National Fisheries Development Policy for Coastal Waters, Small-Scale Village Fishing, and Food Self-Reliance in Vanuatu

Abstract

"This paper describes the national development policy of coastal fisheries in Vanuatu and its role in improving the living conditions and nutrition of the people. This policy has focused on the exploitation of deep-sea bottom-dwelling fish along the reef slope and the creation of commercial fishing associations at the village level; these associations were supposed to improve the diets of urban and rural people, to reduce the imports of tinned fish, to develop cash economies in village communities, and to create employment in order to reduce migration to cities. In view of the significant sums of money injected by international aid and the poor results achieved, this policy can be deemed to have been, so far, a failure. Though it is not encouraged by the Vanuatu Government, small-scale unstructured fishing is more efficient, in terms of both nutrition and substitution for imported fish. In the future, this fishing should not be neglected. An increase of fisheries production would appear to be possible at very little cost by equipping sailing canoes with small engines and by introducing simple and low-cost ways of preserving fish."