Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

Fishing is specialized, where women and children usually collect marine molluscs, particularly bivalve, gastropod and cephalopod. The fish fauna stand at 1,019 species, belonging to 82 families and 348 genera [ ] 205 Protecting the coral triangle The Solomon Islands Coral Triangle Initiative National Plan of Action (NPOA) of 2010 seeks to address poverty through fisheries management while adapting to climate change. The NPOA commits to the implementation of the initiative on the Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI- CFF) Regional Plan of Action. The in- itiative can be traced to the provisions of the three Rio Conventions, particu- larly regarding cooperation at regional level. The aim is to ensure that the country sustainably manages marine and coastal resources to ensure food security, sustainable economic devel- opment, biodiversity conservation and adaptation to emerging threats. A people-centred approach and eco- system-based resource management is promoted by the country’s flagship Community-Based Resource Man- agement model. Viewed as a vehicle for stimulating other national policy priorities, enabling maintenance of marine resources for food security and people’s livelihoods, the policy selected Malaita, Western, Central and Guadal- canal as locations for implementation. The Solomon Islands aimed to have 50 per cent of its coastal, watershed and inshore area under improved management through CBRM and ICM approaches by 2015. The action plan to achieve this was developed to meet the Millennium Development Goals, including those addressing climate change adaptation and mit- igation and eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. It also sought to address the Aichi Biodiversity Tar- gets 10 and 11 and the cross-cutting National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) targets. These strategies provided the base- line for the strategic goal of enhancing the implementation of NBSAP through participatory planning, knowledge management, capacity-building and decentralizing of NBSAP to subnation- al and community levels. Other projects have further imple- mented the objectives, including Ma- rine and Coastal Biodiversity Man- agement in Pacific Island Countries (2013–2018), Pacific Integrated Water Resources Management Project, Mekem Strong Fisheries, Strength- ening Coastal and Marine Resources Management in the Coral Triangle of the Pacific and others. In addition, the CTI-CFF has now established a Secretariat in Indonesia. Projects resulting from the coun- try’s commitment to biodiversity have already had far-reaching posi- tive effects. For example, the influ- ence of the Gerusu protected area network, which emerged from the NPOA’s first phase of implementa- tion, helped to strengthen the provin- cial government. This in turn enabled the Central province to become one of the first to receive United Nations Development Programme funds. Small-scale fisheries, Solomon Islands Solomon Islands T he terrestrial biomes of the Solomon Islands comprise tropical rain forest, mountain, inland water, volcanic islands, hot springs and mud pools. The coastal biodiversity includes coral reefs, mangroves, intertidal zones, estuaries, seagrass, algae, littoral vegetation and estuaries. In the marine biomes, tuna supports commercial development and coastal artisanal fisheries. Whales, dolphins, sharks and turtles provide multiple uses to the islanders. Likewise, agrobiodiversity supports subsistence livelihoods and contributes significantly to local and foreign revenues. Wade Fairley on flickr