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In 1993 a study of coastal villages in Vanuatu revealed that within the previous three years there had been a rapid increase in marine resource management (MRM) activities. The initial impetus for these events was the Vanuatu Fisheries Department's promotion of a voluntary, village-based trochus management programme. Initially the programme involved only a few fishing villages out of a total of several hundred. The Department surveyed their community trochus stocks, advised the people that regular several-year closures of their trochus fishery, followed by brief openings, would generate far more profit than the usual practice of harvesting continually. They left it to the villagers to decide whether or not to act on this advice.

Knowledge of the fishermen of Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati concerning some key food fish in their waters is described and shown to be highly relevant to the management of these fish. The bonefish, Albula glossodonta, has been the most important shallow- water finfish in Tarawa catches. However, all but one of its known spawning runs has been eliminated according to fishermen and this last remaining run is showing signs of severe depletion. Traditional marine resources management measures, some conservation-driven and others with different objectives, were diverse. But they have largely disappeared due, in part at least, to the impacts of British colonial rule. Reestablishing some form of local marine tenure seems essential to sound marine resource management, although the difficulties that would be encountered in doing so are not trivial.

Twenty-five years ago, the centuries-old Pacific Island practice of community-based marine resource management (CBMRM) was in decline, the victim of various impacts of westernization. During the past two decades, however, this decline has reversed in various island countries. Today CBMRM continues to grow, refuting the claim that traditional non-Western attitudes toward nature cannot provide a sound foundation for contemporary natural resource management. Limited entry, marine protected areas, closed areas, closed seasons, and restrictions on damaging or overly efficient fishing methods are some of the methods being used. Factors contributing to the upsurge include a growing perception of scarcity, the restrengthening of traditional village-based authority, and marine tenure by means of legal recognition and government support, better conservation education, and increasingly effective assistance, and advice from regional and national governments and NGOs. Today’s CBMRM is thus a form of cooperative management, but one in which the community still makes and acts upon most of the management decisions.