Nauru’s Community-Based Fisheries Journey: Building Trust, Knowledge, and Stewardship

Nauru is a country of fishermen and fisherwomen. You can see them as you drive around the coastline of this small country, which only takes twenty minutes to do. They are on the breakwater of the port casting out with their fishing rods or coming in on their boats, chatting in a friendly way to the Nauru Fisheries and Marine Resources Authority (NFMRA) officers in charge of monitoring catches.

At high tide you will see them reeling in eokoe (rainbow runners), eapwe (black trevallies) and itsibab (yellowfin tuna) at times – then returning home balancing their catch and fishing gear precariously on the back of their motorbikes. You’ll see them coming in carrying the emon and iubwiya (soldierfish and surgeonfish) fish they’ve speared strung together on a line. On the low tides they are out on the reef flats gleaning for dagiga (octopus) and emari (green snails) or are at the coral drop-off with fishing nets and cast nets, catching eweo (convict sturgeonfish) and dorangarang (goatfish) and other schooling reef fish that still sustain Nauruan diets.

Like many other island nations in the Pacific, Nauru’s coastal resources are under pressure. Fish stocks are declining, and there is growing urgency to ensure that marine ecosystems continue to feed and protect Nauru’s people into the future.

Focus on Community-based Fisheries Management

Monte Depaune, Deputy CEO of Fisheries at NFMRA and former Coastal Fisheries Manager (CFM), is engaged and interested in seeing Community Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) succeed in Nauru. “Whatever happens on land happens on the coast and the sea,” he explains. “We’re trying to involve our small island community here to be more proactive in looking after their own environment.”

Being Yeeting, the Fisheries Advisor at NFMRA explains that they are investing CBFM in Nauru because “it seems to be more appropriate. It will reflect communities’ views on wanting to be part of the management of coastal fisheries. It will increase their participation. Especially in the areas that have been designated as Marine Protected Areas. So with those areas that have been designated protected areas located all around Nauru, forming a kind of network, all the coral reefs around Nauru will benefit from. And you will have all the districts looking after portions of their reef. I think that’s an efficient way of tackling compliance and getting people to follow what’s needed to manage the coastal fisheries resources.”

A Different Path Toward Community-Based Management

CBFM in Nauru takes on a unique shape—especially given the absence of customary marine tenure. Unlike many neighbouring countries where nearshore waters are often co-managed through traditional ownership systems, Nauru’s reef and lagoon remain State-owned. The Coastal Fisheries and Aquaculture Act 2020 affirms this status; yet, importantly, opens a pathway for community participation and leadership in coastal fisheries management. Any district may petition the Minister to designate its adjacent near-shore waters as a Community Fisheries Management Area (CFMA). Ideally, once gazetted, the district can then elect a Community Fisheries Management Committee empowered to prepare—and legally enforce—a fisheries management plan for that area, drawing on established practices, traditional knowledge, and contemporary science and management advice. Yet turning CFMAs into practice remains difficult in Nauru; communities feel less invested because they don’t own the coastal waters and resources, technical support and funding to help communities in this role is sometimes limited, and the committees can change every three years, so progress often stalls.

Despite these challenges, NFMRA remains steadfast in supporting effective CBFM strategies. Monte explains, “CBFM hasn’t really taken off here as it has in many other island countries, but we’ve been mostly requesting information from the local fishers and building relationships through our Community Fisheries Team (CoFT). The idea is to develop trust between us and the community.”

Some progress has been made thus far. Being Yeeting explains, “There are some areas that have been identified through resource mapping with communities…More than half the districts have identified areas where they would like to have their marine managed areas be located.”

A Strategy for National Dialogue and Community Engagement

To build on this momentum, NFMRA is partnering with cChange under the Kiwa Regional MiCOAST Project, to create a CBFM National Information Strategy (NIS) to build understanding and engage communities in fisheries resource management.

“The NIS will help establish clear goalposts for NFMRA communication and provide a pathway by which information can be shared with communities and establish processes for dialogue and discussion,” explains Scott Radway, Director of cChange.
“It will also identify what tools, products and approaches will be most cost effective and impactful in encouraging community participation in identifying solutions for coastal fisheries management.”
Monte says, “We think it’s quite timely the way we’re putting things together. In 2020 the Coastal Fisheries Management and Aquaculture Act (CFMAA20) came into force. We’ve been working on Regulations to put some teeth in it. The difference with this type of law is that it’s not a top-down approach, it’s bottom up, so it can only be enforced or strengthened through Community Fisheries Management Plans (CFMPs). The CFMPs will provide the teeth for the communities to look after the resources that they have in their areas. It’s a way that they can apply for legal support to look after their own coastal areas.”

Monte continues: “NFMRA is hoping that through this system, that’s taken years of consultation, will encourage the community to be better stewards of their own environment in their community areas. Over time we hope that they can also build an understanding of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and we can create this dialogue…where they can ask questions and can better understand how and why they’re looking after their areas.”
“We have gaps in our knowledge base, so we’re hoping that we can network with others to really drive this home and maybe one day we can have a very sound relationship with the community and how we collaboratively manage the marine environment around us.”

“The NIS is just the start and I think we’ve always had that disconnect in getting the message to the community in a continuous fashion…telling the story so they can understand.”
The NIS workshop held in March 2025 was attended by representatives of several coastal communities as well as government and non-government organisation (NGO) stakeholders. This is encouraging as it is a sign that there is a high level of engagement and interest in making sure the fisheries are managed well and protected for future generations.

Community Involvement Is Key

According to Ebelina Tsiode, a long-time Community Fisheries Officer (CoFO) who attended the workshop, the key to success is sustained, community-centered engagement: “To me CBFM means looking after our reef and our community. This is very important to me. I’ve been engaging with communities a lot, on a weekly basis, through phones or I go out to meet them and discuss CBFM with them, especially on their Management Areas. Because we are in the phase of establishing their Management Area, the involvement of the community is very important. They need to be educated on what is happening on the reef and the importance of their resources.”

Ebelina emphasizes the power of relevant community-centered information in sparking stewardship and deepening engagement in management. “In that way they will be motivated to look after their resources and their reef more. The more they understand the deeper they will (get involved),” she says — highlighting how awareness, when rooted in local relevance, becomes the first step toward long-term care and connection.
Ebelina has been working in fisheries and with communities for a long time. She states, “I have been working on CBFM for 26 years since 1999. I started off at the first fish market here. I went on to Women in Fisheries and stayed there for maybe a year then when the SPC ProcFish team came and did their survey, that’s when I started working at the (NFMRA) Coastal Fisheries Section (CFS).”

Coral Farming: A Local Solution for a Global Challenge

One way that NFMRA are seeking to strengthen and support CBFM in Nauru is through the introduction of Nature-based Solutions that supplement community livelihoods and can help to nurture habitats. Nature-based Solutions are practical actions that protect, manage, or restore natural ecosystems—like coral reefs or mangroves—to address societal challenges such as coastal erosion, declining fish stocks, or climate impacts, while also benefiting biodiversity and communities.
Being Yeeting has been working with the NFMRA team on implementation of CBFM in Nauru and Nature-based Solutions that can help Nauru develop alternative livelihoods to fishing and ease the pressure of fishing on the coastal environment. He says, “We have chosen coral farming as one of the Nature-based Solutions for the MiCOAST project because Nauru’s coral reefs in some areas have been devastated by storm surges or very strong waves and currents. We thought it would be appropriate to have a coral farming project because of the growing issue of shore erosion. Corals play a very important role in the protection of shores and minimising the impacts of strong waves in eroding the shoreline. Having this coral farming project with the communities seemed like an effective and efficient way to try and involve communities especially as they can assist in looking after the coral nursery. Their involvement will reflect on the importance of this project and the protection of their shorelines. It’s good for us at NFMRA especially given our limited manpower. I think it will be a way to get the community involved in projects.”
“There’s a lot of coral rubble left from storms. It would be good to use this coral farming project to replant and repopulate these areas with live corals.”

Being and Jonas Star (NFMRA substantive Coastal Fisheries Manager) were recently supported by MiCOAST to attend the Coral Futures Academy workshop organized by a collaboration between Stanford University, The Nature Conservancy, and the Palau International Coral Reef Center under a CORDAP grant - in Palau to support NFMRA’s efforts towards coral restoration. Asked what they learnt, Being says, “The main takeaways from the workshop were that it is important to look at heat tolerant corals and to identify and use those in coral farming projects, especially with the ongoing threat of climate change and rising temperatures. I think that would make it more feasible. Also, the situation in Nauru is quite different. We don’t have a flat intertidal area where we can plant coral, so we must think differently about how we plant corals in the areas that are devastated. We were planning on bringing in coral specialists to identify corals, but now we are confident that we can do this ourselves. We are planning on organizing training for our local staff to undertake this experiment to identify heat tolerant corals around the island. That will be the first step with our coral restoration project.”

“NFMRA is hoping to be able to repopulate coral deficient areas with live coral to improve the general live coral cover around Nauru. With the idea that it would not only give protection for our shores, but more live coral will bring more fish. So, there is that kind of two-pronged view that we could possibly increase fish density as well in a lot of the areas that are currently coral deficient.”

Looking Ahead

About the importance of the NIS and next steps, Ebelina reiterates, “We have to be creative about what we want to put out to the community. We need to be more creative and put in new ideas.” About the attendance of the NIS workshop and the contributions made by the community stakeholders Jonas adds, “I liked the turnout. I’m glad they put their thinking caps on. It’s always good to hear from the community themselves what their needs are.”
As Monte puts it, glancing across the reef flat: “We only have one [marine environment] and as our population grows there is going to be more pressure added to that area. So we have to come up with more innovative ways to maintain the integrity of our environment so it continues to feed our people.”

By Samantha Kies-Ryan

Thank you to Monte Depaune, Being Yeeting, Seema Deo, Scott Radway, Mike Guilbeaux and Martin Romain for their guidance and input on this article.
Photographs by Samantha Kies-Ryan, April 2025.