This 39th edition of the Pacific Community’s Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin has 14 original articles from the Pacific Islands region. Our stories tend to be from a smaller subset of countries, and I would like to ask if our readers can help connect me to people from some of our more under-represented Pacific Island countries such as Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Guam, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, and Wallis and Futuna. I offer mentoring and support to new writers who want help to tell their stories.
In this edition, the Fiji Ministry of Fisheries reached out for mentoring and have produced two articles on women-dominated fisheries that have not been well documented: shrimp and sea urchin. The Kiribati government has just started a detailed gender analysis of the fisheries and aquaculture sector, focusing initially on four atolls.
Salote Waqairatu-Waqainabete highlights a new upcoming agribusiness project that is evaluating alternative approaches to sector development in the Pacific. We encourage you to check out an article led by Elisabeta Waqa and collaborators, showcasing the Ministry of Fisheries’ efforts to conduct a gender risk assessment to improve community livelihood projects in Fiji.
There is also a new publication by WorldFish and the Wildlife Conservation Society – “Fisheries Co-Management Guidebook” – which is designed to assist practitioners in understanding the latest research on what constitutes successful fisheries co-management, and how to reach this objective. The guide includes ethical considerations that should form the basis of any programme, including human rights, equity and justice, gender equality, and sustainable Indigenous management.
We welcome several new lead authors to the bulletin who have found their muse – Delvene Boso, Pretika Kumar, Zafiar Naaz, Unaisi Nalasi, Janet Saeni-Oeta, Esther Umu, Elisabeta Waqa and Patrick Smallhorn-West.