THE Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR) has outlined its achievements and ongoing initiatives through the Democratic Coalition for Change Government (DCCG) policy achievements.

The Development of the New Fisheries Management Act 2015 has been achieved and the compilation of all necessary regulations and information for drafting the new inshore and onshore fisheries are complete.

According to the DCCG policy achievements summary, the review of the Fisheries Act 2016 draft is also completed and is currently with the Attorney General Chambers for vetting.

The Ministry has also developed a new Inshore Fisheries Management Strategy (IFM) and is currently in progressive draft form.

The move to establish a new Compliance office in Noro, Western Province was completed in 2015 and Fisheries Compliance Officers are currently manning the office.

This, according to the summary will strengthen compliance issues.

As of 2015, the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources has been aiming to go through an organizational restructure and management system and is still an ongoing development.

The Ministry has also upgraded its Fisheries Information Management System (FIMS) and training of Fisheries Training and Deployment of fish aggregation device in the provinces and CBRM outreach programmes are all ongoing developments aimed to be achieved within this Government’s term.

The policy achievement’s summary states that the construction of constituency fisheries centres have also been an ongoing one since 2015 and that a total of 20 sites have already been identified and awards have been given to contractors to work on the sites.

It further adds that Solomon Islands is currently leading the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) and Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) countries by example to implement LLVDS in 2017.

The Ministry has also outlined that the Pacific Horizon Consultancy Group has done land mobilization studies on Bina and Suava in 2015 and that a Caucus paper on the Land Mobilization study will be prepared for Cabinet.

The Cabinet approval and mandate was given to the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources to focus on Bina for onshore fishing processing plant this year.

Three land holding entity workshops were held for the Bina Talifu landowners and trustees in April and June this year and consultations are ongoing with Bina Talifu landowners from since 2015, spanning 2016 and most likely into 2017.