A Sea of Connections: Contextualizing Fisheries in the South Pacific Region

• Applicant: Dr. Annette Breckwoldt
• Subject Area: African, American and Oceania Studies ; Empirical Social Research ; Human Geography
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 389654580

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

The South Pacific represents a unique region in which local communities and their political representatives, including at the regional level, are increasingly committed to an integrated management of marine resources and spaces. This region’s fisheries remain a critical component of local livelihoods, national and regional economies, and global fish supplies. SOCPacific aimed at broadening research pathways toward a more comprehensive understanding and a better recognition of the multi-faceted aspects of both oceanic/offshore and coastal/inshore fisheries in the South Pacific. This project explored the large web of socio-cultural, policy and geopolitical connections within which fishing and fisheries management practices occur in interwoven and dynamic ways, and highlighted this ‘sea of connections’. An interdisciplinary approach assessed the (social and other) values of places and resources in connection with offshore and inshore fisheries. Socio-political ecology perspectives examined fisheries and conservation issues in relation to marine protected areas and offshore tuna fisheries, as well as to existing management tools and their place within the marine spatial planning (MSP) schemes under development. With a main geographical focus on Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, this project had four interrelated ways to obtain its results: 1. We studied the socio-cultural, policy and geopolitical connections between coastal and oceanic fisheries (often considered and examined as separate sectors) from the point of view of Pacific Islanders, national governments, regional frameworks and institutions, and global conservation and ‘conservation-asdevelopment’ movements. 2. We explored how these connections expanded to other sectors of activities (including conservation, development and governance). 3. We called particular attention to local voices (often unheard), while analysing the multiple levels of the current fisheries management policy framework and emerging policy trajectories at national and regional levels. 4. We identified, from a locally grounded perspective, key pressures, challenges and obstacles related to the efforts to conserve and restore fisheries resources, and to minimize the negative ecological impacts of fishing, while securing returns that ensure sustainable well-being. This approach was based on collaborations with Oceanian communities, students and scholars around ocean governance arrangements, policy frameworks and resilience capacities. SOCPacific conceptualized South Pacific fisheries as embedded in ‘a sea of connections’; a notion highlighting the multiple meanings, dimensions and expressions of ocean connectivity from/in Oceania. It provided a better understanding of: (1) the multiple values of fisheries in land-sea territories; (2) the dis/re/connections over time between fisheries and conservation worlds, knowledge domains and stakeholders; (3) the dynamic fisheries management policy landscape, including more-than-human marine spatial planning in the making, framed in a new scramble for Pacific space and resources.

Publications

• Introduction to research project SOCPacific – A Sea of Connections: An interdisciplinary, multi-level and multi-stakeholder study of South Pacific fisheries. Pacific Geographies 51: 16-21.
  Fache, E. & A. Breckwoldt
  
• Trends in South Pacific fisheries management. Marine Policy, 118, 104021.
  Karcher, Denis B.; Fache, Elodie; Breckwoldt, Annette; Govan, Hugh; Elías, Ilosvay Xochitl E.; Kam, King Juliette Kon; Riera, Léa & Sabinot, Catherine
  
• Look Who’s Asking—Reflections on Participatory and Transdisciplinary Marine Research Approaches. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8.
  Breckwoldt, Annette; Lopes, Priscila F. M. & Selim, Samiya A.
  
• A sea of connections: Reflections on connectivity from/in Oceania. Ambio, 51(12), 2333-2341.
  Fache, Elodie; Kon, Kam King Juliette; Riera, Léa & Breckwoldt, Annette
  
• A social-ecological engagement with reef passages in New Caledonia: Connectors between coastal and oceanic spaces and species. Ambio, 51(12), 2401-2413.
  Breckwoldt, Annette; Dombal, Yvy; Sabinot, Catherine; David, Gilbert; Riera, Léa; Ferse, Sebastian & Fache, Elodie
  
• A Typology for Reef Passages. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9.
  Breckwoldt, Annette; Nozik, Alexandra; Moosdorf, Nils; Bierwirth, Jan; Fache, Elodie; Ferse, Sebastian; Ford, Amanda; Mangubhai, Sangeeta; Pelletier, Dominique & Piovano, Susanna
  
• Encouraging Drawing in Research with Children on Marine Environments: Methodological and Epistemological Considerations. Human Ecology, 50(4), 739-760.
  Fache, Elodie; Sabinot, Catherine; Pauwels, Simonne; Riera, Léa; Breckwoldt, Annette; David, Gilbert; Matairakula, Ulamila & Carrière, Stéphanie M.
  
• Marine resources and their value in Kadavu, Fiji. Ambio, 51(12), 2414-2430.
  Harding, Simon; Marama, Kalisiana; Breckwoldt, Annette; Matairakula, Ulamila & Fache, Elodie
  
• The ‘Right Place’ for Sharks in the South Pacific: Marine Spatial Planning in a More-Than-Human Ocean. Planning Practice & Research, 37(3), 299-316.
  Kon, Kam King Juliette & Riera, Léa
  
• “Draw the sea…”: Children’s representations of ocean connectivity in Fiji and New Caledonia. Ambio, 51(12), 2445-2458.
  Fache, Elodie; Piovano, Susanna; Soderberg, Alisi; Tuiono, Malakai; Riera, Léa; David, Gilbert; Kowasch, Matthias; Pauwels, Simonne; Breckwoldt, Annette; Carrière, Stéphanie M. & Sabinot, Catherine