In the face of declining coastal resources, the Singaut Blo Solwara campaign is launched today in the New Ireland Province to marry traditional and modern ways of managing the sea to improve food security and livelihoods.
Coastal resources in Papua New Guinea, as for the other islands in the Pacific, have been declining due to overfishing, climate change impacts and habitat degradation.
Yet, coastal fisheries are critical for food security, livelihoods and cultural wellbeing.
“Our communities continue to face increased challenges meeting their needs from the sea, but somehow the message to better manage our resources is lost due to overly technical information, the daily demand for food and income, hard to reach communities and our declining traditions,” said Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resource, Jelta Wong, in a prepared statement.
The objective of this awareness campaign is to promote sustainable fishing practices and good role models among the communities.
It will be implemented all over the Province of New Ireland for the next two years and will consist of three parts: through the media; targeted places and events such as markets or cultural days; and through direct engagement with grassroots champions.
“Singaut Blo Solwara, an innovative campaign, is part of a national effort to use culturally-appropriate information tools and channels in inspire and empower all of our communities to take ownership of managing their resources,” Wong added.
“Our objective is nothing short of creating a national grassroots movement to revive our seas.”
In partnership with New Ireland NBC, the campaign recently launched a monthly radio program, and is in rolling out radio dramas and a radio documentary series in the future.
The campaign is coordinated by cChange International, an organisation that specialises in behavioural change campaigns in the Pacific Islands.
Working in partnership with the National Fisheries College and Wildlife Conservation Society and community-based organisations, cChange and partners are now developing simple, illustrated outreach tools and videos to help any community champions facilitate discussions in their communities.
These tools will be distributed through a network of partners, at all levels, with a focus on building the capacity of community champions to lead the way.
The campaign is supported through the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership (PEUMP) Programme, which is funded by the European Union and the Government of Sweden.
The Locally-Managed Marine Area (LMMA) Network International and the Pacific Community (SPC) are technical advisors to the campaign.
Similar campaigns are being launched and supported by PEUMP across the Pacific region to find innovative and low-cost ways to engage all communities effectively, which can be supported long-term by even limited government budgets.
The campaign will run for about two years before ideally being share nationally.
“The first step is capturing the pride and imagination of our people. This campaign is our story, bringing us together in our PNG ways and solving problems as communities, as we have for thousands of years,” said Dudley Abhab, the cChange campaign coordinator, who recently wrote and produced the campaign theme-song ‘Bungium Yumi’ (Unites Us). The song should hit the radio waves soon after the launch.