The importance of nutrition-sensitive fisheries management

Women's dietary diversity in Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands

Abstract

Feeding a growing global population is one of the most significant challenges currently facing society. Global malnutrition rates remain high, and tackling this problem in the context of global population growth and ecosystem declines will require con­certed effort across many sectors. Fish has been suggested as key to addressing high rates of malnu­trition in the South Pacific region, given that it is a rich source of highly bioavailable micronutrients and is common in traditional diets. Unfortunately, there are predictions that fish catch in this region may decline by more than 20% in the coming decades, threatening food and nutritional security. Women are key to breaking the cycle of malnutri­tion and play important roles in small-scale coastal fisheries in the South Pacific. This study assessed women’s dietary diversity and the importance of fresh fish to women’s diets in a rural coastal com­munity in Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands, over four sampling periods. We found that women’s dietary diversity in the community was low (mean MDD-W = 3.03 ± 0.06) and that fresh fish was consumed by more than 70% of the women sur­veyed in three of the four sampling periods. Our results showed some seasonal differences in dietary diversity, highlighting the importance of sampling across seasons to better capture true nutrition. We consider these results in the context of community-based fisheries management and argue for the need to improve fisheries management by including con­sideration of women’s fishing and promoting the importance of fish to human health.