This is a report based on a consultancy taken up by the authors. It is based on information derived from formal presentations and discussion statements by country representatives during the one day workshop “People, Society and Pacific Islands Fisheries Development and Management” at the 23rd RTMF, amplified by in depth discussion with national and regional fisheries staff. The work was carried out in the South Pacific where a number of factors combine to make CMT systems a potentially valuable alternative for inshore fisheries management. According to the authors, in most island nations, rural people frequently attempt to gain the recognition of government officers and policies for their customary resource rights, and for their traditional fisheries related knowledge. In many countries, among them Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Cook Islands,
Tuvalu, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), there are numerous examples of traditional leaders formulating and enforcing diverse fisheries regulations through a variety of channels. In many cases, these concerns and associated measures are brought through the successive levels of formal government channels, often legislated as bylaws, and sometimes even ending up in Parliament. Although traditional knowledge might be accurate as far as predicting the seasonal abundance of fish or shells (particularly trochus) was concerned, it must often be supplemented by Western science to convince local people of the need for minimum size regulations. Codification of CMT is difficult and possibly not desirable. Tradition is seen to be constantly changing based on current circumstances with strong roots in history. From discussions, there appeared to be an emergence of an approach of “joint management” that has national government setting basic rules and principles while simultaneously recognising important aspects of customary resource rights, and local “government” handling locally appropriate management within this legislative framework.