Live & Learn Vanuatu is implementing a new project with support from Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) to protect biodiversity in Vanuatu. The project will strengthen local community governance capacity to manage threatened species within the key biodiversity areas of Santo Mountains, Gaua and Malekula in Vanuatu. Local rangers will be trained on how to asses, manage and monitor critical threatened habitats and species such as the Santo Mountain Starling, Palm Lorikeet, Vanuatu Imperial Pigeon, Santa Cruz Ground Dove, Vanuatu Megapode, Carpoxylon Palm and Voutmele Palm.
A National Community Conservation Area Ranger Toolkit will be produced that rangers and conservation committees can use as a guide for carrying out future biodiversity management and monitoring of threatened species and habitats within Vanuatu’s Community Conservation Areas.
Live & Learn Vanuatu will be working with Eco Development Livelihoods Associates to develop the National Ranger Tool Kit. The toolkit will specifically highlight principles of environment and conservation, biodiversity values (habitats, ecosystems and species), biodiversity monitoring techniques, vigilance measures and dispute resolution mechanisms.
The Vanuatu government registers Community Conservation Areas under the Environment Act, and they are recognised as National Protected Areas. Each Community Conservation Area must have a clearly defined Management Plan. Local knowledge is usually limited to the implementation of the management plans, and biodiversity assessments are done by external experts. This project will gather all the biodiversity assessment expertise available in Vanuatu to contribute to the content of the toolkit so that communities and rangers will have a reliable guide for monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of the approaches in the management plans to ensure that the biodiversity remains protected.
Funding for this project is from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, which is a joint initiative of Conservation International, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, The MacArthur Foundation, Agence Francaise de Developpement, and the European Union.
