 2002 Equator Initiative Award from the United Nations Development Programme, out of more than 420 total nominations and 27 finalists (read story).

Today, FLMMA has the most project sites in the overall Network (see map below). The LMMA approach has brought back to life fading traditional management practices and has been formally adopted by the state government, which is in the process of officially transferring ownership of coastal areas and resources back to traditional land-owning clans.

The pink circles on the map below indicate areas of LMMA activity in Fiji.

Please see News and Stories from the Field for more on Fiji LMMA Network activities.

To see FLMMA's 2006 Workplan, click here.

LMMA Network activities in Indonesia are primarily taking place in two areas of Eastern Indonesia: 1) Padaido Islands, Biak, West Papua, and 2) southern Ambon Island in the Moluccas Islands (see map below; pink circles indicate areas of LMMA activity).

LMMA activities in the Padaido Islands covers 11 small islands and seven villages on the east coast of Biak. In the late 1990s, a local NGO, Yayasan Rumsram, in collaboration with BCN and later the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Yayasan KEHATI), worked intensively to promote community-based coastal zone management here. Since 2003, the Secretariat for the Program on Coastal Resources Management (SekPro PLKL), a local NGO in Biak, has continued with these activities.

The LMMA program was introduced in the Padaido Islands in March 2002. Stakeholders began using LMMA concepts and officially joined the Network in September 2002. Data collection training took place in October 2002 and actual data collection started in November of that year. Since then, local communities have carried out participatory mapping and zoning activities and set up local institutions and rules for the management of the Padaido Islands and East Biak coastal area. Currently, this community-based management scheme is being officially adopted by the local government. Due to the experiences and local expertise developed here, Padaido Islands-Biak is a potential site for a Community-Based Small Island and Coastal Zone Management ‘Learning Center’ in West Papua and the Southeast Moluccas Islands.

Programs in the Moluccas are concentrated in Rutong Village in the Ambon Bay sub-district of Baquala, Ambon City. The LMMA program in this region was jointly developed between the community, Faculty of Fishery & Marine Science of Pattimura University (UNPATTI), and Yayasan (Foundation) Paparisa early this year. In April 2004, Yayasan Paparisa and LMMA Indonesia conducted two workshops facilitated by Dr. M.K.J Norimarna (Rector of Christian University of Maluku), Dr. J.J. Wenno (Faculty of Fishery & Marine Science of UNPATTI) and Cliff Marlessy (LMMA Indonesia/KEHATI). The workshops covered project planning and introductions to Adaptive Management and the Learning Framework. The Moluccas 2004 program proposal was developed based on the outputs from these workshops.

There is interest from other areas in both regions, particularly in Tablasupa, Jayapura, Papua and also Taniwel, Seram Island, Moluccas. Communities in Tablasupa plan to establish two LMMAs and conduct baseline biological and socio-economic surveys this year.

For more information on the Indonesia LMMA Network, please see:

Stories from the Field

Indonesia LMMA 2007 Calendar

Indonesia LMMA 2005 Annual Report

Indonesia 2006 Evaluation Report

For more information on Indonesia marine conservation work, please see:

GEF Small Grants Programme - Indonesia Spotlight

Many marine conservation and management efforts throughout the Republic of Palau involve communities that are working with LMMA projects. Most of these projects integrate traditional tenure and knowledge with contemporary strategies for management and monitoring. LMMA Network activities in Palau have been focused in the capital of Koror and in Hatohobei State in the Southwest Islands.

Since 2002, the Helen Reef Resource Management Project, a provisional member, has been active in Network activities, sharing experiences at Network-wide events and locally with other practitioners and community members in Palau. Being the only active LMMA Network site in Palau, the Helen Reef Project has operated largely on its own. The Palau Conservation Society, an associate member of the Network, stays informed of Network activities and approaches. There are hopes that more Palauan communities and projects will become involved in the LMMA Network as well as other supporting networks so that sharing and learning will increase.

The circles on the map at right incicate areas of LMMA activity in Palau.

LMMA activities in Papua New Guinea are taking place primarily in Kimbe Bay and Madang Lagoon in the northern part of the country, with growing interest in Manus, Kavieng, Milne Bay and Hiri-East in the south. The circles on the map below indicate areas of LMMA activity in Papua New Guinea.

Involvement with the LMMA Network began in August 2000, when project representatives from Kimbe Bay and Madang Lagoon attended the Fish for Future? workshop in Fiji and the follow-up workshop at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Bali that year. At these meetings, project representatives expressed initial interest in joining the Network. In late 2001, site visits to PNG by members of the Network Coordination Team (NCT) renewed interest in and increased awareness of the LMMA Network.

In August 2002, Pamela Seeto was recruited as the interim Country Coordinator for the PNG country LMMA Network, and Aaron Jenkins was hired to serve as Project Liaison for the local Madang Lagoon LMMA network. There was a growing need during this time to continue dialogue with interested projects in Madang Lagoon and Kimbe Bay, and to increase awareness of the overall LMMA Network in PNG.

This was achieved through an LMMA Network introduction session at the PNG Marine Conservation Workshop in late 2002, followed by a workshop on Adaptive Management and the Learning Framework (LF) in May 2003. At the May workshop, project partners from Kimbe Bay (Mahonia na Dari and TNC) and Madang Lagoon (WWF and WIO) formally requested provisional membership, and revised the social contract to accommodate their needs. Project representatives from Manus, Kavieng, Milne Bay and Hiri-East requested associate membership, and LMMA point people at these sites were identified.

In October 2003, Rebecca Samuel was hired as the new assistant coordinator for the PNG country Network to help project teams work toward full membership and begin implementing the LF. In 2004, several cross-site visits, trainings and workshops were held to assist Madang and Kimbe project teams carry out activities to satisfy the criteria for full membership.

For more information on Papua New Guinea LMMA Network activities, please see Stories from the Field
and the following documents:

Madang LMMA Network Summary		Sinub Island WMA Plan of Management

The Philippines has a long history of Community-Based Coastal Resource Management (CBCRM) initiatives that have been carried out with varying degrees of success. The framework for CBCRM emerged from the early efforts of NGOs and academic and research institutions implementing programs either independently or in cooperation with each other. From the mid-1970s through the early 1990s, many programs in the Philippines and Southeast Asia adopted participatory approaches toward resource management, emphasizing the need to empower fishers and other stakeholders to protect and enhance their resources.

In August 2000, one of the initial meetings to introduce the idea of forming the LMMA Network was held in Iloilo, Philippines. During the two years that followed, activity toward building an LMMA Network in the Philippines was stalled. In early 2003, a survey was conducted by NCT member Manuel Mejia to see if there was still interest. After an LMMA Orientation workshop held in April 2003 in Dumaguete, and several site visits and one-on-one meetings with key People’s Organizations and NGOs, the Philippine LMMA (PLMMA) Network got off the ground. Manuel Mejia acted as interim country coordinator for PLMMA until August 2003, when the responsibility was handed over to Daisy Flores of Earth Restoration Trust.

Two partner organizations that helped revitalize the idea of an LMMA network in the Philippines were the Center for the Promotion of Indigenous Technology (SIKAT) and the Center for Empowerment and Resource Development (CERD), through their participation and pioneering project work in Candelaria and Hinatuan Bay, respectively.

In July 2003, the Network’s Learning Framework was translated into two Filipino language/dialect versions - Tagalog and Cebuano. During the network-wide meeting held in Suva, Fiji in August 2003, an initial workplan for the Philippines LMMA Network (PLMMA) was drawn up by Ruperto Apilado, Gemma Gades, Jovy Cleofe, Executive Director of CERD, Chito Dugan, Project Officer of SIKAT, Ava Sharon Batay-an of Tanggol Kalikasan, and Daisy Flores.

In November 2003, PLMMA held its first Biological Monitoring workshop in Bohol Island. Ruperto Apilado and Gemma Gades also shared their experiences in Fiji with the LMMA Network and presented the workplan that was drafted there, which was discussed and revised based on the input of Bohol workshop participants.

The circles on the map at right show areas of LMMA activity in the Philippines.

Please see Stories from the Field for more on Philippine LMMA Network activities.

Early efforts at marine conservation in Pohnpei were centered on marine protected areas (MPAs) established by state government. However, communities – who were most affected by such sanctions – were not involved in the process, so the effectiveness of these MPAs was lacking. In 1995, four villages – Enipein Pah and Enipein Powe, Soumwai and Mwoakot – joined together to write a management plan for the shared lands and waters of Woun Ko pwin Soumwai. In 2001, the coral reef surrounding the nearby small island of Nahtik was officially designated an MPA. However, it was still evident that community members themselves, in addition to the village chiefs, needed to be directly involved in order for rules to be respected.

The Conservation Society of Pohnpei (CSP), which has been a major force in creating a local MPA Network in Pohnpei, was founded in 1998 with the aim of increasing community involvement in the conservation and management of Pohnpei’s natural resources. Since 2002, CSP, together with Pohnpei State Marine Resources (PMR) and municipal governments, has been working to build the capacity of Community Conservation Officers (CCO), who serve an important role in the management and monitoring of MPAs. CCOs are individuals chosen by their village chief to work voluntarily in implementing local and state laws regarding natural resources in their communities. Training of CCOs strives to bring community members in closer touch with the management and preservation of their resources.

The LMMA Network was first introduced in Pohnpei in 2002, when LMMA Network representatives presented the Learning Framework (LF) to CSP. As the LMMA Network shared CSP's ideology of working with local communities in conserving marine resources, CSP decided to join the Network. In 2003, LMMA representatives Mike Guilbeaux from Hawaii and Pio Radidedike from Fiji visited the Enipein project site and helped the community develop a Community Action Plan. In December 2003, Nahtik became the LMMA Network's pilot site for Pohnpei. Since then, Bradley Phillip, CSP MPA Network Coordinator and LMMA project liaison, has been assisting the community with their conceptual model, monitoring plan, and skills training.

Other important players in Pohnpei's LMMA Network include the Enipein Mangrove Committee, Peace Corps Micronesia, the College of Micronesia, and local municipal governments, which better understand the particular needs of each community than state authorities and are closer to the paramount chiefs who ultimately give the final blessing of his village before a project starts. Pohnpei’s LMMA Network also works closely with the Pohnpei MPA Network, whose partners include local governments, College of Micronesia-Federated States of Micronesia, Peace Corps, Pohnpei State Marine Resources and Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Although the Pohnpei MPA Network has project activities around the country, the LMMA Network member site is represented on the map as Nahtik Marine Protected Area (indicated by the pink circle), since it is the only site at which Learning Framework data is currently being collected. The blue circles on the map signify existing MPAs declared by the state government that are engaged in some LMMA Network activities as part of the larger project.

Please see News and Stories from the Field for more on Pohnpei LMMA Network activities.

In November 2003, the first LMMA workshop was held in Honiara, Solomon Islands, coordinated by the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI) Fiji, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Papua New Guinea, and facilitated by LMMA Network representatives Hugh Govan and Rebecca Samuel. Members from various NGOs, government and the private sector attended, including Tetepare Descendants Association, WWF Solomon Islands (WWF-SI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Roviana & Vonavona Marine Resource Management Program, FSPI-SI, Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT), Environmental Concerns Action Network of the Solomon Islands (ECANSI), Dive Gizo, International Waters Programme (IWP), World Fish Center (WFC), and SI Government Fisheries Department and Department of Environment & Forest Conservation. At the workshop, participants agreed to form a Solomon Islands LMMA Network (SILMMA) and elected a coordinator and assistant to begin work in 2004.

Some partners, such as Shankar Aswani from the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, WWF-SI, Tetepari Descendants Association and TNC, had existing background monitoring information on their projects prior to joining the Network that they could use as baseline data; others were introduced to the concept of monitoring.

Initially, the SILMMA coordinator was housed in Gizo, Western Province, under WWF-SI, which provided a computer, communications access to members, and general administrative support. Now, the new SILMMA coordinator, Silverio Wale, is working on Network activities under the administrative support of the FSPI-SI Coastal Programme.

The pink circles on the map below indicate areas of LMMA activity in the Solomon Islands.