Kiribati Food Security Project

Kiribati Food Security Project

Kiribati is a nation comprised of 33 atolls, 21 of which as inhabited, spread across the Pacific Ocean. The people of rural Kiribati are largely reliant on a limited land base and coastal zone fisheries for nutrition and livelihood.

As the population grows and climate change advances, the security of island resources are challenged. The ecosystem integrity that islanders depend on for climate change resilience is eroding. This is seen in the deteriorating quality of near-shore fisheries, degrading lagoon health, and reduction of freshwater quality.

The main reason for this is that the current management regimes for the atoll and lagoon resources are defined by open resource access. There is little active management, research and regulation to ensure the use of lagoon resources is maintained within sustainable limits.

The country has little experience with designing and implementing community-based management regimes to incentivize improved and innovative management techniques. There are few tools in place to support better management of lagoon resource in light of expanding economic use and demand for these resources. This situation challenges resource management both within the lagoon and on the atoll. Climate change will certainly exacerbate an already high level of vulnerability.

What we do

The project objective is to build the adaptive capacity of vulnerable Kiribati communities to ensure food security under conditions of climate change.

To address these challenges and reach its objective, the project is supporting two components. Both components are closely aligned so national and site-based activities are designed to build synergies, increase awareness and generate more informed and strategic use of natural resources, so that ecosystem integrity continues to function as the foundation of food security needs.

Component one is assisting Kiribati to address urgent institutional capacity building needs primarily at national level. This includes setting in place an improved regulatory environment, strengthening institutional planning and policy frameworks and generating data required to support informed decision-making.

Under component two, the project is assisting the country to address climate change vulnerabilities by implementing and demonstrating community-based adaptation measures. The project is working on a select number of atolls to set in place models for land and lagoon resources management that is prediccated on informed planning and management processes.