Faiva Tautai: Wallis Fishers Building Their Own Customary Marine Reserve

Faiva Tautai — Wallisian for "knowing how to navigate" — is an association of commercial fishers on the island of Wallis who grew alarmed at years of declining catches and organized to act. In 2023, working with customary chiefs and marine scientists, they marked out a 2-square-kilometre customary marine protected area in the northeast lagoon off the Hihifo district, closing it to fishing so species stocks can recover and baseline scientific monitoring can begin. The association also runs school outreach, introducing young students such as a Year-6 class at Mataotama College to the new reserve, and takes part in the annual International Coastal Clean-up. It is one of the only grassroots, fisher-led marine conservation efforts in the French territory of Wallis and Futuna.