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Back to the Future: Using Traditional Knowledge to Strengthen Biodiversity Conservation in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia

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Back to the Future: Using Traditional Knowledge to Strengthen Biodiversity Conservation in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia Back To The Future: Using Traditional Knowledge to Strengthen Biodiversity Conservation in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia Abstract Pohnpei’s traditional belief system strongly supports con- ania and some of the most diverse coral reefs on the plan- servation, but years of foreign rule and influence, popula- et. Traditionally, complex resource management practices tion growth, excessive US aid, shift to a cash economy maintained these resources while providing subsistence and other factors have combined to weaken the island- and prestige goods for the island’s inhabitants. However, ers’ conservation ethic. The result has been a rapid de- in the last 50 years, population growth, unsustainable re- cline in biodiversity health, which has in turn led to a de- source use, and the destruction of forest and marine habi- crease in quality of life and increased dependence on out- tat now threaten these unique environments with serious side assistance. Conventional government-led western consequences for the island’s human inhabitants. style approaches to resource management were clearly failing, and in 1990, The Nature Conservancy, the local In order to avert this escalating damage and to establish government, and other partners embarked on a program long-term solutions, the Nature Conservancy, in conjunc- to involve the island’s traditional leaders and other cultural tion with the Pohnpei State Government and more recent- experts in the protection of the island’s upland forest wa- ly the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, is developing an tershed. After a difficult start, the program has focused on integrated and community-centered management frame- combining Pohnpei culture and traditional knowledge with work for the protection and sustainable use of Pohnpei’s modern conservation planning and management prac- natural heritage. The Pohnpei Community Resource Man- tices with some success. The result has been a unique agement Program (PCRMP) is an attempt to strengthen community-based management approach that establish- the abilities of customary leadership and communities in natural resource management and to ensure that they es local control over spatially discreet resources that are are supported by government and non-government or- legitimately considered to belong to the community and ganizations. It seeks to link action in the kousapws (vil- the return of resource management and use to an auto- lages) with that at a municipal, state and federal level and nomous, consensus-based decision-making process. In a hopes to draw on and incorporate knowledge and meth- sense, the approach is an act of reconciliation, reconfirm- ing those aspects of both political systems that are con- sidered legitimate. For the participants, it has been a valu- able learning experience through which a uniquely “Pohn- pei-style” approach - suited specifically to the island’s so- Correspondence cial and political conditions - is being developed. Bill Raynor, FSM Country Program Director, The Nature Conservancy, PO Box 216, Kolonia, Pohnpei, 96941, Introduction FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA, braynor@mail. fm The forests, reefs, and seas of Pohnpei island in the Fed- Mark Kostka, Community-based Enterprise Develop- erated States of Micronesia are an essential source of ment Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box both cash and subsistence livelihoods for most of the 355 216, Kolonia, Pohnpei, 96941, FEDERATED STATES km2 island’s 35,000 human inhabitants. They also har- OF MICRONESIA, [email protected]. bor biodiversity of world importance including one of the Ethnobotany Research & Applications 1: 55-63 (2003) greatest concentrations of endemic plant species in Oce- http://hdl.handle.net/10125/131 56 Ethnobotany Research & Applications ods across a wide range of disciplines and traditions. A Based mainly on anecdotal evidence, it appears that the number of the elements of this integrated framework are native population developed a complex system of re- already in place including community planning methodol- source management early on in their exploitation of the ogies, structures for community level management, co-or- island (Haun 1984). The island and its surroundings was dinating bodies at a municipal (wehi) and state level, and classed by the prehistoric Pohnpeians into several con- monitoring programs. centric domains (Figure 1). An inner core - the upland for- est (nanwel) - and the outer rings in marine space - man- This paper details what is known about traditional forest grove forest (naniak), lagoon (nansed), and ocean (nan- resource management on Pohnpei, traces contemporary madau), by virtue of their location outside the sphere of changes and their impacts on both traditional resource human influence, were believed to be controlled by spirits, management systems and the resources themselves, ex- or eni. The middle concentric ring in the Pohnpei “world” amines recent interventions to using traditional structures was made up of settled coastal areas (nansapw). and systems to strengthen biodiversity conservation, and suggests possible activities and processes that might fur- ther strengthen the capacity for integrated and communi- Figure 1. Traditional Pohnpeian concentric resource ty-centered resource management at all levels. “zones”. Traditional forest resource Marine Ecosystems management on Pohnpei Terrestrial Ecosystems Before humans arrived on Pohnpei thousands of years ago, the entire island and basaltic islets of the lagoon were covered with rain forest (Glassman 1952). Several forest types make up the upland forest resource, spatially distributed on the island due to altitude and, to a lesser N anwel extent, drainage. Broadleaf forest is the most widespread and is dominated by Campnosperma brevipetiolata Vol- kans, Elaeocarpus carolinensis Koidz, and other tree spe- N ansapw cies. Almost pure stands of the endemic palm Clinostigma ponapensis (Becc.) Moore & Fosb. are found on upper elevation ridges. Upland swamp forest, characterized by N aniak the endemic ivory nut palm Metroxylon amicarum Becc., occurs in scattered patches. Montane cloud forest occurs N ansed/NanMadau on mountain tops and along ridges above 450 m. The relative age and isolation of the island make the flora The nansapw was considered to be land wrestled away of Pohnpei’s interior forests some of the most diverse in from the eni through the human activities of clearing and Micronesia, with a high level of endemicity. The signifi- planting (sapwasapw). Conversely, abandoned lands cance of Pohnpei’s forests to the maintenance of biodiver- which reverted back to forest could be considered as re- sity is reflected in the distribution of plant species. Of 767 turning to the stewardship of the eni. In addition, political plant species recorded on Pohnpei, 264 species (34.4%) boundaries of the village (kousapw) and municipal king- are found chiefly in the upland forests. One hundred and dom (wehi), formed contrasting radial divisions that en- eleven species (14.6%) are endemic to Pohnpei and 101 compassed the island’s entire marine and terrestrial envi- species (90%) are found mainly in the upland forests. Nu- ronmental diversity (Dahl and Raynor 1996). In both the merous native and endemic birds and other animals also forest and marine areas, it was believed (and to some ex- make the island their home. tent the belief persists) that lack of respect for the eni or spirit guardians of these areas, either through not following Archaeological evidence suggests that the first humans proper etiquette in these zones or through improper use arrived on Pohnpei more than 2,500 years ago (Haun of resources, was punished supernaturally by severe ill- 1976). According to legend, when the first settlers arrived ness or even death. Apparently, two broad property class- at the island’s location, they found only a tiny bit of coral es existed within prehistoric Pohnpei. Settled lands were rubble. With magic and seven further canoe loads of ma- within the human domain and were under the trusteeship terials, they built the island, thus the island’s name Pohn- (kohwa) of the paramount chief. Surrounding these hu- pei, which literally means “upon a stone altar”. The various manized areas were the luhwen wehi, common proper- gods of the time helped the human’s work by furnishing ty open to a variety of semi-secret and temporary uses. the reef, mangrove forests, and upland forest to hold the Ranked titles reflected the political structure within each island together. kousapw and wehi, and amongst these, titles connoting http://hdl.handle.net/10125/131 B. Raynor and M. Kostka Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity 57 Conservation in Pohnpei a resource regulation function are common, e.g., Sou Ma- to intensify resource exploitation. Availability of more so- dau, ‘master of the ocean’, Souwel Lapalap, ‘Great mas- phisticated technology (e.g., guns, chainsaws, and bull- ter of the forest’. The function of these titles, however, has dozers), has also provided a means to increase per capita been lost for at least several generations - no contempo- exploitation of resources. Resulting settlement and culti- rary evidence exists for the exercise of such functions. vation in upland areas has been the major cause of forest degradation. Management of land and waters, and thus effectively all natural resources, was carried out through the tradition- Besides population growth, discontinuities in the Pohnpei al leadership system. In this complex dual lineage sys- land tenure system has also
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