Capacity building with North Efate community networks to sustain marine initiatives

A team of marine specialists will be visiting North Efate from 5-19 May to work with community leaders, community environmental networks, NGOs, the Vanuatu Government and relevant authorities on required capacities and activities for the sustainability of local marine resources.

This visit is organized by the RESCCUE project led by the Pacific Community (SPC) that aims to increase North Efate ecosystem and community resilience to climate change.

The planned outcome is to work with North Efate communities to assess the condition of marine resources and deliver additional useful skills, knowledge and methods to design and implement resource monitoring and planning activities in future Nguna-Pele and Tasivanua programs.

North Efate communities, like other small island and coastal communities, are subjected to the impacts of climate change and are regularly exposed to the dangers of sea-level rise, tropical cyclones and associated effects.

The Tasivanua and Nguna Pele networks have been engaged in activities aimed at monitoring and protecting their marine resources and adapting to the impacts of climate change, and support from the RESCCUE project is being incorporated to their local programs.

The visit by the marine team will build on earlier community engagement activities and fieldwork in late 2015 and early 2016 to identify key environmental issues for communities and agencies, and likely climate change adaptations.

The visiting specialists will focus on facilitating participatory processes, capacity building, assessing marine ecological systems and measuring water quality to develop a marine action plan that will ultimately inform an Integrated Coastal Management plan for North Efate.

The visit will include personnel from C2O Coasts, Climate and Oceans – Johanna Johnson, David Welch and Jane Waterhouse – and from the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) in the UK – Michelle Devlin, Brett Lyons and Andy Smith – who have decades of experience in marine science and resource management and will be collaborating with local experts and NGOs.

The RESCCUE project is funded by the French Development Agency and the French Global Environment Facility, facilitated through the Vanuatu Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and coordinated by SPC.

Media contacts:

Kylie Mullins, National Liaison, [email protected]  or 772 7356
Lauren Robinson, SPC Media Relations Team Leader, [email protected]

Useful link:

RESCCUE Project

Division

Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability (CCES)
RESCCUE