Title
Socioeconomic Assessment of Villages in the Tigak and Tsoi Islands, Northern New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea
Author(s)
Sarah Lawless; Sven Frijlink
Published
2015
Abstract
Since 2014, WCS Papua New Guinea have been working with 11 communities in New Ireland province to establish fisheries management plans. The two year process has involved numerous information exchange initiatives between WCS and communities to establish the requisite information environment for management that meets ecological and socioeconomic objectives. Key to this process has been the collection of socioeconomic data and information though household and key informant interviews, of which 373 and 68 were conducted, respectively. Survey instruments were designed to address information needs according to the following four themes: 1) demographics; 2) fishing activities; 3) marine resource dependency, and; 4) factors influencing the capacity and willingness of communities to undertake and comply with fisheries management. Surveys were conducted to assemble baseline data for current and future WCS projects and to inform the development and implementation of fisheries management rules. Of the latter objective, key findings and management recommendations are as follows:
-High rates of population growth in some communities will continue to place additional pressures on marine resources, which are likely to require adaptive management or alternative income and subsistence options in order to sustain the growing population.
-Low incomes in all communities indicate that costs associated with fisheries rules, such as those requiring gear changes, will be difficult to absorb by fishers and may need to be subsidised by management partners.
-Reciprocal fishing access rights based on mutual clan identification entails additional management challenges which may be met through expanding awareness efforts more broadly and by up‐scaling management to multi‐village units.
-The concentration of finfishing effort around spawning sites and times will impose challenges for management initiatives designed to protect spawning fish. A transfer of fishing effort from vulnerable sites and times may be achieved through FAD deployment.
-The substantial involvement of women fishers underscores the need for a workable understanding of local gender dimensions as they relate to fishing and resource management and the proportional representation of women in the decision‐making process.
-All communities were highly dependent on locally caught seafood for subsistence consumption. However, for income generation, Tigak communities were more dependent on artisanal fishing than Tsoi Island villages as expressed by the proportion of seafood based primary occupations and the contribution of seafood based income to total household income.
-A lower proportion of seafood based occupations were recorded in Salipiu and Ungakum, where communities had the space and soil quality to sell and trade surplus garden produce.
-The high marine resource dependence of all surveyed communities suggests that management measures that constrain catches will make it increasingly difficult to meet basic food and cash needs, suggesting a role for livelihood diversification in maximising
socioeconomic and sustainable fisheries objectives.
-For villages with existing management arrangements, the Village Court system has been largely ineffective in addressing non‐compliance. Future management efforts will need to address this by providing technical and logistical support to enable these institutions to facilitate effective management.
Keywords
socioeconomic, assessment, Tigak, Tsoi Island, New Ireland
Full Citation
Sarah Lawless and Sven Frijlink (2015). Socioeconomic Assessment of Villages in the Tigak and Tsoi Islands, Northern New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. Kavieng, Papua New Guinea: Wildlife Conservation Society, Papua New Guinea.
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