| "It would be disrespectful for someone of my age to talk to a chief." | |
| Selaina Vaitautolu,
American Samoa Community Fisheries Management Program |
|
More and more, management of coastal resources is moving away from a top-down approach where government dictates community actions to one where multiple stakeholders are included in determining management measures. Nowhere is this collaborative approach more embraced than in American Samoa, where a communal way of life is part of the traditional culture.
“American Samoa is very unique in that resources in the majority of the territory are communally owned,” says Alyssa Edwards of American Samoa's Coral Reef Advisory Group. “Land is communally held and people live under a village matai—or chief—system.”
The Community Fisheries Management Program was initiated by the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources to work through the matai system to establish village marine protected areas to help address marine resource issues.
“This approach promotes conservation management,” says Selaina Vaitautolu, the Community Fisheries Management Program manager. “This is an opportunity for us to highlight the importance of our marine resources and demonstrate the link between how what happens on the land affects the ocean—and in turn affects the availability of resources.”
It also enables the villagers to share the information they know about the “causes and remedies” to many environmental concerns, and empowers them to choose the management measures that will be put in place in their village, says Vaitautolu.
Ten villages on the main island of Tutuila are participating in the voluntary co-management program.
Vaitautolu says that environmental issues on the island are often “very village-specific—therefore the management needs to be site-specific. The problems to be addressed through the protected areas are identified by the communities that we work with.”
Issues addressed through the protected area may include pollution, destructive fishing methods, or fishing by people outside the village.
To participate in the program, which began in 2001, a village council or chief may approach the department, or the department, through the appropriate cultural hierarchy, may approach a village.
“It would be disrespectful for someone of my age to talk to a chief,” Vaitautolu explains.
Once on board, “we work with the community to get the history of the sites, the resources that may be found in the area, or may have been found in years back, and the problems that are currently occurring,” she says.
When the community’s resource concerns are known, other agencies or community groups are identified that can help implement the co-management measures.
To ensure a consistent approach, the department “drafted and finalized a set of regulations that take into consideration issues that may occur across all 10 villages,” Vaitautolu says. When creating a village’s management plan, the council and matai can choose from this “menu of regulations to determine what works best for the village.”
Vaitautolu notes that this approach to resource management is very staff and time intensive, but she expects the program to continue to grow.
“It’s worth it because of the response of the chiefs,” she says. “They are the best promoters of the program.”
For more information on American Samoa’s Community Fisheries Management Program, contact Selaina Vaitautolu at (684) 633-4456, or taahinemanua@yahoo.com.
