A coalition of advocates and experts came together on day one of the UN Ocean Conference in support for aquatic foods and thriving fishing communities.

Lavenia Naivalu, the Nacula District Representative from Yasawa Islands in Fiji representing LMMA Network International was part of this coalition and spoke at two event calling for accountable and transparent fisheries management plans and policies that include indigenous and local communities and women fishers.

Communities have been and are responsible for their fisheries management plans, and so how fisheries are managed needs accountability and transparency, said Ms Naivalu, the first woman District Representative in Fiji.

 

Number of fishing licences given?

Are they compliant with the management plans and legislation?

How much revenue are they earning and can some of this be reinvested back into management?

Lavenia Naivalu, the Nacula District Representative from Yasawa Islands in Fiji speaking at the UN Ocean Conference.

These questions that Ms Naivalu posed seek to bring attention to a critical issue in fisheries management, and that is the accountability and transparency of fisheries management plans and policies.

If the future of food is blue, government, fishers and communities themselves need to work together. The monitoring of fisheries health and productivity also needs to gender inclusive and information should be published to the minimum standards of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative.

Ms Naivalu also called for better participatory processes to ensure small-scale fisheries communities are made aware of outside-funded and supported projects and commitments, including foreign aid projects and financing.

For more information about the Call to Action for governments to better engage and support small-scale fishers read more here.

Lavenia Naivalu representing the Pacific (LMMA) with other coalition members from Africa (CAOPA, CANCO), South (CONAPACH) and central America (RAMPR), Europe (LIFE, Aktea).

The participation of Mrs Lavenia Naivalu to the UN Ocean Conference has been made possible thanks to the financial support of the Packard Foundation through the ICCA Consortium and the PEUMP Programme.

The PEUMP programme is a EUR 45M Pacific regional initiative funded by the European Union (EU) and the Government of Sweden, working in partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC), Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Programme (SPREP), Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) and the University of the South Pacific (USP) to implement activities across six key result areas in 15 Pacific countries.