Recognizing the role of women in supporting marine stewardship in the Pacific Islands

Vina Ram-Bidesi

Marine Policy, 2015, vol. 59, issue C, 1-8

Abstract: The study analyzes support for fisheries management through the adoption of ethical principles that can initiate change in individual behaviour, attitude and actions implicit in the current policies for achieving sustainable fisheries. It highlights that women can potentially play important roles in many Pacific Island coastal communities through their multiple responsibilities, and should therefore, be recognized as key agents for such change. Using the case of four villages in Fiji, the study demonstrates the close interaction between women and children. As primary caregivers and fishers, women are instrumental in instilling the desired social and moral values in children at a young age, the critical years in the development of children’s cultural and value systems. Women would influence children to follow fishing practices that are sustainable and support the protection of the marine environment while at the same time, nurture the culture of marine stewardship and marine citizenship. This, in turn, could encourage individual’s voluntary action that can simultaneously serve multiple societal objectives including the reduction in fisheries management costs. Recognizing women’s direct and indirect role in the fisheries sector and empowering them in this regard is, however a necessary condition.

Keywords: Responsible fisheries; Women in fisheries; Marine stewardship; Pacific Island coastal fisheries; Women and children in fisheries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X15001025
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:59:y:2015:i:c:p:1-8

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2015.04.020

Access Statistics for this article

Marine Policy is currently edited by Eddie Brown

More articles in Marine Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().