IAS Senior Scientific Officer and the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMA) Coordinator, Mr Semisi Meo and IAS Consultant Mr Pio Radikedike were selected by the LMMA Network to accompany one of its SRA Leaders, Mr Hugh Govan, to fort for its vision and visibility at the international forefront in the International Marine Protected Area Conference held in Marseille, France from the 21 to 25 October 2013. The MacBio program under the GIZ funding was secured by LMMA to support travel and additional necessary costs for the FLMMA coordinator.
The five-day conference had intensive multitudes of intended goal that were well set out in the agenda as targets per day. Specifically, the conference focused on topics such as Resilience in Management, Cultural and local knowledge of World Heritage sites, the need for greater communities’ involvement and for good science and management in Marine Protected Areas monitoring.
According to Meo, the conference allowed him to critically assess the progress of FLMMA and how it could improve in the following areas:
· Management efficiency
· Sustainable financing of MPA
· Integration of organisations
(Govt, NGOs) and people
· LMMA approach to dissemination of knowledge
