Empowering vulnerable, fisheries dependent communities through Managed-access and Reserve Program

Many fishers, and coastal or fishing communities in general, in Indonesia are particularly dependent on healthy coastal and marine ecosystems in their path to achieving sustainable, low carbon, climate resilient development. Furthermore, these fishing communities are vulnerable to exogenous shocks such as climate change. The economies and productive sectors, including the small-scale fisheries sector, are increasingly vulnerable to climate variability. The natural resources these vulnerable fishing communities depend on are therefore a key part of the solution to create greater resilience and adaptive capacity. Coral ecosystems help protect coastlines from storms and erosion; provide habitat, spawning and nursery grounds for economically important food fish species; and provide jobs and income to local economies from fishing, tourism, etc. The initiative, therefore, aims to empower vulnerable, fisheries dependent communities in SE Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, to identify and implement ecosystem based-adaptation measures to restore and sustain small-scale fisheries, conserve critical ecosystems and sustain the ecosystem services needed to enhance adaptive capacity, coastal protection, food security and livelihoods. This is done through proven behavior adoption measures, capacity building, institutional capacity development and introduction of best-available-scientific-data approaches. Rare works closely with provincial and district governments to build support and confidence of allocating Managed-Access and Reserve (MA+R) spatially to secure fishing grounds for small fishers and communities under customary law. This will demonstrate the value of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in small-scale fisheries on a sub-national level. At the national level, we support the government in developing national policy on MA+R establishment and in elevating the issue to a fishery development priority reflected in any national development plans including national climate change policies. The outcome of the initiative will be to identify and demonstrate a scalable approach that will improve natural resources and biodiversity of the target countries' coastal zones, while improving livelihoods and reducing poverty through EbA solutions and rights-based approaches. Using ecosystem approaches, social marketing and a community rights-based management toolkit, Rare will work with local partners as well as provincial and national decision makers to improve the resilience of small-scale fisheries, coastal natural resources management, protect vulnerable marine and coastal biodiversity across the country and region (impact). Through a combination of climate and fisheries science and proven behavioral adoption strategies, the project enhanced the adaptive capacities of men and women from local coastal communities as well as provincial and national authorities to sustainably govern and manage their natural resources base and strengthen and restore the role and value of coastal and marine ecosystem goods and services to improve social, economic and ecological resilience to climate change (outcome). As such, the project will focus on and prioritize ecosystems and habitats critical for both social and economic resilience (such as mangroves, coral reefs etc. as buffers to natural disasters) as well as local livelihoods and well-being (e.g. coral reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds as nesting grounds for fisheries).