SOCPacific Multi-Stakeholder Workshop at USP in Fiji
This SOCPacific workshop was convened by Dr. Elodie Fache (IRD) and Dr. Annette Breckwoldt (ZMT) in collaboration with Dr. Amanda Ford of The University of the South Pacific (USP). It was organized by Ika Bula Consultants, whom we would like to thank warmly. The overall aim of the workshop was twofold: (1) to share the main findings of SOCPacific across diverse scales and dimensions of fisheries, fisheries management, and marine governance in Fiji; and (2) to discuss future research pathways focused on reef passages.
This discussion was related to the good news that the follow-up project “A Sea of Connections: Valuing Reef Passages in the South Pacific Region” (SOCPacific2R) got selected in late November for funding by ANR/DFG (see news item above:-)). To start preparing this second phase, we had a very stimulating brainstorming session, articulated around 4 themes/questions:
- Which reef passages are particularly significant / play an important social-ecological role in Fiji (and could therefore be interesting study sites for SOCPacific2R)?
- What management & conservation options are already (or could be) applied to reef passages in Fiji?
- How to drive sustainable approaches to research for maximum social-ecological impacts?
- How to develop a science-society-policy dialogue that truly involves and directly benefits iTaukei communities?
We are very grateful to the thirty or so participants who took an active part in these discussions, and to our colleagues who led this brainstorming session. Vinaka vakalevu!
To find out more about this workshop, click here to see the report prepared by Ika Bula Consultants (Amelia Bai, Waisiki Sevakarua, Devavrat Bishwa, Inoke Nakalevu, Mikaele Finau, Grace Vave and Shritika Prakash).
