Nature-based community fisheries management for climate resilience and biodiversity restoration in Guadalcanal province

The project is carried out in the Marauiapa Community, one of the island communities of Marau Sound in Guadalcanal Province.

The site is located approximately 100km east of Honiara the capital of the Solomon Islands. The community of Marauipa depends on marine resources and agriculture for livelihood, but faces severe marine resources degradation from over harversting and climate change. The estimated coverage area for the project site is 40 hectares. However, under this project the target is to recover and restore 4 hectares of coral and 2 hectares of mangrove for replanting.

This Project uses nature-based solutions (NBS) including coral reef and mangrove restoration and local fisheries managment approach to strengthen resilience. It supports the Solomon Islands CBRM (Community- Based Coastal and Marine Resources) Management Strategy 2021-2025 and lays the groundwork for future provincial scale-up. The scope of our activities also support the Solomon Islands provincial Fisheries development plan 2026-2031, that promote inclusive participation in fisheries managment and development.

Specific Objectives

• Strengthen community knowledge and awareness of climate change impacts on coastal marine ecosystems.
• Build local capacity to lead resources management, conservation efforts, coral reef and mangrove restoration iniatives.
• Develop and implement community-based rehabilitation and management plans for coral and mangrove ecosystems.
• Explore the integration of nbs to enhance climate resilience and scale up fisheries resources management in Guadalcanal.

Project objectives

• Objective 1: Raise awareness about the impacts of climate change in at least 3 communities, reaching a target of 300+ individuals, and ensuring that 80% of them demonstrate increased knowledge through post-awareness surveys.
• Objective 2: Strengthen community leadership and capacity building by conducting 3 training workshops on coastal marine biodiversity conservation and coral and mangrove ecosystem restoration, with at least 90% of participants demonstrating improved skills and knowledge.
• Objective 3: Develop a comprehensive coral reef and mangrove rehabilitation management plan with input from at least 3 communities, integrating it as a component of Nature-Base Solutions (NBS) for climate change resilience and ensuring the plan is approved by local and national stakeholders
• Objective 4: By project end, expand the Community-Base Resource Management (CBRM) program to at least 5 additional communities, incorporating climate resilience measures and ensuring these communities adopt the new strategies to mitigate climate change impacts

Social inclusion and gender equity

The project is intended to benefit the whole community regardless of their gender. However, the project outcome aims to address the climate change impact that affects the biodiversity and ecosystem services that provide benefit to the lives of children, youth and women in the community.

The project will invite and encourange participation of youth, women, and people with special needs in relevant meetings, awareness activities, workshops and training programmes.

A thorough gender analysis is consider before the implementation of the project to understand how it affect women, men, and gender-diverse individuals differently, and during the monitoring and evaluation of the project to understand whether data and information collected is meaningfull in terms of gender and responds to the different needs of women and men.
During all consultations a disaggreged data is collected to identifies vulnerable groups and enables targeted intverntions for awareness and capacity building and ensure monitors progress for no one left behind during the cause of the project.