This community consultation project is the first and most important step in a planning process that has its ultimate objective in the establishment of legally protected conservation area on Kolombangara Island.

There are three steps towards achieving this goal and they are as follows:

1. Community consultation workshop (information collection and sharing ideas)

2. Preparing a protected area management plan

3. Implementing and monitoring the plan

The Community consultation workshops provide opportunity for input and discussion of conservation and sustainability at a village level. By taking the workshops out into the villages around the Island the aim is to achieve the widest possible participation in the program as possible, develop consensus for the management approach amongst the community and promote the long term benefits and opportunities provided through conservation.

Importantly the community workshops aim to build upon existing information and knowledge, encourage understanding of the conservation areas values , educate all involved in the process so that everyone acquires a more complete understanding of the conservation areas values and issues and how others see the proposal, provide a means through which the community can make positive and meaningful contributions to the decision-making process, build a stronger and improved relationship between KIBCA and the community, promote KIBCA’s role in conservation and encourage ownership of the management solutions set out in the management plan. Developing community awareness of the benefits and opportunities provided by conservation is a clear focus of the workshops.

This workshops will assist KIBCA in its efforts to develop partnerships, and sustainable livelihood projects that provide an alternative to community’s reliance on logging and other damaging activities for income. They also provide opportunity to develop the capacity of the community to plan and manage nature based conservation projects. Based on the first consultation workshop the frame of the plan of management had been developed. A completion of the plan will be achieved through continues consultation with the communities where inputs the communities will be gathered.

Implementation will be carried by the Kolombangara Island Biodiversity Conservation Association (KIBCA) in conjunction with the Ministry of environment, Conservation and Meteorology. Monitoring work will be done by the Ministry of environment.