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

本提案以可持续发展目标2、5、14和17为重点，旨在应对斐济、所罗门群岛和瓦努阿图等太平洋岛屿与海洋资源有关的性别平等、贫困和粮食安全方面的全球挑战，在这些岛屿，性别不平等导致妇女的经验、见解和叙述得不到倾听，利用习俗和习惯法为这些资源的多法律政策和可持续管理战略提供信息。然而，妇女承担着为家庭提供食物的最大负担。沿海村庄的妇女每天都从事珊瑚礁捕捞等活动，而且经常是捕鱼。正是他们亲身经历了粮食不安全的后果。南太平洋岛国，所有这些国家都是低收入国家这些国家也有法律的制度-这主要是殖民主义的结果，其中有一些权力来源，管理太平洋岛民的生活，并决定对土地和沿海资源的权利，包括不成文的习惯法和惯例。 在管理海洋资源的使用方面利用土著传统知识、经验和做法的价值早已在地方和区域一级得到承认，并在国际讨论中日益得到承认。在太平洋地区，特别是在本提案重点关注的美拉尼西亚国家，性别不平等具有文化和社会根源，因此，在寻求采取综合办法应对当代资源挑战时，通常是男子发言，并提出他们对习惯法的看法，然后将其用于制定得到地方和国家政府支持的管理战略。妇女的声音没有被听到。区域网络-地方管理的海洋区域网络-已明确指出这一知识差距。该项目的目的是弥补这一差距，为此将妇女网络与大湄公河次区域管理局网络联系起来，提供机会听取妇女的意见，通过技能培训增强妇女的权能，使她们能够陈述自己的观点，并通过该项目的各种产出，提请该区域和更广泛社区的决策者注意这些观点，以便制定更具包容性的海洋资源管理办法。 这将通过以下方式完成：1.利用与南太平洋大学、LMMA、非政府组织和太平洋研究人员的现有个人联系，通过实地工作在斐济、所罗门群岛和瓦努阿图的沿海社区之间建立地方联系; 2.然后让来自实地工作村的妇女代表参加在斐济南太平洋大学举办的培训和知识交流讲习班; 3.资助从讲习班中抽调的一个太平洋妇女代表团出席2020年在昆士兰州大学主办的法律的多元化和非官方法律委员会会议，并向国际观众陈述她们的陈述;出版产出-印刷品、音像记录和讲习班资料包，并将其传播给网络参与者、研究人员和教育机构，如南太平洋大学、网站-如LMMA的网站，以及（作为执行简报，性别平等检查表和示范问卷），分发给参与制定蓝/符合国家和区域议程的绿色经济（例如太平洋论坛的蓝色太平洋议程）。通过使决策者了解妇女的叙述，该项目的目的是鼓励那些参与这种决策的人审查他们自己在海洋资源方面对习惯法采取的考虑到性别因素的做法，并通过促进南太平洋大学和《海洋、海洋和海洋法公约》的现有倡议来建设国内能力。

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.