Category Archives: SPC

Fiji and Solomon Islands articles feature in SPC’s Women in Fisheries Info Bulletin #27

Posted on December 24, 2016 | Leave a comment
2016-spc-wif27

Market vendor selling seagrapes (Caulerpa racemosa) in Suva. Photo: SPC WIF 27.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s 27th Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin features several in-depth reports on women in Fiji fisheries and rural communities, and a one on women in Solomon Island fisheries. In addition, several news items are carried.

The whole issue or individual articles can be found at this link.

Inside issue #27

  • Supply chain and marketing of seagrapes, Caulerpa racemosa (Forsskaål) J. Agardh (Chlorophyta: Caulerpaceae) in Fiji by Cherie Morris and Shirleen Bala
  • Changing patterns in household membership, changing economic activities and roles of men and women in Matokana Village, Onoilau, Fiji by Veikila Vuki
  • Gender issues in culture, agriculture and fisheries in Fiji by Veikila C. Vuki and Aliti Vunisea
  • The participation of women in fishing activities in Fiji by Aliti Vunisea
  • Toward gender-equitable fisheries management in Solomon Islands by Olha Krushelnytska
  • True gender champion recognised
  • Veikila Vuki: Cultivating the sharing of information on aqua women 

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Posted in Fiji, Fish post-harvest, Fisheries, Gender, Men, Natural resource management, Pacific, Pacific, Oceania, Regional, Seaweed, Solomon Islands, SPC, Value chain analysis, Veikila Vuki, Women

Gender roles in Pacific coastal fisheries

Posted on December 12, 2015 | Leave a comment
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Satellite image of Veivatuloa village, Viti Levu, Fiji, showing  its mudflats. Source: Google Earth, in SPC WIF 26, p. 18

The latest Secretariat of the Pacific Community Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin (#26), “highlights gender roles in coastal fisheries and development, and women’s fishing activities in urban and rural communities”, said its editor, Veikila Vuki.

The issue contains the following articles, and can be downloaded here:

  • Guest editorial: Gender in aquaculture and fisheries – Navigating change, by Nikita Gopal and colleagues.
  • Pacific invertebrate fisheries and gender – Key results from PROCFish, by Meryl J. Williams.
  • An ecological study of the sea hare, Dolabella auricularia, on the southeastern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji, by Sandeep Singh and Veikila Vuki.
  • Livelihoods, markets, and gender roles in Solomon Islands: Case studies from Western and Isabel Provinces, by Froukje Kruijssen and colleagues.

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Posted in Fiji, Fisheries, Gender, Gender and development, gleaning, Men, Pacific, Pacific, Oceania, Regional, SPC, Uncategorized, Veikila Vuki, Women

Broadening the perspective of fisheries management by including gender

Posted on March 4, 2015 | Leave a comment
Selling shell jewellery, Central Markets, Honiara, Solomon Islands 2014. Photo: Kate Barclay

Selling shell jewellery, Central Markets, Honiara, Solomon Islands 2014. Photo: Kate Barclay

The Secretariat for the Pacific Community’s recent regional workshop on the “Future of coastal/inshore fisheries management,”  3 to 6 March 2015 included the role of women (along with youth and culture) in fisheries management as one of the main topics. Other topics included community based resource management, livelihoods and the private sector, and the role of tuna in food security.

Presenter Assoc. Prof. Kate Barclay from the University of Technology Sydney talked about including gender in fisheries management within broader approaches to fisheries management such as the Interactive Governance for Fisheries (see Fish for Life) approach.  She argued that conventional fisheries management has a tunnel vision approach and that addressing the shortcomings of conventional fisheries management involves broadening the perspective of what is involved in resource governance to include social factors, including gender relations. This means fisheries agencies working in collaboration with other government agencies, as well as with various stakeholder groups, to cover the complex social issues affecting fisheries management.

logo_future_fisheriesBroadening the perspective to include gender relations and look at fisheries as social ecological systems means doing things differently. Two examples of changed approaches were presented. Danika Klieber’s work demonstrates that the tunnel vision of conventional fisheries management means renders invisible a significant amount of fishing activity, and shows how enumeration may be done differently to better include women’s fishing. The work by WorldFish in Solomon Islands has involved introducing gender transformative approaches, rethinking how consultation with fishing communities is conducted, and developing new methods to effectively engage with women, elicit their perspectives, and design projects that reflect women’s as well as men’s interests.

Kate Barclay’s presentation can be downloaded here.

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Posted in Fisheries, Gender, Kate Barclay, Men, Natural resource management, Pacific, Solomon Islands, SPC, Women

25th SPC Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin: Looking forward and back

Posted on November 5, 2014 | Leave a comment
Seaweed farming Waigina, Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands. Photo by M. Kronen, SPC WIF25.

Seaweed farming Waigina, Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands. Photo by M. Kronen, SPC WIF25.

The Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC), has just released its 25th Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin. Congratulations to the SPC, Bulletin Editors including current editor Dr Veikila Vuki, donors and supporters for this achievement. This issue starts with a message of support from Moses Amos, the new Director of SPC’s Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems (FAME) Division, who outlines his vision for women in fisheries at the SPC.

The whole issue or individual articles can be downloaded here.

CONTENTS

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Posted in Aquaculture, Australia, Canada, Cook Islands, Fiji, Fish post-harvest, Fisheries, France, Gender, Gender and development, Gender in the workplace, Gender research resources, Gender training, Marshall Islands, Men, New Zealand, Pacific, Oceania, Regional, Sea cucumber or beche de mer, Solomon Islands, SPC, Vanuatu, Veikila Vuki, Women

SPC WIF Info Bulletin: coastal fisheries, women’s fishing, climate change and gender in development

Posted on December 12, 2013 | Leave a comment
Photo: SPC-WIF 23

Photo: SPC-WIF 23

We welcome the latest edition of the Secretariat for the Pacific Community’s (SPC) 23rd Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin.  The Editor, Veikila Vuki highlights that the contributions covers gender roles in coastal fisheries, women’s fishing activities in communities, climate change and gender issues in development. Read the latest issue online!

CONTENTS
  • Gender and change in the spotlight: Researchers must engage with grassroots groups. Williams M.J. (pdf: 153 KB)
  • Moving the gender agenda forward in fisheries and aquaculture. Williams M.J., Porter M., Choo P.S., Kusakabe K., Vuki V., Gopal N., Bondad-Reantaso M.(pdf: 117 KB)
  • Gender assessment of the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change Project . Whitfield S. (pdf: 567 KB)
  • How men and women use their time in Tuvalu: A time use study. Bernard K. (pdf: 817 KB)
  • Gender roles in the seaweed industry cluster of the southern Philippines: The DICCEP experience. Bacaltos D.G., Revilla N.N., Castañaga R., Laguting M., Anguay G., Ang D., Caballero G., Omboy A., Efondo K.M., Flamiano-Garde G.(pdf: 107 KB)
  • Gender roles in the mangrove reforestation programmes in Barangay Talokgangan, Banate, Iloilo, Philippines: A case study where women have sustained the efforts. Bagsit F.U., Jimenez C.N. (pdf: 87 KB)
  • Strengthening livelihoods: A Vietnamese fisheries programme helps improve women’s roles and participation in fisheries decision-making. Lentisco A., Phuong Tao H.T. (pdf: 88 KB)
  • Net gains — YouTube is a sea of resources for documentaries on women in fisheries. Rajagopalan R. (pdf: 112 KB)
  • Chronicles of oblivion — A documentary film on female fishworkers from Odisha, India. Anon. (pdf: 128 KB)
  • Two leaflets promote careers for women and men in fisheries. Anon. (pdf: 87 KB)

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Posted in Aquaculture, Asia, Conservation, Events, awards, grants, employment, Fish post-harvest, Fisheries, GAF3, GAF4, Gender, Global, ICSF, India, Odisha, Pacific, Oceania, Philippines, Regional, SPC, Tuvalu, Vietnam, Women

Latest SPC Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin now out!

Posted on July 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Photo: SPC WIF Bull. 22

The Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin is always welcome. The WIF Bulletin started in 1997 and always contains interesting information from the central and western Pacific ocean, the region where women have traditionally had a very active role in fisheries.

Here is the line-up of articles from the 22nd issue. We thank the coordinator Veikila Curu Vuki for passing on the link and also the SPC’s excellent Marine Resources Division for producing it.

Download here:  SPC WIF 22

Contents

– Issues on gender in oceanic and coastal fisheries science and management in the Pacific Islands: case studies from Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands and Tonga  by P. Tuara and K. Passfield p. 3

– Heading towards the mainstream from the margins by M. Williams p. 17

– Shining a light on gender in aquaculture and fisheries: Report on the 3rd Global Symposium on Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries by M. Williams p. 19

– Strengthening the role of women in community-based marine resource management: lessons learned from community workshops by Z. Hilly et al. p. 29

– The seaweed harvesters of Alao by I. Novaczek p. 36

– Traditional fishing methods, raui and gender roles in Arorangi village, Rarotonga, Cook Islands by D. Munro Solomona and V. Vuki p. 39

– The people of the artificial island of Foueda, Lau Lagoon, Malaita, Solomon Islands: Traditional fishing methods, fisheries management and the roles
of men and women in fishing by B. Buga and V. Vuki p. 42

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Posted in Cook Islands, FAO, UN Women, World Bank, IFAD, UNIDO and other multilateral, GAF3, Gender, Gender and development, Marshall Islands, Men, Natural resource management, Pacific, Oceania, Solomon Islands, SPC, Tonga, Women

Women’s role in sea cucumber fisheries

Posted on May 1, 2012 | 3 comments

Women and men interviewed in Nusa Tengah, Semporna. Photo: Poh Sze Choo.

Updated February 2013!

In her recent paper in the SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin, Poh Sze Choo reported, among other results,  on a survey of gender roles in sea cucumber fishing in Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia.

She found that “fishers who collect sea cucumbers in Semporna belong to either the Bajau Tempatan or Bajau Laut communities. Most of the fishers are men who mainly fish at night either alone, with friends or with family members (usually their sons). A small number of fishers in Denawan and Nusa Tengah fish with their wives and daughters. In areas where sea cucumbers are still found on shallow reef flats (e.g. Nusa Tengah), women and children frequently glean for sea cucumbers during low tide.” And both women and men are involved in processing the sea cucumbers.

In another article in the same issue of the Information Bulletin, Majid Afkhami and co-authors noted that for the sea cucumber fisheries of Iran and Oman, no women and children were involved in the dive fishery of Iran (Qeshm Island), but that in Oman, when all collection was during low tide and by hand, 50% of were women and children, but this dropped to 15% more recently as the fishery started to became also a dive fishery.

These results raise the question of whether, as, in many parts of the world, sea cucumbers are no longer abundant in shallower waters more accessible to women, women are becoming marginalized in sea cucumber fisheries.

http://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary/Doc/FAME/InfoBull/BDM/32/BDM32.pdf

Further information on women in sea cucumber fisheries:

Thanks to a comment from Khalfan Al Rashdi, readers may also be interested to learn about women’s roles in sea cucumber harvesting in Oman. The link to that paper is: (http://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary/Doc/FAME/InfoBull/BDM/25/BDM25_17_AlRashdi.pdf).

This very interesting  2007 paper points out that 50% of the beche de mer fishers in your study were women, indicating that men fished in a wider range of fishery types and that children also fished for beche de mer. The traders also seek out the women and other fishers, indicating the high demand for the product.

Choo Poh Sze has also offered her perspectives on women in sea cucumber fisheries more generally:

“Thank you for the link. Sea cucumber being a sedentary species easily collected by hand during low tide is especially suitable for women and children. However when the sea cucumbers are no longer available from the shallow reef flats due to overfishing, sea cucumber landings from women and children will be adversely affected as men will then fish for sea cucumbers in the deeper ares by either free diving or using compressors or  scuba equipment. Night fishing is also practised as sea cucumber are most active at night and scour the seabed.”

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Posted in Asia, Country, FAO, UN Women, World Bank, IFAD, UNIDO and other multilateral, Fish post-harvest, Fisheries, Fishery or Aquaculture Type, Segment, Gendered labor studies, Geography, Iran, Malaysia, Men, Natural resource management, Oman, Sea cucumber or beche de mer, SPC, Women

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SPC Women in Fisheries Info Bull 2010 now out

Posted on December 22, 2010 | Comments Off on SPC Women in Fisheries Info Bull 2010 now out

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community has just released its latest Women in Fisheries Information Bulleting (WIF21). Read the Bulletin at:
http://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary/Doc/FAME/InfoBull/WIF/21/WIF21.pdf

Articles in this edition
1. Gender and seaweed farming on Wagina Island, Choiseul Province in Solomon Islands. By M. Kronen et al
2. The historical development of seaweed farming, including roles of men and women, and prospects for its future development in Fiji. by A. Lal and V. Vuki
3. Women’s fishing activities on Aniwa Island, Tafea Province, South Vanuatu. By S. R. Gereva and V. Vuki
4. Some sources of help in how to gather gender disaggregated data. By M.J. Williams
5. Painting the diversity of mangroves. By Verónica Yépez
6. Letters & news from around the region

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Posted in Aquaculture, FAO, UN Women, World Bank, IFAD, UNIDO and other multilateral, Fiji, Fisheries, Natural resource management, Research, communication resources, Solomon Islands, SPC, Vanuatu, Women

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