In the mid 1990s the idea arose that coastal communities should be given powers to regulate fisheries in their nearby marine areas. That concept gained momentum and in the early 2000s a change in Tonga’s fisheries legislation allowed for fisheries management by local communities, through Special Management Areas (SMAs). Since that time the Fisheries Division has worked with coastal communities to establish 11 SMAs.
MACBIO is a project that supports sustainable economies and livelihoods of Pacific Island Countries by strengthening institutional and individual capacity, to manage and conserve biodiversity in marine and coastal ecosystems. The project was commissioned by BMUB to GIZ as part of IKI, jointly implemented by SPREP, IUCN and GIZ from 2013 to 2018.
This dataset holds all MACBIO-related resources pertaining to Tonga as one of the participating countries.