Vanuatu Cultural Centre

Project Objectives
The objectives of the TMT Project include the documentation and promotion of traditional marine tenure management practices found in Vanuatu. Marine tenure management practices include the various methods employed to harvest and manage marine resources and their associated custom stories. A secondary objective is to provide practical information in the form of biological knowledge on the management of marine resources to communities by way of cooperative management.

Project Activities
Numerous interested communities of south, central and northern Vanuatu are visited where traditional fishing and management practices including ethnobotanical knowledge may be documented through photography, video and related knowledge and custom stories recorded on audiotape. Older members of communities often pool their knowledge on practices that are no longer used but are in living memory. This process often re-stimulates the community’s interest in these customs while providing an opportunity to re-assess the value of these practices. If communities express an interest, informal workshops are held to disseminate relevant biological information to enhance the management of their marine resources.

Examples of the type of information requested include methods of reproduction and other life cycle information, recruitment and growth rates of various commercially exploited marine resources like Trochus, Green Snail, Coconut Crab and Lobster as well as the ecological importance of Sea Cucumber (Beche de Mer) and Mangroves. Information such as this can then be used by communities to enhance the management of their resources by optimizing their management closures (taboos) and other traditional strategies within the framework of TMT.

Outcomes/Benefits
From this process a permanent record of traditional fishing, management practices, ethnobotanical information and associated custom stories in the form of video, audio and still photographs along with associated written documentation of these practices will be available at the Cultural Centre. Future generations can then access this information if they are interested in re-learning this knowledge or reviving aspects of these practices in the future. Also, it is hoped that a better understanding of how TMT works to sustainably manage marine resources for the community’s benefit will emerge. This information may then be used to advocate for ongoing national recognition and enabling legislation to continue to support these practices. Popular educational material in the form of posters and videos will be prepared by the Project and made available to communities. This awareness material may then be used by communities to further advocate and support the traditional management of marine resources and in educating today’s youth about the value of these practices. Communities will also have the option to draw upon cooperative management strategies by integrating the relevant biological knowledge, at their discretion, into their community-based management regime.