Myles Phillips began his PhD at James Cook University in 2025, having completed an MSc in Natural Resources Management (Coastal and Marine Resources) at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus in 2010. He has held technical posts in Barbados, The Bahamas, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Belize in capacities variously related to regional coordination of marine research, marine resource monitoring, endangered species conservation and protected area management.

He has held executive and contributing roles in multiple national and regional expert working groups in the Caribbean region, including service as Convener of the FAO Western Central Atlantic Fisheries Commission’s (WECAFC) Working Group on Spawning Aggregations, and as a member of the SPAW Protocol’s Regional Activity Centre for the Caribbean (SPAW-RAC) Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (STAC).

Strengthening monitoring of coral reefs and fisheries co-management in the Kingdom of Tonga

2025 to 2029

Project Description

Tonga is a Pacific Island nation comprising three island groups and 111 coastal communities. These communities are heavily reliant on extensive coral reef systems for small scale artisanal and subsistence fisheries, which play crucial roles in rural livelihoods and cultural identity. In 2002, Tonga instituted the “Special Management Area” (SMA) program, under which communities collaborate with the Ministry of Fisheries (MoF) to co-manage marine areas adjacent to their villages for increased food security. As of 2024, SMAs have been adopted and implemented in over 50% of Tonga’s coastal communities, with an aim to involve 100% of coastal communities within three years.

Despite the successful national scaling of the program and its alignment with national policies and plans, there has been only limited assessment of program effectiveness with respect to fishery sustainability. Further, the Tongan government is limited in its capacity for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of SMAs by ongoing staffing and budgetary constraints. Due to limited national capacity and training, M&E in Tonga has generally been haphazard, opportunistic, limited in geographic and temporal scope, and driven by external agencies with limited investment in perpetuating locally driven programs guided by national priorities.

This project will propose and pilot a centralized, fit-for purpose M&E protocol for Tonga’s inshore fisheries and the SMA program in collaboration with the Tongan government by:
1. Reviewing existing monitoring framework to identify key gaps and national priorities,
2. Providing recommendations for a new monitoring framework which aligns with local capacity, and
3. Trial implementation of the proposed framework.

Emphasis will be placed on matching local capacity and resources with optimal and efficient methodologies, and on enhancing information accessibility based on national priorities. The objectives will be supported by capacity building and training, production of reference materials and targeted research to empower local communities to achieve sustainable fisheries.

Project Importance

Small-scale subsistence and artisanal fisheries are the lifeblood of many coastal communities in Tonga1,2. In 2002, the Special Management Area (SMA) program was implemented to mitigate overfishing and associated declines in essential fishery resources through a shift from open-access fisheries to territorial use rights fisheries and co-management3,4. Coastal communities have been enthusiastic in their adoption of the program2, which entitles them to exclusive fishing rights within their adjacent SMA and allows them to indicate the size and location of embedded no-take zones known as Fish Habitat Reserves (FHR)2,3. Co-management approaches create an enabling environment for stakeholder buy-in1, mitigation of many management challenges inherent to small scale fisheries (SSF)5,6, and achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals7,8. However, the nationwide expansion of the SMA program exacerbates the need to ensure that national and community level objectives are being met to secure the livelihoods of current and future generations3, especially in the face of emerging global economic uncertainties.

Long term monitoring and evaluation (M&E) generates credible scientific assessments of resource status and post-intervention impacts to inform adaptive management processes9. However, it is essential for managers to embrace M&E strategies that are fit-for-purpose and in alignment with available local and national budgets, capacity and priorities3,10. In the case of SSF in developing countries, managers face several barriers to effective M&E, including high cost, lack of capacity for data collection and analysis, inadequate assessment of marine reserve impacts, and failure to account for all sources of catch10.

Ford-Learner et al. (2024) reviewed all monitoring and evaluation reports on Tonga’s Special Management Areas, summarizing the information collected by 25 projects since the year 20103. Key among their findings was limited follow-up monitoring beyond baseline studies3. Existing post intervention assessments yielded mixed results, with species richness and fish biomass increasing in some older FHRs and remaining unchanged in others. Despite recent economic assessments of national inshore fisheries4, there is limited information by which to assess whether SMAs in particular are contributing to more sustainable fisheries and increasing food security3.

The scale of the program and wide dispersal of SMAs creates logistical, coordination and financial challenges for centralized M&E efforts, and community level monitoring is generally ad hoc3. As a result, despite the use of comparable methodologies, monitoring activities have been haphazard and opportunistic, and do not produce adequate data to clearly evaluate the impact of SMAs3. Further, the factors which contribute to management success or failure at the SMA level have not been identified.

Project Methods

This project will consist of three phases, loosely aligned with the three objectives. Each phase will involve at least one trip to Tonga by the research team to (1) consult in-person with the Government of Tonga and Special Management Area community representatives on research objectives and progress and (2) conduct workshops, focus groups and fieldwork with key stakeholders. The national priorities of the Tongan government and its co-managers will inform all aspects of this research, and local collaborators will be included in every phase of implementation and reporting, including co-authorship of publications.

Phase 1 (Activities 1.1 and 1.2) will inform a gap analysis of SSF monitoring through characterization of the actors and their objectives as well as past efforts and current M&E methodologies and infrastructures in place. Our analysis will incorporate the current capacity of these actors, traditional and scientific knowledge and resource availability. Methods will involve workshops, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and site visits with key staff involved in coral reef monitoring and management in Tonga. Secondarily, we will commence a literature review of best practice fisheries and conservation tools and frameworks (Activity 2.1) and initiate partnerships with expert agencies and developers to be leveraged in Phase 2.

Phase 2 (Activities 2.1 and 2.2) will involve a collaboration with the Australia Institute of Marine Science to develop and propose a new monitoring framework for Tonga. This collaboration will leverage their (1) expertise accrued through long term monitoring of the Great Barrier Reef and (2) mandate to foster Australia-Pacific relations . Building on the literature review initiated during Phase 1, we will examine the elements of existing best practice monitoring programs, conducting evaluations focused on scalability to the SMA program. This will include an analysis of required personnel, training, objectives, budget, sampling procedures and statistical analyses. We will also review emerging M&E tools (including open-access web-based platforms e.g. DataMERMAID, ReefCloud) to critically assess their efficacy and appropriateness in this context against more traditional tools. Methods will involve site visits, desk-based review, key informant interviews, and participation in training workshops. Finally, we will synthesize the information gathered in consultation with the Tongan government and community representatives. Through a participatory approach, we will utilise lessons learned to match the objectives and capacity of local resource managers and stakeholders with monitoring framework elements which meet their needs. Further, we will identify any supplementary measures (e.g. management effectiveness evaluation instruments, strategic partnerships to support regular supplementary data collection, remote sensing tools) to co-design a framework for coral reef and inshore fishery monitoring and evaluation in Tonga.

During Phase 3, we will pilot the proposed framework to evaluate its effectiveness in practice. Training workshops will equip Tongan nationals with the skills needed at each phase of the proposed framework. Baseline ecological data will be generated through underwater visual census of ~100 sites across three island groups with a team of four divers to examine fish diversity, abundance, species richness, length and biomass. Lessons learned from collection and evaluation of this baseline dataset will be used to refine the proposed framework for best possible alignment with assigned objectives and the capacity of implementing actors. This aspect of Phase 3 (Activities 3.1 and 3.2) will run across Year 2 and 3 of the project.

Finally, we will use the collected data in conjunction with existing market surveys conducted by the MoF and the Secretariate of the Pacific Community (SPC)to undertake a thorough impact evaluation of Tonga’s SMA program (Activity 3.3). This will involve comparison of data on target species abundance, biomass, and value, within and beyond SMA areas, to understand the overall impacts of the program.

Project Results

This project will address critical gaps by proposing and piloting a locally driven M&E framework and establishing a baseline of high-quality ecological data on fishery resources in SMAs. Local entities will be trained and equipped to independently repeat the process every 3-4 years.

Keywords

Climate change,
Coastal development,
Coral reefs,
Corals,
Ecology,
Field based,
Fish,
Fishing impact,
Human use,
Management tools,
Mapping,
Marine planning,
Monitoring,
Quantitative marine science,
Tagging