Recognizing the role of women in supporting marine stewardship in the Pacific Islands

The study analyzes support for fisheries management through the adoption of ethical principles that can initiate change in individual behaviour, attitude and actions implicit in the current policies for achieving sustainable fisheries. It highlights that women can potentially play important roles in many Pacific Island coastal communities through their multiple responsibilities, and should therefore, be recognized as key agents for such change. Using the case of four villages in Fiji, the study demonstrates the close interaction between women and children. As primary caregivers and fishers, women are instrumental in instilling the desired social and moral values in children at a young age, the critical years in the development of children’s cultural and value systems. Women would influence children to follow fishing practices that are sustainable and support the protection of the marine environment while at the same time, nurture the culture of marine stewardship and marine citizenship. This, in turn, could encourage individual’s voluntary action that can simultaneously serve multiple societal objectives including the reduction in fisheries management costs. Recognizing women’s direct and indirect role in the fisheries sector and empowering them in this regard is, however a necessary condition.