Changing Climates

The Locally-Managed Marine Areas Network (LMMA) has been the most
successful model for conservation and coastal management in South East
Asia and the South Pacific. In Fiji, the LMMA model has been successfully
replicated in over a 100 golingolis (coastal management units), and communities have started to educate other communities as they become
trainers of the model. One of the successes of LMMA can be attributed to the decentralization of knowledge and its intrinsic capacity building nature. The success of LMMA can also be attributed to the NGO and academic support, which has transcended competition and allowed these groups to support communities regardless of who gets to publish the case study in their annual report.

The LMMA framework might offer one of the best opportunities to mainstream disaster prevention through community preparedness and resource management. This is easier said than done, of course. But community leaders, are empower with the information on how to organize their communities to reduce their risk of floods and other disasters, they might be able to bring to the communities the information that the Ministry of Planning and others have not been able to take beyond the capital. Engaging LMMA in disaster prevention has great potential, as long as this is done allowing members to take ownership of the issue –in the same way that they have taken ownership of resource management and environmental degradation.