Gardiens Des Îles Champions Customary-Led Resource Management at the Pacific Innovation Forum 2026

From 1–3 July 2026, the Pacific Innovation Forum on Climate and Environment (PIFCE)—known as Wave Makers 2026 — brought together governments, researchers, development partners, businesses, and community actors in Port‑Vila, Vanuatu, to showcase solutions and strengthen collaboration on climate resilience. Organised by the Government of Vanuatu with the Pacific Climate Change Centre (hosted by SPREP) and V‑Lab Vanuatu, the forum offered a regional stage. Gardiens Des Îles (GDI), a Melanesia Bio‑Cultural Network (MBCN) member organisation from New Caledonia, used it to place customary and community‑led natural resource management at the centre of the conversation.

On Thursday 2 July, GDI convened a round table on customary and community‑led natural resource management, in collaboration with SEVE. Speakers included GDI's Léa Creux, Jenny Dubois de Montreynaud, Dr Malik Oedin, and Kayel Meandu, alongside Dr Marine Aubert of SEVE and Senator Elvys Gourou of New Caledonia's Customary Senate (Sénat Coutumier). Around fifty people joined in the room, with the session broadcast live‑streamed by Vanuatu's Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.  

The discussion confronted a familiar reality. That customary-led management practices remain under-recognised across the Pacific, even as they quietly sustain land and sea. Speakers shared early insights from an ongoing regional study on the customary management of natural land resources in Melanesia, drawing on living examples such as GDI's nature‑based solutions projects, the Boyen Tribe's community management of water distribution, and traditional fire management practices. It also underlined the role of New Caledonia’s Customary Senate in giving community initiatives institutional backing.

GDI also contributed to a workshop facilitated by SEVE, Driving institutional support to customary‑led natural resource management, which gathered seventeen participants from Vanuatu, Palau, the United States, and Uganda into small working groups. Tackling real challenges, such as invasive species, coastal erosion, and bushfires. The overall consensus from the participants concluded that institutions should strengthen community‑led initiatives, not take them over. Among the standout proposals, customary chiefs of Shefa Province, supported by the Palauan Ambassador to Australia, resolved to work towards a Traditional Leadership Conference so that Indigenous leaders can speak to governments and partners as one collective voice.

For MBCN, the forum was also a gathering of kin. MBCN members — Léa Creux, Martika Tahi, Elvys Gourou, and Richie Numalo — met in Vanuatu, and a customary exchange between the chiefs of Shefa Province and Senator Gourou of New Caledonia symbolised the ties that bind Melanesian communities across borders. A meeting with Vanuatu's Minister for Climate Change, Ralph Regenvanu, reflected the growing political attention these approaches are earning.

The forum pointed towards the road ahead, including the 11th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas in New Caledonia this September (2026).

Images are owned by GDI