SOUTH MALAITA, SOLOMON ISLANDS, May 22nd, 2025 – A community feedback mission by the Solomon Islands Government led by PEBACC+ and Griffith University was undertaken recently in the Southern region on Malaita Province.
The aim of the mission is to share and validate the findings of recent ecosystem socio-economic resilience and mapping (ESRAM) studies and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) options studies carried out in the region recently.
It also seeks to ensure that communities fully understand and accept the findings of the study and to strengthen community engagement, ownership of the identified resilience strategies ensuring that local knowledge and insights of communities are incorporated into the final study reports.
Insights from the feedback sessions will help refine the final ESRAM reports and guide the selection of one to two site-level EbA options for implementation.
To do that the mission team conducted a series of stakeholder and community feedback sessions with three communities namely Eliote, Ori’ore and Tepaatewa as well as covering the Maramasike Passage and South Malaita catchment areas.
“By involving with the community consultations, it has provided firsthand information on local needs, environmental conditions, cultural values, and socio-economic concerns. These aligns perfectly with Ministry commitments to active engagement, collaboration and community” said Pauline Ghiro Senior Natural Solutions Officer from the Climate Change Division of the MECDM.
Meanwhile Chief Natural Solutions Officer Mr Chris Teva also from the Climate Change Division said the feedback consultation gave the opportunity for people to know that if communities take the initiative to protect their marine based ecosystems, opportunities to assist them will arise.
“people realized and understand that small grant programs (SGP) is there to support community projects and through the PEBACC+ mission, community did hands on training on writing grant proposals on how to accessing funds to implement community projects”
A core principle guiding this mission is to “Ensure that the local knowledge and insights of the communities are incorporated into the final study reports”. This underscores the commitment to a collaborative approach where community members “can provide feedback, raise concerns, and suggest recommendations”, making the resilience strategies truly reflective of local realities and needs.
It is also anticipated that the process will help prioritize at least 1-2 EbA options to support at the site level. The ESRAM assessment findings will inform the range of EbA and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) activities for South Malaita.
The community feedback consultation was led by PEBBAC+ and Grifith University. In a statement the University says;
“Griffith University is proud to work alongside SPREP to support the ESRAM process and to provide technical inputs to inform the community engagement process. Through the interactive sessions we could make sure traditional local knowledge and priorities led the process to the best nature-based solutions for each community.”
This community feedback mission represents a crucial step in translating research into practical, locally supported actions for strengthening socio-economic and ecosystem resilience in South Malaita.
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[MECDM]
