evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Arnavon Community Marine Park — Three Communities' 30-Year Co-Management Doubles Hawksbill Nesting

Solomon Islands · Sikopo Island, Arnavon Islands · See the Solomon Islands profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 58% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 1995, the Kia, Katupika and Wagina communities have co-managed the Arnavon Islands, the South Pacific's largest hawksbill rookery. A 22-year dataset shows nightly nest counts nearly tripling; in 2017 it became Solomon Islands' first national marine park.

1.44 → 3.85
Nightly nest counts (1991-1995 vs 2008-2012)
6.7% → 13.7%
Female remigration rate (1991-2012)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Kia, Katupika & Wagina communities; The Nature Conservancy; Solomon Islands Government
Period
1995-2017
Keywords
customary marine tenure, hawksbill turtle conservation, community co-management, marine protected area

Context

The Arnavon Islands in the Solomon Islands' Manning Strait host the largest hawksbill turtle rookery in the oceanic South Pacific. Exploitation peaked in the 1980s (4,000+ adult turtles killed annually); a top-down 1976 government sanctuary failed when traditional owners, excluded from managing it, burned the field station in 1982 and resumed harvesting.

Activities

In 1995 the Kia, Katupika and Wagina communities established the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area (152 km² of land and sea, four nesting beaches), with community rangers — not outside staff — patrolling beaches, tagging turtles and enforcing a self-imposed no-take rule, supported by The Nature Conservancy and the Solomon Islands government. In 2017 it became the Arnavon Community Marine Park, Solomon Islands' first national marine park.

Results

A peer-reviewed 2015 PLOS One study covering 22 years of monitoring (1991-2012, 4,536 beach surveys, 845 tagged turtles) found nightly nest counts rose from a pre-protection average of 1.44 (1991-1995) to 3.85 post-protection (2008-2012), and the remigration rate of tagged females rose from 6.7% to 13.7%.

Conclusions

The case shows that customary co-management, not just formal protection status, is what let this rookery recover after a top-down approach failed a decade earlier.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Community rangers from Kia, Katupika and Wagina, The Nature Conservancy technical support

Conditions for success

  • Customary ownership and community-led enforcement (vs. earlier top-down failure)
  • Long-term (decades) monitoring commitment
  • Eventual legal recognition (2017 national marine park status)

Common failure modes

  • A prior 1976 top-down government sanctuary collapsed within years when it excluded customary owners

Commonly funded by

LIFE Programme

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Similar practices you may find useful