STRENGTHENING THE MANAGEMENT OF PROTECTED AREAS

In French Polynesia, the project provided support for reviewing the Moorea Marine Area Management Plan (PGEM), a planning tool from the Land-Use Code. The PGEM regulates uses of the whole Moorea lagoon, listed under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international importance. The management plan covers 49 sq. km of reefs and lagoon. The revised PGEM proposal, comprising draft legislation, maps and objectives, was endorsed in November 2017 by the Land-Use Planning Committee and submitted to a public hearing from 25 February to 27 April 2019 by the Minister of Housing and Land-Use Planning.

In New Caledonia’s Southern Province, at the behest of the Department of the Environment the project carried out an ecological diagnosis of the 13 terrestrial and coastal protected areas of the Great South, followed up by a management costs and funding needs assessment.

In Fiji and Vanuatu, the project strengthened locally managed marine areas in collaboration with the Fisheries Departments.

In North Efate, Vanuatu, the project jointly developed tools with the communities for evaluating and efficiently managing their marine resources, including a Community Marine Monitoring Toolkit and a tabu area management guide. The existing tabu areas were also mapped and their boundaries reviewed and formally
recognised whenever necessary. 

In Fiji’s Ra and Kadavu Provinces, protected-area management training was provided, including two practical workshops in Kadavu on biological resource monitoring in locally managed marine areas. 

In Ra, the project reviewed the costs and benefits associated with setting up community protected areas in watersheds and supported community forestry-reserve management on mountain plateaux through watershed reforestation activities.