When the sea gives you grapes
Seagrape harvesting in Sairagi © WWF-Pacific / Andrew Bouro
How women in the Solomon Islands are conserving sea grapes for the livelihood of their children
This project is supported by Climate Resilient by Nature (CRxN), an Australian Government initiative in partnership with WWF-Australia. CRxN supports nature-based solutions that restore and protect critical ecosystems, build sustainable livelihoods, and increase resilience to climate shocks.
Freda Kamikera, 51 years old, dives into the mangrove-fringed lagoon in Kogulavata, in the west of the Solomon Islands to harvest sea grapes. Gently, she plucks off only the shoots to encourage regrowth and minimise waste, then places her harvest in telas (woven coconut palm frond baskets) lined with kakake (giant swamp taro) leaves. Once grouped according to their species – Caulerpa lentillifera, Caulerpa recemosa and Caulerpa racemosa var. Turbinata –the sea grapes are cleaned and returned to float in the lagoon in telas to heal the harvest wounds and keep them fresh for sale at the market.
Living with her husband, sons, in-laws and grandchildren, Freda farms root crops and collects palm leaves to sell at the market and her sons also go fishing, but it is sea grapes that contribute the most to her weekly household income and covers big expenses like school fees for her grandchildren.
Sea grapes, a species of algae known as “sea caviar”, are strings of miniature, round, shiny green pearls and are a part of the traditional cuisine in many coastal cultures in the Pacific Islands as well as in countries like Japan and Malaysia who share the same ocean. Tasting salty like fish roe and “popping” once chewed, sea grapes are typically eaten raw or added to a range of dishes, such as grilled fish or dried coconut. High in iron and various vitamins, they are also commonly used by locals to help cure malaria, supplement pregnant mothers and even alleviate hangovers.
Women harvesters from some of the sea grape communities in Western Province say that this species of algae makes up between 40-90% of their total weekly income.
““When I work in the garden, it is long, hard work. But when it comes to sea grapes, you can harvest, clean and sell them immediately.””
Usually sold as heaps, 500 grams of sea grapes sell for Solomon Island dollars 10 (US$1.2) on a good day at the market.
Like Freda, many women and girls are the key harvesters of sea grapes, providing a significant contribution to their family’s income. But with its reliance on healthy mangroves and connected coastal ecosystems, this natural resource is being threatened on many fronts.
Home to 485 coral species and 1,019 fish species, the Western Province of the Solomon Islands – with one of the most diverse coral reef systems in the world – face an array of ecological pressures, from excessive logging, overharvesting of marine resources, increasing sedimentation, pollution from improper waste management, invasive species and climate change. Estimates suggest that the destruction of coral reefs and mangroves could result in a loss of up to SI$12 billion (approx. US$1.4 million) worth of ecosystem services in the Solomon Islands, according to the 2018 Solomon Islands National Ocean Policy.
Traditional knowledge and a changing climate
“Previously, we’d only get low tides in June. But now it’s almost November, and it’s still low tide,” said Everlyn Paebara, one elder in Pusiju village on Vella la Vella Island in the Western Province, “That’s one of the reasons why the sea grapes are not doing as well as they used to.”
Everlyn Paebara from Pusiju WWF-Pacific © WWF-Pacific
Traditionally, the Ngali nut fruit falling from the tree used to signal the arrival of high tides, but now the nuts fall and the low tides continue for longer periods than they used to. Evelyn explained that, as water levels decrease, water temperatures become higher in more shallow areas, causing sea grapes to die back or move to deeper water.
“But when the high tide returns, it grows back well,” she said.
To protect the reefs they depend on for sea grapes and other essential resources, four communities in the Western Province are working with WWF-Solomon Islands to establish management plans for their local reefs, sea grapes and mangrove ecosystems and test ways in which they can add value to their sea grape harvesting.
Funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Climate Resilient by Nature (CRxN) project aims to build climate resilience for Pacific Islanders by promoting community-led businesses which help reduce unsustainable reliance on natural resources while mitigating ecosystem degradation and adapting to climate change.
Through nature-based solutions, the project also incorporates traditional practices to respect tambu, or sacred reefs by restricting time, quantity and areas for sea grape harvest as well as fisheries.
“When we start to follow our management plan, our income will go down,” said Endolyn Humphery, a harvester in Boboe, a village on Kohinggo Island in the Western Province, “but it’s good because we will have more [sea grapes] when the zones open up again and we’ll fetch a good price at the market.”
Despite now collecting smaller quantities of sea grapes due to harvest limits and respecting harvest closure periods, Endolyn believes that by enhancing the management of their marine resources, they are investing in their future.
““If we don’t manage seaweed, the kids won’t know what sea grapes are. If we manage it well, sea grapes for the future will not die out. If we don’t manage them then we won’t have a future with sea grapes.””
Seeing hope in data
Every six months, community rangers from each of the four communities, and teams from WWF-Solomon Islands conduct visual surveys in various locations across 406 hectares of marine ecosystem under improved management to monitor the effectiveness of their initiative. By collecting data such as the percentage of sea grape cover and species observed, they are able to determine the best approaches for managing their ecosystem and natural resource harvest.
In Boboe, the community instigated their first ever harvest closure in October 2023 and rangers conducted extra monitoring to determine whether to open the harvest or close it for longer. The data from the rangers showed that the sea grapes would benefit from a longer period of closure to regrow before opening the harvest.
“It makes me proud to see how healthy our sea grapes are,” said Elma Kiko, a harvester and mother of four, who is also a part of the management committee in Kogulavata, where the data showed the highest seagrape species diversity and good coverage.
Between the end of 2022 and mid-2023, data showed a significant increase in the percentage of seagrape coverage across all project sites where the CRxN initiative has been implemented. In Sairagi, where improved marine ecosystem management and monitoring have been in place for over ten years, women harvesters report that sea grapes now account for almost 90% of household income. Improved management has resulted in a sustainable supply of healthy sea grapes.
Seagrape harvesting © WWF-Pacific / Andrew Bouro
Women-led livelihood development work key to success
Salome Topo, WWF-Solomon Islands Field Coordinator has been working with communities in Western Province for 20 years and believes that incorporating livelihood components into conservation work with a focus on women’s economic empowerment is key to ensuring sustainable positive impacts.
“80 percent of the people here in Solomon Islands are resource owners. All the resources they have at the community is not owned by the government, but it is owned by people, both the land and the sea. Here in the Western Province we are also a matrilineal system that we, the women, own the land and the sea and also we should make decisions with the men” Topo said.
“We're trying to integrate community based fisheries management into sustainable livelihood options, where we focus on women's economic empowerment. So we started with financial inclusion training specifically for women. And the women started to realise their potential and also they started to realise that, oh, we are a part of the project too.”
Salome Topo, WWF-Solomon Islands Field Coordinator © WWF-Pacific / Andrew Buoro
Sustaining the sea for future generations
Freda Kamikera, Kogulavata sea grape harvester and community facilitator © WWF-Pacific
As part of the CRxN project funded by DFAT and through various rounds of consultations and feasibility studies, WWF-Solomon Islands has worked with community members to identify ways in which they can develop their seagrape livelihood further. By better coordinating market schedules, sellers can reduce competition against one another and each fetch higher prices for their sea grapes while also alleviating burden on the ecosystem.
The four communities are also looking to set up a community-based business bringing together the conservation committees of each community to pilot ways in which they can add value to sea grapes and maximise the benefits from the commodity. Sea grapes are fragile and have a short life span - meaning women need to carefully harvest, package and sell them at the market within a few days to maximise freshness, ensure good price and reduce waste.
In 2023, through a training supported by WWF-Solomon Islands, community members learned new methods to add value to sea grapes and lengthen the lifespan of the resource. Community representatives learned how to transform fresh sea grapes into soap, lotion, syrup, chips, and noodles. The training also covered digital marketing, branding and packaging. The next step will be for communities to pilot producing and selling soaps and lotions at local markets, which, if successful, will support continued income during sea grape harvest closure periods.
Freda, a Community Facilitator for Kongulavata, plays an important role in leading her community in these initiatives, supporting her fellow women harvesters to follow improved marine ecosystem management rules and working with Community Facilitators from other seagrape communities and WWF-Solomon Islands to learn and share together. Though new to the role, she is eager to learn from other women and work alongside them to conserve the reefs around their home, so that their grandchildren will too be able to benefit from sea grapes.
“Sea grapes are big money for our kids and grandkids,” Freda said. “We need to manage it so we can sustain it for the future.”
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