Solomon Islands Supports National Conservation Plan

The government of the Solomon Islands has asked The Nature Conservancy, a MacArthur grantee, to develop a national plan for community-managed marine protected areas. The Solomon Islands has the second-highest number of coral species ever recorded and is one of the world's top five countries for fish diversity. Through working with traditional communities, the Conservancy created the region's first sustainably-financed, community managed marine protected area in the Arnavon Islands in 1995. The Arnavon are home to one of the world's largest nesting hawksbill sea turtles. Since then, the project has become a model for traditional communities across the Solomon Islands. Its most recent work to protect marine resources in the Choiseul province resulted in the government request to develop a national conservation proposal.