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

该提案侧重于可持续发展目标2、5、14和17，旨在应对与太平洋斐济、所罗门群岛和瓦努阿图海洋资源有关的性别平等、贫穷和粮食安全方面的全球挑战，在这些岛屿上，性别不平等导致在利用传统知识、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时，妇女的经验、见解和叙述得不到倾听。然而，妇女承担着为家人提供食物的最大负担。沿海村庄的妇女每天都在从事捕捞珊瑚礁和经常捕鱼等活动。正是他们亲身经历了粮食不安全的后果。南太平洋岛国都是低收入或中等收入国家，面临着许多全球性挑战，尤其是陆地和海洋资源的可持续管理。这些国家也有法律制度，这主要是殖民主义的结果，在这些制度下，有许多权威来源管理太平洋岛民的生活，并确定对土地和沿海资源的权利，包括不成文的习惯法和做法。在管理海洋资源利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，特别是在本提案的重点所在的美拉尼西亚国家，性别不平等在文化和社会上根深蒂固，因此，当寻求一种全面的办法来应对当代的资源挑战时，通常是男子发言并提出他们版本的习惯法，然后利用习惯法为地方和国家政府支持的管理战略提供信息。女性的声音听不到。区域网络：当地管理的海洋区域网络(LMMA)清楚地发现了这一知识鸿沟。该项目旨在通过将妇女网络与LMMA的网络联系起来，提供倾听妇女声音的机会，通过技能培训增强妇女的能力，并通过该项目的各种成果，使该区域的政策制定者和更广泛的社区注意到这些情况，从而制定更具包容性的海洋资源管理办法，从而消除这一差距。这将通过以下方式完成：1.在现有与南太平洋大学(USP)、LMMA、非政府组织和太平洋研究人员个人联系的基础上，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.让实地工作村的女性代表参加在斐济USP举办的培训和知识交流讲习班；3.资助参加讲习班的太平洋妇女代表团，出席2020年在昆士兰大学主办的法律多元化和非官方法律委员会会议，并向国际听众介绍她们的情况；4.出版印刷品、音像制品和讲习班资料包，分发给网络参与者、研究人员和教育机构，如南太平洋大学、LMMA网站，以及(作为执行简报、性别平等清单和范本问卷)分发给根据国家和区域议程(如太平洋论坛的蓝色太平洋议程)制定蓝色/绿色经济政策的政府部委和部门。通过使政策制定者了解妇女的叙述，该项目的目的是鼓励那些参与这类政策制定的人在海洋资源方面审计他们自己对习惯法的性别做法，并通过促进USP和LMMA的现有举措来建设国内能力。

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.