New research will help Pacific nations
university-of-waikato
Thu Mar 19 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
New research will help Pacific nations
Thursday, 19 March 2009, 12:55 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato
Media Release
March 19, 2009
New research will help Pacific nations balance ecosystems and lifestyle
A ground-breaking PhD analysis of a small Pacific island community under threat from global trade liberalisation is set to have significant policy implications for Pacific Island governments.
The research, by Halahingano Rohorua at the University of Waikato Management School in Hamilton, New Zealand, focuses on fisheries exports and sustainable resource in her native Tonga.
Described by her external examiners as ‘important’ and ‘very exciting’, the research aims to assist local communities in determining the optimal use of their natural resources, given the increasing pressure on communal fish breeding areas from fisheries, forestry and tourism.
“Fisheries is our strength,” says Rohorua. “It’s significant not only as a livelihood, but as something that’s uniquely ours here in the Pacific. If we don’t watch how we use our natural resources, we run the risk of overexploiting them. So the sustainability of both our resources and our communities is at risk here.”
Rohorua’s supervisor at Waikato Management School, Dr Steven Lim, says Rohorua integrated fieldwork surveys and econometrics with the 'talanoa' approach of participant and community observation.
From her detailed economic anthropology, she then constructed a computer simulation model of mangrove destruction, fish stock depletion and labour allocation, based on concerns expressed by the community relating to the impacts of tourism growth.
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"Hala's work is path-breaking in terms of the environmental sustainability issues that it addresses and in terms of the modelling that it undertakes,” he says. “Her research will have significant policy implications for Pacific Island governments.”
As part of her doctoral research, Rohorua carried out a detailed survey of a small outer island community which is dependent on fishing. What worries her is that the locals take their fisheries resource for granted. “People don’t realise that if they don’t look after this resource, it could disappear,” she says.
“For example, tourist developments may offer local jobs, but they also have an impact on resources that local people currently enjoy for free. Tourists want beaches, not mangroves, but the mangroves are important breeding grounds for fish. People need to understand the impact of changes so they can decide what’s sustainable and what isn’t.”
Rohorua also collected data on commercial fisheries exports and analysed the barriers to trade – these include distance from market, and lack of capital and infrastructure to meet new packaging and quality control regulations.
“We are being marginalised in the process of trade liberalisation,” she says. “Most of us in small islands survive on revenues collected from tariffs. If these are removed, what can we do to survive?”
Rohorua says pressures on ecosystems are likely to increase with trade liberalisation, and this will mean island nations will have to make difficult choices.
“In my doctoral research, I’ve developed a model which makes the links between resource ecosystems and community lifestyles, and examines the costs and benefits of open market access,” she explains. “This will help other Pacific island countries make decisions about how they use their natural resources, whether it’s fisheries in Tonga or timber in the Solomon Islands.”
ends
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