Sustainable Management

Building Capacity for Sustainable Management of East Rennell World Heritage Site

This is a project implemented with the people East Rennell lake side communities in Renbel province. The project aim is to build capacity of East Rennell communities, particularly the East Rennell World Heritage Trust Board (ERWHTB), to sustainably manage their forests and other natural resources, and to improve rural livelihoods by focussing on education, training, and implementation of actions in support of the (Community, Government and UNESCO) East Rennell World Heritage Site (ERWHS) Management Plan.

After the successful signing of the Grant contract with the government of Solomon Islands and European Union Sustainable Forest Conservation programme, Live & Learn continues to strengthen and maximise implementation of ERWH site programme with the people of East Rennell. With the assistance and guidance of the two AVI technical advisors stationed in the project site, a number of governance workshops, trainings, awareness and meetings, surveys as well as overseas exchange visit by local people have been made. Governance capacity building has been the major activity since AVI volunteer on-site placement in East Rennell (ER). Some of the achievements to date are:

• 19 community workshops in total (involving 250 individual participants) regarding governance, community decision making and the WH program held in ER. 
• 7 ERWH Site Association committee meetings in total including 3 governance training workshops.
• 5 ‘World Heritage Program Awareness Raising Workshop Series’ with 46 key participants involving men and women in 4 communities of Lake Tengano, east Rennell conducted.
• Casual employment and training of 2 trainee leading-hand rangers and over 40 casual rangers ( involving 35 male and 11 female), were trained in a variety of NRM areas, including bird surveys, GPS use and tilapia monitoring.
• 12 bird surveys were carried out in 4 different ER habitats, after a number of trial surveys.
• The surveys provided quantitative data on species diversification, abundance and distribution. This baseline quantitative data provide a snap shot against which future changes in avifauna populations can be measured (i.e. increases or declines in different bird species).
• 5 “rangers” were trained on how to supervise surveys and were assessed capable of repeating bird surveys unassisted.
• 9 tilapia fish surveys in total were carried out, 4 of which were under the guidance of SPC Scientist Dr. Tim Pickering aimed at establishing optimum sustainable harvest size.
• A total of 9 meetings with Rennell WTMA participants, prior and post WTMA reporting on the exchange Cairns visit.
• Education and successful democratic formation of the Lake Tegano World Heritage Site Association (LTWHSA).
• Successful election and formation of a Committee to participate in natural resource governance and decision making 
• Drafting and registration of a the ERWH site Constitution after extensive consultation with local communities, Government department of tourism and culture, UNESCO representative of the Ministry of Education Solomon Islands and partner NGOs.

The numerous community governance workshops and meetings have definitely resulted in greater community awareness, understanding and support for the ERWHS project. This has been exemplified in the community’s participation in meetings and LTWHSA membership of which 239 members signed and registered their names. The Provincial and National Government and the Paramount Chief, have provided letters of support which also exemplify program support.