JICA Grace-of-the-seas Project
GOS Stands for:" The project for promotion of Grace of the sea in coastal villages in the republic of vanuatu.
FUNDED By: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
PROJECT OBJECTIVE: To encourage community members to improve their capacity for coastal resource management and support them to utilize marine resources like Sea shells, Sea Cucumbers, reef fish and so on in a sustainable manner.
The project consists of resources management measures together with supporting measures based on the following four perspectives:
1. The resource & environment perspective
2. The economy & environment production perspective
3. The Social & Culture perspective
4. The Institutional & governance perspective
Major achievements of the Project in Vanuatu
1. Contributing to the recovery of green snail resource
In Shefa Province, overfishing has depleted
green snail resources since the 2000s and a ban has been in place. In the Grace
of the Sea project (Phase 1), green snails were transferred from Aneityum
Island, where green snail resource was relatively abundant in Vanuatu, and
transplanted to taboo areas such as Mangaliliu in Efate Island and Lelepa
Islands, Shefa province. A survey of green snail resources on Efate Island
during the Grace of the Sea project (Phase 3) confirmed that green snail
resources were recovering near Efate Island.
2. Strengthening resilience to natural disasters through tilapia culture
From 4th to 5th April 2020, a
Category 5 Tropical Cyclone struck Vanuatu. The cyclone, named Harold, caused
serious damage mainly in the northern part Vanuatu.
Emergency supplies arrived two weeks after TC Harold
passed. During the two weeks before emergency supplies and relief were
received, the community harvested Tilapia from the fish ponds supported by the
project sharing the harvest with themselves and with other affected
communities.
The
activities that the project was implementing contributed to strengthening the
community’s natural disaster resilience.
4. Development of an island-wide CBFM plan involving area councils and chiefs
CBFM projects tend to be
point activities for pilot sites only. Still, with the help of VFD, the project
involved the area councils and chiefs of Emae Island in Shefa Province and Aneityum
Island in Tafea Province, and contributed to developing an island-wide CBFM
plan.
5. Involving youth in resource management activities through sports event
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Even
when meetings for resource management are organized in communities, the youth
who use the resources are not interested, and it is difficult to get them to
participate. In the Grace of the Sea Project (Phase 3), we focused on sports
such as football, which most youths are interested in, followed the rules as
resource management, and tried out resource management awareness-raising
activities through sports competitions. We could get significant results
through the exercises.
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