Paper short abstract:

Aiming to interpret the success of a community-based marine conservation area in Vanuatu, research on ontological differences of relations between humans and other-than-humans found that relations and conservation area are conceptualised in terms of reciprocity rather than resource control.

Paper long abstract:

In the village of Siviri, on the main island of Vanuatu, chiefs together with villagers decided to establish a small community based marine conservation area along the coast, and after more than 20 years, villager support for the it remains high. In order to answer the question of why this project was successful, my research looked at villagers' relationships with their other-than-human environment, how they conceptualise these relationships, and what fishing, shellfish gathering and marine conservation are. During my ethnographic fieldwork I came across accounts that suggested that reciprocity was a key feature of these relationships, and that maintaining and establishing new relationships was central. Thus, with the conservation area villagers do not manage resources, but maintain reciprocal relationships with the sea and sea life. They thus live in a world whose characteristics differ ontologically from the globally widespread assumption of dichotomous spheres of nature and culture associated with the concept of exploitable ‘natural resources’. My results suggest that with the conservation area, Siviri villagers are able to preserve their multi-species world of reciprocal relations by creating the new practice of marine conservation. I suggest that research on ontological differences can prevent conflict and failure in community-based conservation projects. It can show that the motivations of the people involved in agreeing or disagreeing with such projects, as well as in managing the protected area, may be specific to their respective lifeworlds which are characterised by the agency of the people involved as well as the agency of marine life.