Matrilineal and patrilineal descent systems create different gender relations surrounding the use, ownership, and decision-making about land and sea resources. Given the need for scaling community-based resource management (CBRM) across the Pacific, it is essential to consider how CBRM should be implemented in matrilineal and patrilineal contexts, such as found in Solomon Islands. This study used interviews and focus groups to investigate use and management of land and sea areas by communities with matrilineal descent systems. Themes explored include benefits and risks to matrilineal practices, and preferred approaches of community members for outsiders to engage with matrilineal societies. While matrilineal practices were valued, they are also undermined, particularly regarding women's voice in natural resource management in areas with extractive industry development. Fisheries, conservation and development actors need to engage in ways that support matriliny and women's voice, and a set of approaches is presented to guide such work in future.

We present an initial exploration of why and how participation in a case of community-based resource management (CBRM) in a Pacific context could be considered a deviation from gender norms. Using analysis of in-depth interviews with community members in a village in Malaita Province, Solomon Islands, our data suggest four causal factors appear to have contributed to higher participation of women in CBRM compared to surrounding villages in the province: (1) higher than usual participation of women in fishing, (2) inclusive leadership and intrinsic values towards equality by male leaders, (3) experience of women in other non-fisheries leadership roles, and (4) supportive attitudes by the community towards women’s leadership. We suggest that rather than research focusing on gender of individual leaders or attitudes of individuals, as has been the norm, more attention should be given to the enabling context and specific norms around fisheries, work, community governance, and resource management to understand barriers and opportunities for increased inclusion in coastal fisheries management.

Understanding what diversity of small-scale fisheries translates to in practice, and what this means for management regimes seeking sustainability, continues to be a challenging undertaking. This is particularly so in the tropical Pacific Islands region, where small-scale coastal fisheries play a significant role in domestic food and livelihood systems. A renewed regional policy focus on supporting coastal fisheries, combined with momentum built from a decades-long 'Pacific renaissance' in community-based fisheries management approaches, has increased resourcing and support for coastal fishery data collection and knowledge production. In this context, there is growing demand to explicitly characterise diversity and complexity of community-based coastal fisheries to inform how national co-management programs can adequately support the many communities within national constituencies. This study presents findings from a community-based coastal fisheries monitoring programme implemented in ten communities across Kiribati and Vanuatu between 2019 and 2021. Findings illustrate the intra- and inter-country diversity of contextual drivers, fishing practices, and fisher participation. We discuss the implications of this enhanced understanding of community-based fisheries for applied co-management practice in these two countries. In doing so, we add to a growing knowledge base about fishing practices in Pacific Island coastal communities and elucidate avenues through which to incorporate this knowledge into adaptive co-management practice.

Research is a key tool that can contribute to the transformation of governance systems and help uncover solutions to our planetary crises. In recognition of the need for research itself to be transformed, researchers and research institutions are increasingly being challenged to move away from unidirectional approaches to partnership building, to decolonise science, and to be aware of individual and institutional positionality and established power relations. Yet the ways and means of doing so are poorly articulated and often extremely challenging. This paper seeks to explore the practical realities of engaging with a reflexive approach to research, through three distinct case studies which examine the critical role that cross-cultural interactions can play in triggering social learning and transformative change. Across all three case studies, we found that engaging across diverse, cross-cultural and knowledge interfaces has profoundly influenced the projects and partnerships in which we are involved, by shifting perceptions, challenging established norms and triggering reorientation and redirection in institutional rules and behaviours. Yet we also highlight the many challenges and mistakes we made along the way. As such, we offer suggestions on how the reflexivity might be better supported and nurtured within institutional research structures.

Signatory states of the Convention on Biological Diversity must 'protect and encourage the customary use of biological resources in accordance with traditional cultural practices that are compatible with conservation or sustainable use requirements'. Thus the management of traditional hunting of wildlife must balance the sustainability of target species with the benefits of hunting to traditional communities. Conservation policies usually define the values associated with wild meats in terms of income and nutrition, neglecting a wide range of social and cultural values that are important to traditional hunting communities. We elicited the community-defined benefits and costs associated with the traditional hunting of dugongs Dugong dugon and green turtles Chelonia mydas from communities on two islands in Torres Strait, Australia. We then used cognitive mapping and multidimensional scaling to identify separable groups of benefits (cultural services, provisioning services, and individual benefits) and demonstrate that traditional owners consider the cultural services associated with traditional hunting to be significantly more important than the provisioning services. Understanding these cultural values can inform management actions in accordance with the Convention on Biological Diversity. If communities are unable to hunt, important cultural benefits are foregone. Based on our results, we question the appropriateness of conservation actions focused on prohibiting hunting and providing monetary compensation for the loss of provisioning services only.

Objective: To meet some of the UN's seventeen Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, there is a need for more effective policy to reduce food insecurity in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC). Measuring progress towards these goals requires reliable indicators of food security in these countries. Routinely conducted household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES) provide potentially valuable and nationally representative data sets for this purpose. The present study aimed to assess methods used to determine national food security status using proxy measures from HCES data in LMIC globally. Design: A scoping literature review was conducted using electronic databases. Of the 929 abstracts identified, a total of twenty articles were reviewed against strict inclusion and exclusion criteria and included for further analysis. Results: Fourteen LMIC globally were represented in the twenty articles. The simplest metric used to indicate food insecurity compared household food expenditure against a level of expenditure considered to be below the poverty line. Data on acquisition of food was commonly converted to available energy for the household using local food composition tables and expressed as a proportion of household total energy requirements. Dietary diversity was also assessed in some studies as well as experience of food insecurity. Conclusions: The review demonstrated that routinely collected HCES data sets provide a useful resource for the measurement of household food security in often resource-limited LMIC. Standardisation of methods used to assess food security is needed to allow for more useful comparisons between countries, as well as to assess temporal trends.

AbstractSignatory states of the Convention on Biological Diversity must ‘protect and encourage the customary use of biological resources in accordance with traditional cultural practices that are compatible with conservation or sustainable use requirements’. Thus the management of traditional hunting of wildlife must balance the sustainability of target species with the benefits of hunting to traditional communities. Conservation policies usually define the values associated with wild meats in terms of income and nutrition, neglecting a wide range of social and cultural values that are important to traditional hunting communities. We elicited the community-defined benefits and costs associated with the traditional hunting of dugongsDugong dugonand green turtlesChelonia mydasfrom communities on two islands in Torres Strait, Australia. We then used cognitive mapping and multidimensional scaling to identify separable groups of benefits (cultural services, provisioning services, and individual benefits) and demonstrate that traditional owners consider the cultural services associated with traditional hunting to be significantly more important than the provisioning services. Understanding these cultural values can inform management actions in accordance with the Convention on Biological Diversity. If communities are unable to hunt, important cultural benefits are foregone. Based on our results, we question the appropriateness of conservation actions focused on prohibiting hunting and providing monetary compensation for the loss of provisioning services only.

Fish are a significant food source for Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs), but current projections indicate future supply shortfalls and distribution gaps in some PICTs. Regional and national food security strategies are accordingly seeking practical activities to improve food security benefits from fisheries. Expanding the use of artisanal Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) is a popular method of meeting these objectives. However, FAD-associated food security benefits are not being fully realized in some PICTs because of key policy and management barriers. We identify and then discuss some of these barriers in the context of Kiribati, a small island developing State in the Pacific that is heavily dependent on fish for food and livelihood benefits. We find that in the rush to deliver visible short-term results, project resources are often unevenly allocated to deployment activities rather than across the breadth of policy and management activities required to realistically achieve food security objectives. We propose that more precautionary, cooperative, context-specific, and integrated regional and domestic policy responses to artisanal FAD use are needed if Kiribati’s food fish security goals are to be better realized in practice.

Environmental issues are often highly politicized. Indigenous peoples may be reluctant to participate in research due to a history of colonization and negative experiences with researchersdescribed as a chronic conflict. We present a case where an acute conflict (an event that creates intense mistrust among stakeholders) occurred during a research project. The project studied a contentious issue: the sharing of dugong and turtle meat by Indigenous Australians. The chronic conflict of colonial history and Western research was exacerbated by media coverage of related issues when the project was starting, making participants unwilling to participate in our research. We adapted established Indigenous engagement protocols andboth literally and figurativelyset the table in response to the sociopolitical context of the research. This engagement process enabled us to establish trusting relationships with participants, and could benefit most researchers seeking to engage people, irrespective of Indigeneity or context.

The hunting and trade of bushmeat is a significant issue. The sharing of marine bushmeat between Australian Torres Strait Islanders and their mainland urban diaspora was documented from a diaspora perspective by collecting quantitative and qualitative data from communities in three mainland cities. Motivations for sharing dugong and turtle meat were almost exclusively cultural and mostly occurred when a diaspora member visited Torres Strait, when Torres Strait Islanders visited their mainland family, during Islander ceremonies, or when goods were exchanged as gifts. Each respondent consumed relatively little dugong and turtle meat (<1-2% of annual meat consumption, or <1 kg per person per annum). Sharing bushmeat strengthened social capital and reinforced cultural identity. Harnessing the social capital generated from the sharing of bushmeat to engage the urban diaspora in dugong and turtle management activities in the Torres Strait could enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of such initiatives.

BACKGROUND:Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) face a double burden of disease, with a high prevalence of household food insecurity and childhood micronutrient deficiencies, accompanied by a burgeoning increase in adult obesity, diabetes and heart disease. METHODS:A systematic literature review was undertaken to assess whether increased availability of, and access to, fish improves a) household food security and b) individual nutritional status. RESULTS:A total of 29 studies were reviewed. Fourteen studies identified fish as the primary food source for Pacific Islanders and five studies reported fish/seafood as the primary source of dietary protein. Fish consumption varied by cultural sub-region and Pacific Island countries and territories. Fish consumption and nutritional status was addressed in nine studies, reporting moderate iodine deficiency in Vanuatu where only 30% of participants consumed mostly fresh fish. Similarly, the degree to which Pacific Islanders depended on fishing for household income and livelihood varied between and within PICTs. For more economically developed countries, household income was derived increasingly from salaried work and dependency on fishing activities has been declining. CONCLUSIONS:Fishing remains a major contributor to food security in PICTs, through subsistence production and income generation. However, there is a paucity of research aimed at assessing how maintaining and/or improving fish consumption benefits the diets and health of Pacific Islanders as they contend with the ongoing nutrition transition that is characterised by an increasing demand for packaged imported foods, such as canned meats, instant noodles, cereals, rice, and sugar-sweetened beverages, with subsequent decreased consumption of locally-produced plants and animals.

[Preamble] This report is associated with Project # 11/6 funded by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre (AMMC), the primary aim of which was to generate information that could be used to support the long-term sustainability of the Torres Strait dugong fishery (already strongly underwritten by the numerous community-based management plans developed during the last 5 years and other research funded by AMMC and NERP). The project was initially conceptualised as an exploration of the sharing and consumption of dugong meat between Torres Strait Islander families. However, it became apparent at the onset of the project (see Section 2.5) that discussions regarding the sharing of dugong meat could not be separated from discussions about the sharing of turtle meat or seafood in general. Dugongs and green turtles are often hunted together and their meat is often shared along with other seafood. Thus, we could not have separated the consumption of these foods without compromising the objectives of the project. This report along with its accompanying documentation thus deals with the sharing of dugong meat, turtle meat and other seafood between Torres Strait Islanders who live in the Torres Strait (TS) and those living on the mainland. Particular attention is, however, paid to issues associated with dugong meat.

Lettre d’information sur les peches de la CPS n° 144 – Mai–aout 2014 Ce projet de gestion communautaire est finance par le Centre australien pour la recherche agricole internationale (ACIAR) et s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une initiative plus large, menee conjointement par les Iles Salomon et Vanuatu. L’equipe du projet, basee a Kiribati, travaille en partenariat avec le Centre national australien pour les ressources oceaniques et la securite (Universite de Wollongong), le WorldFish Centre et la CPS, et compte sur le soutien du ministere pour le Developpement des ressources halieutiques marines de Kiribati. En mai 2014, deux agents locaux (Tarateiti Uriam et Ben Namakin) ont ete recrutes par la CPS en tant que charges de la gestion communautaire des peches. La phase pilote de ce projet s’etendra dans un premier temps sur trois ans durant lesquels les communautes de trois iles seront impliquees. Deux de ces trois communautes, celle de Butaritari dans l’archipel nord des Iles Premieres etapes franchies dans le projet de gestion communautaire des pecheries de Kiribati

This empirical study explores financial links between indigenous and non-indigenous economic systems in a remote river catchment in Northern Australia (the Mitchell). It finds evidence of a profound and asymmetric disconnect' between these economies: an exogenous increase in indigenous incomes raises the incomes of non-indigenous people, but the reverse is not true. Evidently, those seeking to improve the incomes of indigenous people in Northern Australia cannot simply seek to (i) increase payments to indigenous people, or (ii) expand the non-indigenous sector hoping that some benefits will trickle down'. Instead, structural change is required.

SPC Fisheries Newsletter #144 May–August 2014 This CBFM project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and is a component of a larger initiative being jointly conducted in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The CBFM team in Kiribati works in partnership with Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong, WorldFish Center, and SPC, and is supported by the Ministry of Fisheries Marine Resource Development of Kiribati. In May 2014, two local staff (Tarateiti Uriam and Ben Namakin) were recruited by SPC as community-based fisheries management officers. The pilot phase of this project is initially for three years during which time the project aims to work with three island communities. Two of the communities, Community-based fisheries management project in Kiribati: First steps