Customary law in South Pacific marine resource governance: addressing gender inequity in achieving sustainable food security

Focusing on Sustainable Development Goals 2, 5, 14 and 17, this proposal aims to address the global challenge of gender equity, poverty and food security linked to marine resources in the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, where gender inequality results in women's experiences, insights and narratives not being heard when traditional knowledge, custom and customary law are utilised to inform pluri-legal policies and sustainable management strategies for these resources. Yet women bear the greatest burden of providing food for their families. It is women in coastal villages who are engaged, on a daily basis, in activities such as reef harvesting and often fishing. It is they who experience first-hand the consequences of food insecurity.
South Pacific island countries, all of which are LMIC (low or middle income countries) face many global challenges, not least the sustainable management of terrestrial and marine resources.These countries also have legal systems - largely as a result of colonialism, in which there are a number of sources of authority which govern the lives of Pacific Islanders and determine rights over land and coastal resources, including unwritten customary law and practices.
The value of engaging with indigenous traditional knowledge, experience and practice in managing the use of marine resources has long been recognised at a local and regional level and increasingly acknowledged in international discourse. In the Pacific, especially in the Melanesian countries which are the focus of this proposal, gender-inequality is culturally and socially embedded so that when an holistic approach is being sought to address contemporary resource challenges it is usually men who speak and who give their version of customary law, which is then used to inform the management strategies that are supported by local and national government. Women's voices are not heard. This knowledge-gap has been clearly identified by the regional network: the Locally Managed Marine Areas Network (LMMA).
This project aims to address that gap by providing an opportunity to hear women's voices by linking a network of women to that of the LMMA, empowering women through skills training to present their narratives and bringing these to the attention of policy makers in the region and the wider community, through the various outputs from the project, so that more inclusive approaches to marine resource management can be developed.
This will be done by: 1. building on existing personal contacts with the University of the South Pacific (USP), the LMMA, NGOs and individual Pacific researchers to establish localised links through field work among coastal communities in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu; 2. to then bring women delegates from the field work villages to a training and knowledge exchange workshop run at USP, in Fiji; 3. to fund a delegation of Pacific women drawn from the workshop, to attend and present their narratives to an international audience at the Commission on Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law conference, hosted in 2020, at the University of Queensland; 4. to publish outputs - in print, audio and visual recordings and workshop packages, and disseminate these to network participants, researchers and educational institutions, such as the University of the South Pacific, websites - such as that of the LMMA, and (as executive briefs, gender equity check lists and model questionnaires) to government ministries and departments engaged in developing policies for Blue/Green economies in line with national and regional agendas (for example the Blue Pacific agenda of the Pacific Forum). By making policy-makers aware of women's narratives, the aim of the project is to encourage those engaged in such policy making to audit their own gendered approaches to customary law in the context of marine resources and to build in-country capacity through contributing to existing initiatives of USP and the LMMA.

The FAO's voluntary guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests (Guidelines 2012) and further guidelines on Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication in 2015, both recognise the importance of small scale fisheries (SSF). Sustainable Development Goal 14 (the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development) has as one of its targets providing access to small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets. Human rights based approaches to fisheries management - including gender equity, are integral to the FAO Guidelines and have been endorsed by the paramount regional policy on coastal fisheries which emphasises the role of communities and women in management and decision-making (SPC, 'Regional Roadmap for Sustainable Pacific Fisheries 2015). Similarly a pluri-legal approach which draws on customary law is strongly advocated in the Pacific Region (Johannes 2002, Kuemlangan 2004, Rohe, Govan et al 2019, Techera 2006 and 2009).

This project aims to persuade policy makers giving effect to these approaches to listen to the concerns of Pacific Women by 1. Building capacity among women to bring their narratives and experience relating to customary law to the table. 2. Raising awareness among policy-makers of the importance, value and ways in which women can be heard and gender inequity addressed. 3. Building Pacific capacity through networking with NGOs and universities.

The primary impact of this network will be on those network delegates who attend the Fiji workshop and the Brisbane Conference. The aim of both the workshop and the conference is to hear women's voices and their insights into customary law and so both events will provide a platform for knowledge transfer from a particular perspective and focussing on a particular topic of particular relevance to Pacific women: food security and access to and management of marine food resources. The proposed workshop in Fiji will include skills training on presenting their narratives in a variety of ways and the conference will provide the opportunity to puts these skills into practice. The objective is that this will empower those individuals to have a voice in national and regional policy when they return to their communities and encourage other women to speak out and better formulate positions when marine governance proposals are being made and plural-legal solutions are being sought.

Secondary beneficiaries of this network will be those to whom the knowledge is transferred. This will include feedback of network members on return to their communities; dissemination through open access publication to the locally managed marine area network (LMMA) and NGOs; students and researchers at the University of the South Pacific and the University of Queensland; and targeted relevant government departments and regional organisations involved in policy development such as the Pacific Community (SPC), Pacific Islands Forum (PIFS), South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). Knowledge transfer will include visual, aural and written publication. The intended impact here is to develop a much greater awareness of the value of hearing women's voices in ascertaining the applicable customary law and integrating this into pluri-legal approaches to marine governance at subnational, national and regional levels, and building Melanesian and South Pacific capacity to engage in and progress these issues. In particular the network is intended to have a positive impact in building in-house experience and ongoing contribution of regional institutions such as the USP SDDIA and the LMMA Network.

A final impact will be using the network to ascertain local perceptions and concerns around global challenges particularly relevant to SDG 14, which can then be used to inform future funding bids for projects focussing on LMICs in the Pacific.