Preserving Vanuatu’s Environment played by Empowered Local Women. In Vanuatu, threats posed to biodiversity from population growth and overharvesting, climate change, and extractive economies of scale are  compounding.  For the people of these South Pacific islands, the loss of biodiversity impacts food security and well-being. Case studies from around the world reveal that empowering women leads to more effective and sustained biodiversity conservation.

This video documents the emerging role played by women in natural resource management and environmental decision-making as part of Wan Smolbag’s Vanua’tai Resource Monitors Network.  With principle funding from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund in 2017-18,  Island Reach has been collaborating with this indigenous environmental group to increase women’s participation, build their capacity, and facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges.

Increasingly, women are sharing stories and lessons learned with each other, becoming more knowledgeable about conservation efforts, encouraging each other in actions, and developing leadership skills that enable them to assist their communities to pursue sustainable conservation goals. Women’s participation in the Vanua’tai network as environmental stewards and agents of change is inspirational. These women serve as a model for women in conservation and communities across the Pacific region and beyond.

Additional funding for this project came from Global Greengrants Fund and GEF Small Grants Program of the UNDP.
Music by Scott Holmes.
An Island Reach Production.