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# Marine Biodiversity in New Caledonia and Contemporary Conservation Challenges

4

Dominique Pelletier

**Abstract**

New Caledonia is internationally renowned for its exceptional marine biodiversity, which has resulted in 80% of the lagoons and reef areas being placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. This chapter presents the main features of this outstanding marine biodiversity and its ecological significance, highlighting the threats posed by anthropogenic pressures and global drivers, and associated conservation challenges. Oceanic and coastal dynamics determine distinct marine ecosystems. The oceanic ecosystem of the Coral Sea will be described first, and this chapter will focus on the lagoon and reef areas, which are in close relation to human populations.

**Keywords**

Marine biodiversity · Coral sea · Fishes · Benthic habitats · Iconic species · Conservation · Marine protected areas

human impacts (Halpern et al. 2008). The EEZ forms the Coral Sea Natural Park (CSNP) declared in April 2014 by the government of New Caledonia.<fnref n="1" />

In addition to this extended oceanic area, New Caledonia's main island (Grande Terre) is almost entirely surrounded by a large lagoon delineated by the longest continuous barrier reef area in the world (approximately 1500 km). This reef encloses a lagoon of 24,000 square km. Exchanges between the open sea and the lagoon occur through a number of reef passes described in Breckwoldt et al. (2022), among others. The Loyalty Islands located northeast of Grande Terre comprise two islands without lagoons (Lifou and Maré) and Ouvéa which displays a semi-closed lagoon area. In 2008, six areas in the barrier reef and the enclosed lagoon were declared as a World Heritage serial site owing to their exceptional natural beauty, the diversity of their habitats and their coral and fish species.<fnref n="2" /> In addition, they have large populations of iconic and threatened species such as turtles, whales and dugongs.

**4.1 The Marine Components of the New Caledonian Archipelago**

Located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and relatively far from neighbouring islands, New Caledonia includes a large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of ~1,300,000 km<fnref n="2" /> (Fig. 4.1). The EEZ is bounded in the West by the Australian continental shelf, by the Solomon Islands and by Vanuatu in the North and by New Zealand and Australia (due to the presence of Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs) in the South. New Caledonia's EEZ is part of the Coral Sea, which is among the 4% of the global ocean that remain relatively unaffected by

**4.1.1 The Oceanic Ecosystems in the Coral Sea**

The attributes of the Coral Sea ecosystems were reviewed by Ceccarelli et al. (2013). They point out that these oceanic ecosystems are generally low in nutrients (oligotrophic), resulting in the dominance of small plankton (picoplankton) and pelagic invertebrates (jellyfish and squid), with mesopelagic fishes such as myctophids. This trophic web supports seasonal and/or ephemeral aggregations of top predators and in particular large pelagic species (mainly tuna, marlin and swordfish). These sustain important commercial fisheries

<footnote>D. Pelletier (✉)
French Research Institute for Sustainable Development,
UMR DECOD, Ifremer, Lorient, France
e-mail: Dominique.Pelletier@ifremer.fr</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹https://mer-de-corail.gouv.nc/en.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1115 (see map in Chap. 2 by Rodary in this book).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_12.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 4.1** Delineation of provinces and the exclusive economic zone of New Caledonia, located in the Southwest Pacific (17–24° latitude south, 158–172° longitude west). (Source: www.georep.nc, cartography: Kowasch 2021)</figcaption></figure>

and some recreational fishing. Ceccarelli et al. (2013) also identified that we know too little about the underlying productivity (the zooplankton and micronekton that sustain larger species) and associated trophodynamics.

Seamounts are “undersea mountains” (Yesson et al. 2011). Based on bathymetry data, Yesson et al. predicted the presence of more than 500 seamounts in the Coral Sea. They provide habitats for many fish species and invertebrates and can host significant populations of fishes, as a seamount is an attractive biotope for underwater fauna, in the same way as an oasis in the middle of the oligotrophic ocean. They may thus be particularly productive, in particular when they culminate in mid-water (less than 1500 m). A number of ongoing research projects aim at improving the understanding of seamount-associated communities (e.g. led by French and Japanese institutes).

The continental shelf and bathyal (abyssal) habitats were rarely investigated in the past and are relatively poorly known in comparison to other habitats. Between 2016 and 2021, the French Museum of Natural History, Ifremer (National

Institute for Ocean Science) and IRD (French Institute of Research for Development) conducted a series of four surveys to explore the deep habitats in the Coral Sea and revise biodiversity inventories.<fnref n="3" /> Samples are not yet fully analysed. Observation technologies such as acoustics and imaging should provide additional data in the future.

Marine biodiversity, at least its most conspicuous components, is mainly observed in coastal and reef areas despite the large surface area of the Coral Sea and the EEZ. These areas also correspond to the meeting point between the land and the sea and between human populations and marine ecosystems. They will thus be the focus for the rest of the chapter. Firstly, I summarise the components of marine biodiversity and then the benthic habitats which are home to it. I then focus on components that are the most conspicuous and related to human populations, which are fish and iconic species. Lastly, I examine the

<footnote n="3">³https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/la-planete-revisitee-en-nouvelle-caledonie.</footnote>
anthropogenic pressures affecting marine biodiversity and the instruments implemented to manage and preserve it.

## 4.2 What Comprises Marine Biodiversity in New Caledonia?

New Caledonia's reputation as a "hotspot of biodiversity" is justified for terrestrial and marine environments. This section builds on a compendium of marine species established in 2006 (Payri and Richer de Forges 2007) that largely concerns species observed in the 0–100 m range, although some deep species were also listed. Overall, 9300 species were identified, belonging to 1107 taxonomic families (Table 4.1). For many groups, the number of species identified is a gross underestimate, for example, for molluscs where this number could in fact be as high as 8000–10,000 species (Héros et al. 2007). In general, many small species have yet to be fully described, included in collections already sampled but not

<table><caption>**Table 4.1** Number of species observed in New Caledonia per main taxa group</caption><thead><tr><th>Taxa</th><th>Common names</th><th>Number of species</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Plants</td><td></td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>Mangrove flora</td><td>Mangrove species</td><td>34</td></tr><tr><td>Marine angiosperms</td><td>Seagrasses</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>Algae</td><td>Algae</td><td>443</td></tr><tr><td>Foraminifera</td><td>A group of single-celled organisms</td><td>585</td></tr><tr><td>Porifera</td><td>Sponges</td><td>149</td></tr><tr><td>Cnidarians</td><td></td><td>784</td></tr><tr><td>Scleratinarians</td><td>Stony corals</td><td>310</td></tr><tr><td>Alcyonaria</td><td>Soft corals etc...</td><td>173</td></tr><tr><td>Gorgonacea</td><td>Gorgonians</td><td>93</td></tr><tr><td>Other groups</td><td>Jellyfishes, sea anemones, etc.</td><td>208</td></tr><tr><td>Lophophorates</td><td></td><td>415</td></tr><tr><td>Molluscs</td><td>Bivalves, cephalopods and gastropods</td><td>2151</td></tr><tr><td>Worms</td><td></td><td>416</td></tr><tr><td>Arthropods</td><td>Crustaceans and sea spiders</td><td>2043</td></tr><tr><td>Echinodermata</td><td>Sea urchins, sea cucumbers, starfishes, crinoids (sea lilies and feather stars) and brittle stars</td><td>257</td></tr><tr><td>Tunicata</td><td>Ascidians</td><td>290</td></tr><tr><td>Vertebrata</td><td></td><td>1794</td></tr><tr><td>Fish</td><td></td><td>1695</td></tr><tr><td>Sea snakes</td><td></td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td>Sea turtles</td><td></td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Sea birds</td><td></td><td>55</td></tr><tr><td>Marine mammals</td><td></td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Total</strong></td><td></td><td><strong>9372</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>

Only fully identified species were listed. Cyanobacteria were not listed. Figures taken from Payri and Richer de Forges (2007)

entirely processed, for example, for molluscs and Foraminifera. Due to varying research efforts, some groups are much more studied than others, like fishes, whereas worms are less researched. In addition, some biotopes were historically less inventoried, like the external slopes of barrier reefs, intermediate lagoon reefs and mangroves. Remote oceanic reef areas were also inadequately sampled in the past but were the focus of several surveys more recently<fnref n="4" /> and in particular in the AMBIO project who provided an extensive video-based survey of fishes and habitats in all the remote reefs in the CSNP (see references below).

In Payri and Richer de Forges (2007), a large proportion of species are microfauna and meiofauna, meaning they are smaller than a few millimetres. For instance, there are 585 species (6% of species) of Foraminifera, which are mostly calcareous species found in shallow lagoonal waters (Debenay and Cabioch 2007). Arthropods also form a vast group (22% of species) with many small taxa, for example, copepods which are tiny crustaceans either planktonic or benthic organisms, sometimes associated with fish or corals.

A second feature of New Caledonian biodiversity is endemicity, that is, the fact that many species are only found there. For several groups, the rate of endemicity is quite high, for example, 40% of sponge species. It is lower for other non-sessile groups, for example, around 50 species for molluscs. The notion of endemicity is closely related to conservation efforts, because if an endemic species disappears from its habitat, it disappears from the planet.

High biodiversity is largely explained by the diversity of ecological niches and habitats found in New Caledonia. The next section describes the main features of these habitats in lagoon and shallow (0–100 m) reef areas.

## 4.3 Benthic Habitats

Lagoon and reef areas encompass a mosaic of benthic habitats. Habitats are characterised by their geomorphological structure, a simple typology distinguishing the barrier reef with its external and internal slopes, the intermediate reefs located in lagoon areas, the lagoon areas themselves and the fringing reefs. Reef passes are specific areas with strong hydrodynamics entailing a remarkable abundance of fish and the frequent presence of large species such as sharks and rays. Andréfouët and Torres-Pullizza (2004) mapped the geomorphological distribution of reefs and lagoons in New Caledonia and showed the diversity, complexity and interwining of reef-associated structures. This configuration has

<footnote n="4">⁴https://mer-de-corail.gouv.nc/fr/missions-du-parc-comprendre/campagnes-scientifiques.</footnote>
been shaped by strong ancient geological and climatic
events.

Overlaying this geomorphological structure, habitat is in
addition described by substrate types with varying granular-
ity and organisation. Furthermore, this abiotic substrate is
covered with fixed fauna and flora of different sizes, shapes
and colours. Hence, the notion of habitat involves a range of
spatial scales, from the very fine (a few centimetres) to the
large (across a few kilometres) and with a diversity of fea-
tures. A diversity of shelters in a habitat determines its capac-
ity to host a rich and diverse biodiversity. This diversity of
so-called niches and the favourable weather conditions
throughout the year likely explain why New Caledonian
lagoon and reef habitats exhibit such diverse marine life.

The most common benthic habitats observed in the lagoon
and reefs are living coral, sandy bottoms, debris habitats,
seagrass beds, macroalgae fields and mangrove areas
(Figs. 4.2 and 4.3) (Pelletier et al. 2020).

Mangroves are located at the land-sea interface, in lagoons and estuaries, and are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. In New Caledonia, the larger areas are found on the western coast of the Grande Terre, notably from Pouembout to Koné, but they are distributed all around the island. This unique habitat provides four important ecosystem services to human populations: carbon sequestration, water purification, coastal protection and fish biomass production (Trégarot et al. 2021). Because of their intricate root

network, mangrove areas are particularly good shelters for
animals to avoid predation, for instance, crabs or young fish.
Trégarot et al. found that New Caledonian mangroves had a
relatively lower vulnerability than in some other French
oversea territories.

Seagrass habitats are most frequently found on fringing
reefs and on the western coast of New Caledonia (Fig. 4.2,
top left), for example, in the Bourail area. By contrast, they
are infrequently found in remote reefs across the CSNP.
Like mangroves, seagrass habitats limit the erosion of the
sea bottom by stabilising the fine-grained substrate. They
help trap fine sediments and particles that are suspended in
the water column, which increases water clarity. Seagrass
also provides food, shelter and essential nursery areas for
fish species, including exploited ones, and for invertebrates.
Some fish families are more often observed in seagrass
habitats than in hard bottom habitats, for example, emper-
ors (Lethrinidae). The green sea turtle (*Chelonia mydas*)
and dugongs (*Dugong dugon*) feed directly on seagrass,
while the decomposition of seagrass plants releases nutri-
ents in water and food for small invertebrates. Finally, sea-
grasses provide a safe environment for juvenile and small
adult fish and invertebrates to escape from larger
predators.

Like mangrove and seagrasses, macroalgae habitats are
also found on soft bottoms (Fig. 4.2, top right). Pelletier
et al. (2020) found a distribution concentrated in the western

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 4.2** Seagrass habitat in Abore barrier reef (top left), macroalgae habitat in Merlet integral reserve (top right), sandy habitat in Bellona remote reef (bottom left) and sandy habitat with isolated coral patch in Merlet integral reserve (bottom right). (Source: Pelletier 2020)</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_14.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 4.3** Live coral habitat (top left), debris habitat on exposed reef flat at Astrolabe remote reef (top right), debris habitat associated with damage from recreative uses and mooring at Mbe Kouen unprotected reef</figcaption></figure>

(bottom left) and debris habitat dominated by boulders at the volcanic island Hunter (bottom right). (Source: Pelletier 2020)

coast of the Grande Terre and particularly in the Nouméa area. Macroalgae are primary producers that form the basis of many marine food chains and provide habitat and refuge for a range of organisms. Yet, they appear to support less diversity of animals than seagrasses.

Sandy bottoms (Fig. 4.2, bottom) are habitats where biotic cover is low or absent. A number of mobile fish species can be observed, for example, rays, sharks, jacks and flatfishes and passing sea turtles (Pelletier et al. 2020). Sea cucumbers (a type of echinoderm, like starfish) are commonly observed. In these relatively desert areas, many small species aggregate around isolated coral reef patches that appear as oases (Fig. 4.2, bottom right).

Other types of soft bottom habitats are also present in New Caledonian coastal waters and around shallow reefs. Bays and semi-enclosed zones represent 35% of sediment bottom habitats (Laboute et al. 1991). Sediments and mud are mostly transported by creeks and rivers that wash out from the landmass and accumulate on the lagoon floor. Examples include Prony Bay in the south or Port-Bouquet Bay on the southeast of Grande Terre. In such areas, marine life is mostly endogenous, hidden in the sediment, although some corals, invertebrates and fish species have adapted to this environment.

Hard bottom habitats are the other types encountered in New Caledonian coastal areas. Living coral habitat is the

richest and most diversified habitat in terms of marine species, invertebrates and vertebrates. Bioconstructed coral structures yield a diversity of ecological niches and complex habitat morphologies which provide multiple refuges for numerous species. In New Caledonia and in other regions, the macrofauna of this habitat has been researched more thoroughly than others, and corals and fish species have often been used as surrogates in biodiversity assessments (Bellwood and Hughes 2001) because they are comparatively easy to enumerate and are well known taxonomically. According to Pelletier et al. (2020), who established the distribution of benthic habitats at the scale of New Caledonian lagoon and reef areas, the live coral habitat is the most remarkable where reefs are protected from trade winds, for example, on the external slopes of the barrier reef, in the South Lagoon and at several remote reefs of the CSNP (Astrolabe, Chesterfield, Bellona, Entrecasteaux) (Fig. 4.3, top left). Live coral cover is also abundant on some fringing reefs on the eastern coast of Grande Terre, for example, in Pouebo and Borendy.

The debris habitat displays a lower cover of live coral, ranging from 0% to approximately 20%, with diverse facies, either small debris, dead coral, rocks, boulders or slabs. In these habitats, the diversity of fish species is lower than in the live coral habitat. Yet, some species are still quite common here, like triggerfish (Balistidae), surgeonfish
(Acanthuridae) and parrotfish (Scaridae) (Pelletier et al. 2020). This habitat is found in areas where the live coral has been damaged either from natural or anthropogenic forces and in zones exposed to waves (e.g. in reef flats) (Fig. 4.3, top right) or with strong hydrodynamics, for example, reef passes in and out of the lagoon. Where nutrients are abundant or corals have died from bleaching, macroalgae may develop on the substrate or on dead coral, particularly if grazing species (herbivorous species feeding on these macroalgae) are not abundant. The debris habitat is commonly observed in the larger Nouméa area, on the internal slope of the barrier reef and around islands and reefs where frequentation by boat is high (Fig. 4.3, bottom left). It is also found in exposed shallow areas in the remote reefs of Petrie and Astrolabe and in Hienghène and Pouébo on Grande Terre's northeast coast.

Particular hard bottom habitats can be observed in specific areas, for example, around the remote volcanic islands of Matthew and Hunter, northeast of Grande Terre (Fig. 4.3, bottom right). Surprisingly, a substantial cover of live coral was observed on their fringing reefs (Roman and Pelletier 2015).

To summarise, these six main habitats display very distinct features and therefore host distinct species compositions and macrofauna abundances. They may serve as a nursery for some species and a feeding ground for others. Likewise, a given species may spend part of its life cycle in a given habitat and others in different habitats. Therefore, the biodiversity of coral reef ecosystems strongly depends on the coexistence and connectivity of these complementary habitats.

## 4.4 Fishes and Other Exploited Species

Fish have been well described and illustrated in New Caledonia: the checklist of Fricke et al. (2011) comprises 2320 marine species in 246 families. Laboute and Grandperrin (2016) reported and illustrated 1200 species. The majority of New Caledonian marine species (1860) belong to the Grande Terre group, 1029 to the Loyalty Ridge (including the Loyalty Islands) and 193 to the New Caledonian basin at large (Fricke et al. 2011). These authors list 107 endemic species, that is, 4.6% of the total native species, which is a high rate of endemism (and mainly comprises small species). It is likely that the number of fish species is underestimated because the observation techniques commonly used (underwater visual censuses) cannot reliably capture species that are cryptic, camouflaged, averse to divers or too small (Kulbicki et al. 2010).

The distribution of fish species and their abundance strongly depends on benthic habitat (see above) and on fishing pressures. In many reef passes, in addition to greater

abundances, several species form large aggregations, either for spawning or for feeding on spawning species. This is, for instance, the case of the false pass of Bourail, very close to the coast, and the Kouare pass in the South Lagoon, located more offshore from Grande Terre (Fig. 4.4, bottom right). Protecting reef passes from excessive fishing is key to safeguarding the spawning potential of fish populations. The AMBIO (Advanced Nanostructured Surfaces for the Control of Biofouling) project showed that fish abundance and fish diversity were highest in the remote reefs of the CSNP (Fig. 4.4, top left and right) and particularly at Astrolabe reefs (Schohn et al. 2017a) and at d'Entrecasteaux reefs (Schohn et al. 2017b), mainly because of their remoteness and the outstanding health status of these remote coral reefs. The AMBIO project also documented the effectiveness of the marine protected areas (MPAs) implemented on Grande Terre to protect the abundance and diversity of fish assemblages and of exploited fish species; see, for example, the Abore reef marine reserve (Fig. 4.4, bottom right).

## 4.5 Iconic Species

Iconic species are those with an outstanding social value to humanity; this notion of course being culturally dependent. Iconic species are used to promote New Caledonia and its biodiversity.<fnref n="5" />

A number of fish species are considered as iconic (Fig. 4.5). Most rays (20 species) belong in this category, including the manta ray (*Mobula birostris*), the giant guitar-fish (*Rhynchobatus djiddensis*), the round ribbontail ray (*Taeniurops meyeni*) and the whitespotted eagle ray (*Aetobatus ocellatus*). Shark species are included as well (more than 20 species observed) and the humphead wrasse (*Cheilinus undulatus*). Most ray species and the humphead wrasse are endangered. The conservation status of requiem sharks (genus *Carcharhinus*), the great white shark (*Carcharodon carcharias*), the whale shark (*Rhincodon typus*) and the tawny nurse shark (*Nebrius ferrugineus*) range from vulnerable to endangered. Although some of these species are relatively rare, diverless video-based surveys conducted in the AMBIO project evidenced very high frequencies of some shark species (over 40%, that is, they were seen on more than 40% of underwater video stations at a given site) and humphead wrasse (20%) on some remote reefs in the CSNP. Rays were most often observed in lagoon areas, with a frequency up to 10%.

<footnote n="5">⁵See, for example, dugong and whales featured in advertising material for cruises at https://escales.ponant.com/nouvelle-caledonie-grand-lagon-sud/.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_15.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 4.4** Examples of fish species observed in New Caledonia: Live coral seascape in Chesterfield remote reef (top left), large abundance of fish with jacks and a shark above a coral patch in Astrolabe remote reef</figcaption></figure>

(top right), sweetlips in Nouméa barrier reef MPA (bottom left) and aggregation of fish in Kouare reef pass (bottom right). (Source: STAVIRO images from AMBIO project, Ifremer)

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 4.5** Examples of iconic species observed in the New Caledonian lagoon: green turtle (Kouare pass) (top left), cow tail stingray (*Pastinachus sephen*) (Nouméa barrier reef) (top right), dugong (Signal</figcaption></figure>

Islet, Nouméa Lagoon) (bottom left) and giant wrasse (Kouare pass) (bottom right). (Source: STAVIRO, AMBIO project, Ifremer)
Four species of sea turtles (out of seven in the world) are present in New Caledonia. The green turtle (*Chelonia mydas*) is the most abundant (Fig. 4.5). It comes onshore only to breed, and important nesting sites are located at the d'Entrecasteaux reefs and atolls, while a few other sites are distributed on the western and eastern coasts of Grande Terre and across the Loyalty Islands. The loggerhead turtle (*Caretta caretta*) has a main nesting site in the Bourail area and minor sites in the Isle of Pines and Loyalty Islands. The hawksbill turtle (*Eretmochelys imbricata*) can be observed in several places on the north-eastern coast, on the Loyalty Islands and across some southern locations on Grande Terre and the Isle of Pines. The leatherback turtle (*Dermochelys coriacea*) is only sporadically observed transiting in New Caledonia (d'Auzon 2007).

Some 59 species of sea birds have been observed in New Caledonia, out of which 28 breed in the territory (Spaggiari et al. 2007). Four breeding species display sub-species that are endemic to New Caledonia: two petrel species (*Pterodroma leucoptera caledonica* and *Pseudobulweria rostrata trouessarti*), the silver gull (*Larus novoehollandiae forsteri*) and the fairy tern (*Sternula nereis exsul*). Petrel species that breed in New Caledonia are classified as vulnerable (*Pterodroma leucoptera*) or endangered (*Nesofregetta fuliginosa*), while two others are considered as near-threatened: *Pseudobulweria rostrata trouessarti* and *Esacus magnirostris*. There is evidence that at least three species were extirpated from regions of New Caledonia where they used to breed: the boobies (*Sula dactylatra* and *S. leucogaster*), the fairy tern and the silver gull.

There are 25 species of marine mammals in New Caledonia. None of them are endemic, as they are widely distributed across the Pacific (Garrigue 2007). The territory hosts the largest population of dugong (*Dugong dugon*) in Oceania. Some 23 species of Cetaceans have been sighted but many only once. The most abundant species is the humpback whale (*Megaptera novaeangliae*), which breeds in the South Lagoon. The minke whale (*Balaenoptera acutorostrata*) is regularly observed too, as is the Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphin (*Tursiops aduncus*).

Sea snakes are abundant in the lagoons of New Caledonia compared to other islands in Oceania, with 14 species inventoried. They are encountered in the reefs and shallow bays fringing the shores of coasts and islets (Ineich and Laboute 2002; Borsa 2008), where they move ashore and also prey on fish on coral reefs. Snakes are also present in remote reefs in the Coral Sea (Goiran et al. 2022). Two species are endemic to the territory: *Laticauda saintgi-ronsii* and *Hydrophis laboutei*.

## 4.6 Conservation Challenges and Current Management Measures

Marine biodiversity in New Caledonia is subject to several types of anthropogenic pressures (Table 4.2). Most if not all of these are correlated with economic activity and the presence of humans. After several decades of growing populations, the number of human inhabitants of New Caledonia had stabilised by 2019, related to other trends noted in this book.<fnref n="6" />

Urbanisation coupled with rapid demographic increase until 2019 has entailed an extension and densification of the Nouméa agglomeration and the growing urban population anchored by Kone, with consequences in terms of run-off to the lagoon. A different type of run-off occurs due to mining

<table><caption>**Table 4.2** Anthropogenic pressures and their impacts on marine biodiversity in New Caledonia</caption><thead><tr><td>Pressure</td><td>Impacts</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Fishing</td><td>Reduction of fish populations, particularly long-lived and large species (sustainability not evaluated in New Caledonia)<br>Disposal of fish guts and waste in some areas<br>NB: very few habitat-impacting or destructive fishing techniques are used in New Caledonia</td></tr><tr><td>Recreational uses (other than fishing) at sea</td><td>Disturbance of marine life (birds, mammals) and degradation of benthic habitats (corals, seagrasses, algae) and sessile fauna</td></tr><tr><td>Frequentation of islets by visitors</td><td>Disturbance of marine birds, some of them are nesting on the islets<br>Habitats and sessile flora and fauna, as well as islet vegetation, are eroded and degraded through repeated trampling, wood collection and light pollution</td></tr><tr><td>River run-off including from water treatment plants</td><td>Inputs of organic nutrients, pollutants like molecules not treated by water plants, heavy metals from industrial areas and phytosanitary products used by agriculture</td></tr><tr><td>Mining activities</td><td>Run-off from soil erosion on land, inputs of pollutants<br>Sediment deposit in the lagoon (siltation)<br>Degradation of habitats due to channelisation and other works carried out in the maritime zones</td></tr><tr><td>Mooring of boats and cruise ships</td><td>Destruction of benthic habitats (corals, seagrasses, algae) and associated sessile fauna through mooring and landings of hundreds of passengers in small areas</td></tr><tr><td>Creating artificial shorelines, for example, tourist development</td><td>Degradation or destruction of benthic habitats (corals, seagrasses, algae) and associated sessile fauna</td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote n="6">⁶https://www.isee.nc/population.</footnote>
activity, resulting in heavy soil erosion (due to extraction and access roads). For instance, in the Thio area, sediments cover most of the fringing reefs and impair underwater visibility close to the shore (Roman et al. 2015).

Marine recreational activity includes boating, fishing, scuba diving, snorkelling, jet-skiing, sailing small non-motorised craft like kayaks, kitesurfing and surfing. These uses have been growing and diversifying in all coastal areas of New Caledonia over the last three decades, in parallel with demographic increase. Gonson et al. (2016) showed that the number of boat trips in the Nouméa area has more than doubled over a 9-year period (2005–2014), with most operated by local residents. These authors also showed a sharp increase in the number of visitors to the many nearshore islets, aided by a growing traffic to the most popular ones by taxi-boats transporting tourists and residents. In 2013, approximately 157,000 visitors landed on five main islets facing Nouméa (AMBIO project, Gonson et al. 2017). Islets where landing is permitted suffer from substantial degradation due to these landings and leisure activities. Elsewhere, the development of cruise ship tourism over the last 20 years has meant several very large ships anchor off formerly untouched bays on the islands of Lifou, Ouvéa and the Isle of Pines (Île des Pins), as well as in Nouméa harbour. Lifou had 4 landings per year in 1995, increasing to 30 between 2005 and 2008, and 120 in 2016. Pelletier et al. (2016) found a severely damaged reef habitat in Lifou in 2014. That study proved that living coral cover was reduced to zero in a 200 m radius around the mooring point and was badly damaged up to a 400 m distance away from it (Fig. 4.6), often due to the anchor and its chain. Accordingly, the abundance of fish species decreased to a very low level around the mooring sites.

Fishing of course constitutes a major pressure on biodi-
versity. Fishing is mostly for food but also for stocking
aquaria (see Chap. 5 by Sabinot et al. in this book). It is a
traditional activity and source of food for Melanesian popu-
lations who live by the sea, who have regulated it over thou-

sands of years through customary rules involving territorial
fishing rights and closed areas. There are some commercial
vessels operating from urban areas, but mostly informal fish-
ing takes place elsewhere, with a mix of subsistence and rec-
reational fishing and with a parallel commercial market
(Jollit et al. 2010). Non-commercial fishing pressure is con-
centrated near the urban centres of Nouméa in the South
Province and near the urban agglomeration of Voh, Koné and
Pouembout in the North (Gonson et al. 2018). In 2005, the
catch in the southwest lagoon was estimated at more than
1100 tons/year from recreational fishing alone (Jollit 2010;
Jollit et al. 2010).

The non-commercial catch across the archipelago is sub-
stantial. Fishing in the lagoon typically targets grouper
(Serranids), surgeonfish (Acanthurids), snapper (Lutjanids),
emperor fish (Lethrinids), parrotfish (Scarids), mullet
(Mugilids), rabbitfish (Siganids), jack (Carangids) and grunt
(Haemulids). Several crustaceans are also prized: the giant
mud crab (Scylla serrata) caught in mangroves, the coconut
crab (Birgus latro), spiny lobsters (Panulirus sp.) and slipper
lobsters (Scyllarides sp. and Parribacus sp.) Some other
invertebrates are targeted too: troca (Trochus niloticus), amu-
sium (Amusium japonica) and giant clam (Tridacna derasa
and Hippopus hippopus). Unfortunately, the most spectacu-
lar seashells may sometimes be sampled for collection. A
large number of fish and marine invertebrates (crustaceans
and molluscs) are taken. In a survey of recreational fishers
conducted in the Nouméa area during the PAMPA project
(Pelletier 2011), almost 80 fish species were observed in
catches and 15 invertebrate species; among them are spider
conch (Lambis sp.), giant clam (Tridacna sp.), slipper lob-
ster, octopus (Octopus octopus) and cuttlefish (Sepia latima-
nus). Note that there is to date no well-established and
comprehensive monitoring programme for non-commercial
fisheries, and this is not a current political priority.
Commercial fisheries (aside from offshore pelagic fisheries)
are also not evaluated.

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 4.6** Snapshots of coral reef habitat in the mooring area, Lifou. Impacted zone (left) and comparable non-impacted zone (right). (Source: AMBIO project, Ifremer)</figcaption></figure>
New Caledonia has, however, been quite a pioneer in France regarding environmental protection, particularly by establishing a number of reasonably sized marine protected areas (MPAs). The first marine reserve, still an integral reserve today, dates back to 1970 (covering 172 km²), but most of the reserves were declared between 1981 and 1995, in the South Province. Many are located in the lagoon facing Nouméa (174 km²). In these MPAs, fishing is banned, but there are many recreational vessels and visitors (see above). The largest no-take reserve is formed by the Abore barrier reef offshore from Nouméa city, which was definitively closed to fishing in 1995, after a short reopening between 1993 and 1995. The high catch levels after reopening demonstrated the protection afforded by the MPA (Ferraris et al. 2005).

Other marine reserves were established by the South Province in Bourail on the west coast (in 1993), Ouano (west, in 2004), close to Thio in the east (in 2010) and by the North Province in Hienghène (east coast, in 2007), Pouebo (northeast, in 2009) and a site close to Voh in the west (Kan-Gunu in 2013). The next step in protecting marine biodiversity was placing 80% of the New Caledonian reef and lagoon areas, that is, 15,743 km², on the World Heritage list in 2008.<fnref n="7" /> The gazetting of these reserves has reinforced the awareness of protective measures within the perimeter of the World Heritage listing and is subject to compulsory periodic monitoring for their “exceptional universal value” (EUV). In this case, EUV is bound up in maintaining marine biodiversity, aided by participatory management of marine areas with local people. The creation by the government of the Coral Sea Natural Park in 2014 has extended protection to the entire EEZ of New Caledonia, outside of the lagoons. It includes several remarkable shallow reefs and atolls: Entrecasteaux, Chesterfield and Bellona, Petrie and Astrolabe, Walpole, Matthew and Hunter. These remote areas are home to quasi-pristine biodiversity, exemplified by abundant fish populations and high coverage of living coral in sheltered reefs (Schohn et al. 2017a). Their remoteness is the first factor of protection, as is also the case for the South Lagoon area (Bockel et al. 2017). In 2023, significant additional protection was agreed bringing the coverage of strictly protected marine areas up to 10% of the EEZ, a plan developed in cooperation with fishers and Indigenous and other government authorities (Oceanographic 2023). The gazetting of these strongly areas within the CSNP perimeter complies with the target 14.5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 “Life below water”.

Another component of management for the marine environment lies in the adoption of Environmental Codes by the North, South and Loyalty Islands Provinces in 2008, 2009

and 2016, respectively. These documents provide frameworks for regulating commercial and non-commercial fisheries. The regulations include constraints on the type and numbers of fishing gear and officially ban several fishing practices such as night fishing and other destructive practices.

## 4.7 Conclusion

New Caledonia and its extensive marine territory have been gifted with an exceptional marine biodiversity. The territorial government and the provinces have, over time, implemented several important management instruments to preserve this biodiversity, offering some protection from large foreign fishing vessels operating across the Pacific. In this respect, the territory appears as quite exemplary. It also benefits from a low human population density compared to other tropical islands, and substantial local of marine habitats and species that stretches back thousands of years.

Yet, this is a fragile situation. Environmental policies and controls on commercial exploitation of the ocean and lagoon environments must be sustained over the long term by the different governing bodies, not least because the marine environment is extensive. While the extension of conservation efforts in 2023 are encouraging, they require implementation and funding. This is particularly important as the territory also must face the consequences of climate change which is becoming a major driver and a threat to lagoon and reef socio-ecosystems. Sound management of anthropogenic pressures will contribute to increasing their resilience with respect to local and global change.

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<figure><img src="image_18.png" /></figure>
Part II

Fisheries and Agriculture
# Small-Scale Fisheries in New Caledonia:
## Towards a Fishers' Perspective

5

Catherine Sabinot, Séverine Bouard, Camille Fossier,
Julie Mallet, and Gilbert David

Abstract

Devoting a full chapter to the fishers of New Caledonia serves a dual purpose: firstly, to report on a practice driven by multiple rationales that are, for the most part, unknown or insufficiently understood in and outside the territory, and secondly, to show that the place that fishers occupy in the relationship between fish, ecosystems, fishing effort and consumption is much more complex than in other small-scale fisheries and management regimes. Drawing on anthropological and geographical research conducted since 2010, this chapter sketches a general picture of the main types of fishing practised in New Caledonia, focusing on presenting the fishers who undertake them. We discuss the place of fishing in the livelihood activities of Caledonians, irrespective of their social status, and examine the different purposes for which fishing is practised and that fishers assign to their practices. The conclusion focuses on ongoing efforts at the territorial and provincial levels to better incorporate the fishers' diversity and functions in fisheries management policies.

Keywords

Small-scale fisheries · New Caledonia · Livelihood · Subsistence fishing · Customary fishing · Recreational fishing · Consumption

**5.1 Introduction**

**5.1.1 Fishing and Fishers**

The main ambition of this chapter is to describe the diversity and the complexity of small-scale fishers’ behaviours and practices in New Caledonia and to examine in particular the fishers’ motivations for undertaking professional and non-professional fishing. Devoting a full chapter in this book to the small-scale fishers of New Caledonia serves a dual purpose: firstly, to report on a range of livelihood practices including commercial and subsistence fishing, marketing and distribution and regulation that are driven by multiple rationales, and secondly, to show that fishers occupy a complex position in the marine ecosystem that extends much more widely than their operations in New Caledonia’s territorial waters to include on- and offshore labour relations and commodity chains involving buyers and consumers.

We hypothesise that fisheries management is much more
than the management of fishing effort, that is, all the means
deployed to extract living marine resources. Fishers and their
activities cannot be reduced to catch, number of boats, fish-
ing gear, duration of trips and spatial location. Seeing fishers
as the top predator in a fishing ecosystem is also rather limit-
ing, ignoring their other activities and social networks.

Therefore, we need to go beyond the ecosystem service
approach, which considers fisheries as an ecosystem supply
service. It was applied recently in New Caledonia through
the IFRECOR (French Initiative for Coral Reefs) and
RESCCUE projects on monetary value services provided by
the lagoons (Pascal 2010). A relationship is established

<footnote>C. Sabinot (✉)
French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development
(IRD), UMR ESPACE-DEV (IRD, UM, UR, UA, UG, UNC),
Nouméa, New Caledonia
e-mail: catherine.sabinot@ird.fr</footnote>

<footnote>S. Bouard
New Caledonian Institute of Agronomy, Nouméa, New Caledonia
e-mail: severine.bouard@iac.nc</footnote>

<footnote>C. Fossier · G. David
UMR ESPACE-DEV, French National Research Institute
for Sustainable Development (IRD),
Montpellier, France
e-mail: gilbert.david@ird.fr</footnote>

<footnote>J. Mallet
Kingston University, Kingston, UK
e-mail: k1552318@kingston.ac.uk</footnote>
between the ecosystem that produces the fish resource and
the consumers who are beneficiaries of the service.

This approach tends to completely eclipse fishers, who
appear to lose their place in the fish/consumer relationship. Yet
they are the main actors in this dynamic. Fishing is not only a
question of fish mortality management (Brêthes 2000; David
2008). To put fishers at the forefront means to explore the non-
biological drivers of fishing effort, including cultural and
social drivers and their own views of their role and functions
in society.

**5.1.2 Fisheries Studies in New Caledonia and Their Fields of Application**

As other chapters explain, New Caledonia is a French over-
seas territory in the Pacific, a *sui generis* territory still
engaged in a process of negotiated decolonisation. Its popu-
lation is diverse, as previous chapters have outlined.
Throughout its sometimes violent and painful history,
Europeans, Oceanians and Asians have settled in New
Caledonia and today live alongside the indigenous Kanak
people, who now make up 41.2% of the population accord-
ing to the last census (ISEE 2020). For both Kanak and non-
Kanak people who depend on natural resources for their
livelihoods, fishing is an important activity in rural areas
alongside horticulture, market gardening, agriculture
(Guyard et al. 2014; Bouard et al. 2018) and waged employ-
ment, which is mainly in mining services. Fishing is widely
distributed and uses a range of fishing gears.

The study of fisheries in New Caledonia falls into two
main categories (Fig. 5.1). The first are ethnographies of
fishing practices as part of research on a local group or
community (Teulières-Preston 1992; Sarasin 2009) or as
targeted anthropological studies on fishers (Leblic and
Teulières-Preston 1987; Leblic 1989; Leblic 2008; Sabinot
and Lacombe 2015). Recent research has focused on firstly
changes in recent years in subsistence fishing; secondly its
contribution to fishers’ livelihood needs, especially in Kanak
communities; and thirdly the link to conservation agendas
and mining development (Cornier and Leblic 2016; Sabinot
and Lacombe 2015; Sabinot and Bernard 2016; Sabinot and
Herrenschmidt 2019).

The second group of studies is more oriented towards
the economic and geographical extent of fisheries, particu-
larly using survey data (Fig. 5.1). The main focus in the
South Province is recreational fishing, including on the
UNESCO World Heritage reefs of the Great Southern
Lagoon (Jollit 2010; Jollit et al. 2010; see Chap. 2 by
Rodary in this book). Two questions are addressed. How
can frequenting of fishing grounds be used as a proxy for
fishing effort? Also, how can the impacts of recreational

fishing be assessed in marine protected areas, by observing
catch and carrying out statistical monitoring? Earlier stud-
ies dealt with household consumption as a proxy for fish
catch in Kanak communities of the North and Loyalty
Islands Provinces (Guillemot et al 2009; Léopold et al.
2004; Labrosse et al. 2006).

These two research areas are carried out alongside the
monitoring of commercial fish production, which is cur-
rently done by the three provinces and the government of
New Caledonia.

**5.1.3 Empirical Bases**

Our main rationale in this chapter is that the diversity and
complexity of fishers’ behaviours and practices are a major
constraint to properly managing artisanal and small-scale
fisheries. This assumption comes from our own research
between 2013 and 2019 across the three provinces.

We rely on field observations done in New Caledonia, as
well as on interviews conducted with actors from the fish-
ing and conservation worlds and with provincial officers.
Three of the authors are residents of the territory and make
observations on a daily basis, with relatively regular close
and immersive contacts with fisher groups ranging from a
few days to a few weeks. It is difficult to estimate the num-
ber of interviews conducted over the last 5 years on fishing
practices and fisheries management, but we can assert that
at least 500 different people across the country have been
interviewed, in particular in Yaté, Poum, Koumac, Belep,
Ouégoa, Pouébo, Thio, Ouvéa, Lifou and Maré (Fig. 5.2).
In all research programmes, we examined the transforma-
tions that occur in fishing practices, knowledge and norms.
During a recent project funded by the North Province
(Sabinot et al. 2019), the 78 professional fishers who ben-
efited from North Province subventions between 2010 and
2016 were interviewed in order to provide qualitative and
quantitative data on their catch, the organisation of fishing
and distribution and their institutional relationships.
Moreover, we use data from the general census conducted
by ISEE in New Caledonia in 2014 that included questions
about secondary activities in fishing and boat ownership
and from a study of New Caledonian household consump-
tion conducted between 2014 and 2017 (Quidnovi, ERPA,
ASS-NC, DAVAR 2017).

This chapter begins by describing *who* the fishers in
New Caledonia are and where and how they fish. We illus-
trate the main types of fishing practised in New Caledonia’s
extensive lagoons and in fresh and brackish waters and the
implication of these for management. We then examine the
*why*: why do people go fishing and what are their motiva-
tions to become fishers? We explore the different aspects of
<figure><img src="image_19.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 5.2** Province-wise summary of the number of inhabitants declaring that they practise a fishing activity for personal consumption or for sale.
(Source: ISEE 2014)</figcaption></figure>

fishing practices including sharing during fishing trips, exchange and the consumption and the sale of the catch. After presenting the institutional and legal categories of each of New Caledonia's provinces (under which the fishers can be classified), we discuss the place and role of fishing in the territory. In the conclusion, we explore ongoing efforts at the country and provincial levels to better capture the diversity of fishing practices and understand fishers' multiple dimensions in the management of the sector and in various fisheries policies.

## 5.2 The Fishers’ Dilemma: To Fish and How to Fish, That Is the Question

“Are you a fisher? – No .... – Do you fish? – No... [long silence] Oh yesterday I went fishing with my uncle... – And when was the last fishing trip before? – On Wednesday [2 days before] with my brothers and the children...” This conversation is very frequent in New Caledonia. Many people fish every two or three days but they do not perceive themselves as fishers. They have no fishing license from the
provincial institution. And for Kanak people, if they are not member of a fishing clan whose duty and legitimacy is to provide fish products to customary events, they do not recognise themselves as fishers.

### 5.2.1 Who Are the Fishers?

Estimating the number of active fishers in New Caledonia is complex because of the informal character of subsistence, customary and recreational fishing, none of which are monitored. The general ISEE Census of 2014 provides some information: There were 280 professional reef lagoon fishers reported across New Caledonia. The Census introduced the notion of “pluriactive” fishers engaged in more than one remunerative activity. Respondents had to indicate whether they were engaged in an ancillary fishing activity, either for their personal consumption or for sale (ISEE 2014). These fishers, men and women, total 1 person in the Loyalty Islands Province, 203 in the North Province and 76 in the South Province (these numbers have increased since 2014). Figure 5.2 presents a summary of responses on ancillary activities. In the case of non-professional fishing, it is possible to estimate the differences between fish sold and consumed in the household.

A very small percentage of respondents said that they fish to sell. In the Loyalty Islands and North Provinces, out of a total of 24,468 individuals, 37% (5019 respondents) and 50% (19,449 respondents), respectively, said that they fish for their own or their household's consumption, with the household being defined as a group of individuals who take their meals together. In the South Province, the situation is different because the population is unevenly distributed spatially, with a strong concentration in the metropole of Greater Noumea (which includes the municipalities of Noumea, Païta, Dumbea and Mont-Dore), where income-generating strategies are much more oriented towards salaried employment. This has fundamentally changed the way of life in the local territories and their relationship with nature over time (Sabinot et al. 2019). These differences could explain why only 15% of the 159,890 inhabitants of the South Province (23,983 individuals) said that they fish for self-consumption. To summarise, subsistence fishing in New Caledonia is broader in terms of stakeholders than commercial fishing alone. The number of boats owned by households is also mentioned in the census. While fishing can be done without a boat, most boat owners use them to fish. Of the 85,063 New Caledonian households reported in 2014, 8258 owned one and 646 two or more (ISEE 2014). They use boats mainly for transportation and fishing and usually lend them to friends and extended family.

Various surveys have also shown that informal and non-professional fishing is very common in New Caledonia, especially in Kanak communities (Guyard et al. 2014;

Sabinot and Lacombe 2015; Mallet et al. 2018). A comprehensive survey by the New Caledonian Agronomic Institute (IAC) of a representative number of tribal inhabitants showed that 62% of the domestic groups reported having fished in the coastal lagoons in 2010 (Guyard et al. 2014). However, the intensity of this practice remains highly variable. Figure 5.3 shows that close to three quarters of the population in Kanak communities catch an average of 154 kg of lagoon fish, crabs and shellfishes per year, 16% of people have a production nearly five times higher (690 kg per year) and 13% close to 11 times higher (or 1.7 t per year). This difference can be explained by the heterogeneity of fishers in terms of the time devoted to fishing activity and their gear. Only 13% of households recorded as fishers account for 50% of the fish production. The rest (87% of all households) are very much part-time fishers. Some of them spend just a few dozen hours fishing per year (mainly for special events or holidays) when others spend more than 1000 h, which means a fishing trip perhaps once, twice or three times a week. All part-time fishers are also involved in several subsistence, customary or remunerative activities: agriculture, hunting and work (wage or non-wage). For these households in Kanak communities, even though fishing reduces the time available for other activities, farming is never completely abandoned. For all the working-age members of these domestic groups specialised in “fishing”, farming always represents more than 32.2% of their time spent working over the year (Guyard et al. 2014).

Since there is uncertainty about the informal sector's production, an assessment of the total fishery production of New Caledonia is difficult. Two studies in 1994 and 2001 (Dalzell and Adams 1994; Virly 2001) showed that subsistence and recreational fishers account for over half of the total (Fig. 5.4). The data is relatively old, but the permanence of community fishing activities demonstrated above, and the rate of recreational boating in the general population, suggests that subsistence and recreational fishing are still significant.

According to monitoring of commercial fisher's logbooks at the province level, the fishing production in New Caledonia accounts for 3570 t in 2015, including 538 t of lagoon and reef fish, 2840 t of tuna and associated fish and 192 t of sea cucumbers and trochus shells. In 2010, the production was recorded as 3769 t. The lagoon/reef fish and sea cucumbers/ trochus shells production were, respectively, 1.3 and 1.2 times higher (656 t and 253 t). The pelagic fish production was very similar (2860 t). In terms of value, the fishing activity was a bit less profitable in 2015 (15 million USD dollars of catch) compared to 2010 (16.9 million USD). The value of seafood products caught exclusively in the lagoons was five million USD in 2010 and 4.1 million USD in 2015 when the value of tuna longliner production decreased from 11.9 million USD in 2010 to 10.9 million USD in 2015.
<figure><img src="image_20.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 5.3** Distribution of fish volume caught by groups. (Source: Agriculture survey in Kanak communities, Guyard et al. 2014)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_21.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 5.4** Share of subsistence and recreational fishing in total New Caledonian production. (Sources: Dalzell and Adams 1994; Virly 2001)</figcaption></figure>

According to Guyard et al. (2014), Kanak communities consumed 60% of what they caught themselves, and gifted 19%, with only 21% sold. Community populations therefore earned 644 million Pacific Francs – 5.9 million USD of income from sea fishing. Due to the distribution of the Caledonian population and the unbalanced development of tourism in the archipelago, Kanak households located in the far North, the West and Southeast (Yaté, Thio and Isle of Pines) tend to market their fish more readily than inhabitants of other communities in the rest of the country.

### 5.2.2 Where and What Do They Fish?

Irrespective of whether fishers practise their activity occasionally, or do so systematically in order to earn an income, they all demonstrate their technical and practical knowledge of the underwater shallow habitats and the inland water bod-

ies that they fish. They select their fishing gear according to the species they target and adapted to the fishing environment, strongly constrained by the weather and tidal changes.

Fishers learn by accompanying their parents or grandparents on fishing trips and in turn pass on knowledge of the fishing grounds to the next generation. Outside Noumea, when Kanak people paddle outrigger canoes, their fishing grounds are in the vicinity of the community. The fishing territory of those who can venture further out to sea includes areas around more distant channels and islets, often associated with coastal clans or communities. In Noumea, fishers are also well adapted to local conditions. They use motorboats or sailboats to fish around the islets and channels of the Great South Lagoon. The professionals also fish outside the lagoon, seeking the deep-water demersal fish on the reef slope at 100–500 m depth, mainly snapper (*Genus Etelis* and *Pristipomoides* of Lutjanidae family), sea perch (*Serranidae* family) and grouper (*genus Epinephelus*). In rural areas, rivers are also fished, mainly for subsistence consumption. Fishers target “crawfish” (*Macrobrachium rosenbergii*), eel and mullet (*Mugilidae*). In Yaté lake, recreational fishers target blackbass (*Micropterus salmoides*), an introduced North American species.

Some practices, such as gleaning, are carried out on reef flats and involve the gathering of shellfish, octopus and crabs (especially in mangroves, using crab traps). Mangroves and mudflats are commonly gleaned by women and young people. Hook and line fishing are also practised on the soft bottoms of the lagoon, at the edge of a rising tide reef flat or around isolated reefs in order to catch seabed or near-seabed species such as members of the Lethrinidae family (emperors, emperor breams and pigface breams). Hook and line fishing are practised by both men and women. In areas where standing in water is impossible, this method is also practised from boats, with or without a rod, with a bait or with a troll-ing lure to catch carnivorous fish such as the narrow-barred
Spanish mackerel (*Scomberomorus commerson*) or the dolphinfish, locally known as mahi-mahi (*Coryphaena hippurus*) which can grow to 15 kg in weight and a metre in length.

The speargun is very popular in New Caledonia. It is used in a wide variety of environments to catch the most common reef fish (parrot fish, groupers, etc.), firstly all over the lagoons, from the shoreline to the barrier reef, secondly in the channels between the lagoon and the ocean and thirdly on the outer reef slope. It is also used to fish in rivers, in "water holes", which can exceed 10 m in depth. Lobsters and sea cicadas are also caught by dive fishing, and spearguns are used for the larger cray fish. Lobster traps are also used, although less so today. Bare-hand fishing while snorkelling is also practised to collect giant clams (genus *Tridacna*) and mother of pearl shellfish such as trochus (*Trochus niloticus*), as well as sea cucumbers. This last species is not consumed locally. They are exported to the Asian market, mainly China and Singapore, as they have been since the 1800s. They are used in the pharmacopoeia and also eaten (Conand 1986). In Poum, in the North Province, trochus and sea cucumber fishing is an activity that has been part of the territory and the genealogy for a very long time. Some fishers of trocas and sea cucumbers of this commune are direct descendants of the fishers who settled there, originally from the Shetland Islands (Batterbury, pers. com. 2021). Trade in these two shellfish was so important in the second part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that Bichlamar, the language used for international trade in Southern Melanesia and now the national language of Vanuatu (Crowley 1990; Tryon and Charpentier 2004), was commonly spoken among the coastal communities of Northern New Caledonia until the Second World War. In 2017, several Arama seniors confirmed to Sabinot and David that their grandparents still used it when they were young in the 1960s–1970s.

Gill nets and cast nets are used in the lagoons to catch fish with gregarious behaviour that move in shallow water (usually one to seven metres deep) such as dawas (*Naso unicornis*), barbs (*Siganidae*), mullet (*Mugilidae*) or even milk fish (mikwaa, *Chanos chanos*). Gill nets can also be used to block streams and capture schools of fish as they move upstream or downstream. The encircling net is used to catch pelagic fish, mainly *Selar* spp., but also mullet and mikwaa. Around the Isle of Pines, this last fish is the target of collective fishing carried out during customary ceremonies. Young people sometimes learn this technique from their elders. The rest of the time, they fish with the speargun, troll baits or hook and line. Children very often start and learn by fishing with a hook and line, walking on the reef flat and only then from a boat moving away from the reef flats to isolated coral “potatoes” and remote islets.

Each type of fishing gear is thus associated with a type of habitat or “resource space”, and allows the fishing of the desired species by adjusting to its seasons and anatomical or

ecological characteristics (Table 5.1). Irrespective of the purpose of fishing – recreational, subsistence or professional – it is common for many different types of fishing gear to be on board the boats in the lagoon in order to adapt to the species of fish and their behaviour. “Resource spaces” can therefore be associated with particular types of fishing, and catches are measures of productivity, depending both on the resource itself and on the associated technique. However, for fishers with professional status, that is, licensed by one of the provinces, it is usually forbidden to carry a speargun on board during a professional fishing trip.

The resource areas that fishers are normally frequent form an interesting criterion for differentiating them, since each resource space corresponds to specific target species and cor-

<table><caption>**Table 5.1** Fishing in resource spaces</caption><thead><tr><th>Resource spaces</th><th>Productivity*</th><th>Main types of fishing</th><th>Resources</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Mangroves</td><td>High</td><td>Fishing on foot and gill net</td><td>Crabs, shellfish and fish</td></tr><tr><td>River mouths</td><td>Very high</td><td>Hook and line and gill net</td><td>Fish</td></tr><tr><td>Sea grass beds</td><td>High</td><td>Hook and line, gill net and cast net</td><td>Demersal fish, small pelagic fish and sea cucumbers</td></tr><tr><td>Pinnacle reef</td><td>High</td><td>Hook and line and gun</td><td>Demersal fish</td></tr><tr><td>Pelagic areas of the lagoon</td><td>Low</td><td>Dragnet</td><td>Pelagic fish</td></tr><tr><td>Channels</td><td>High</td><td>Hook and line and gun</td><td>Demersal fish</td></tr><tr><td>Inner reef flat</td><td>Medium</td><td>Hook and line, gun and net</td><td>Demersal fish and shellfish</td></tr><tr><td>Outer reef flat</td><td>Medium</td><td>Hook and line, gun and net</td><td>Demersal fish and shellfish</td></tr><tr><td>Reef crest</td><td>High</td><td>Hook and line and gun</td><td>Demersal fish, shellfish and crustaceans</td></tr><tr><td>Inner reef drop-off</td><td>Medium</td><td>Hook and line and gun</td><td>Demersal fish, shellfish and crustaceans</td></tr><tr><td>Outer drop-off with depth of 20–100 m</td><td>Medium</td><td>Hand line</td><td>Demersal fish</td></tr><tr><td>Drop-off <100 m depth</td><td>Low</td><td>Hand line</td><td>Deep-water demersal fish</td></tr><tr><td>Pelagic area outside the lagoon</td><td>Low</td><td>Trolling line</td><td>Surface pelagic fish</td></tr><tr><td>Pelagic area around FADs</td><td>Medium</td><td>Trolling line and hand line</td><td>Surface and sub-surface pelagic fish (50–200 m)</td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote>*By productivity we mean the mass of organic matter developed at a given level of the food chain. It decreases with depth.</footnote>
responding fishing strategies and techniques. However, few fishers specialise in fishing in a particular area and the species it contains. Apart from those catching deep demersal fish using special techniques (hand line and hand reel), and those using fish aggregation devices (FAD) to fish offshore, most fishers operate across several environments, and their respective fishing practices are just one facet of their fishing "profile". The idea of such profiles was defined in a previous study spanning the whole of Melanesia (David 1997) and is composed of four variables that are still relevant today. These are the "resource space", types of fishing gear used, how the fishing boat is powered and proximity to a household that consumes fish products. It can be applied to three categories of fishers: small-scale commercial fishers, recreational fishers and subsistence fishers. The latter are defined as all non-recreational fishers who fish because of the desire/need for consumption and whose sales only concern the surplus left over after this personal consumption, with these surpluses being always less than half their catches, in number and weight of the catch (David 1997).

Although the concept of the fishing profile is useful to some extent in classifying fishers, it does not cover the diversity of situations, especially the pluriactivity of most Melanesian fishers, and the diversity of combinations of "fisher status/use of production". Thus, a subsistence fisher, who can also be described as a self-consumption fisher because most of his/her production is consumed by this person and their immediate household (he or she only sells surplus production from time to time), will be categorised as an informal fisher if he/she has no professional status. But another subsistence fisher may have the status of a professional fisher, that is, with fishing and commercial licences accorded by the provinces and the government, but with very limited commercial activity because of individual preferences or constraints within the family or social group. Throughout the world, the informal fishing sector, still insufficiently understood to even consider being subject to management, actually spans several definitions that vary depending on the chosen reference system. As we have shown, in New Caledonia, there are two easily identifiable categories of fishers from a legal point of view, the professional and the non-professional: either the fisher has a fishing permit or they do not. We arrive at the same dichotomy if we consider that the "formal" is what is included in public statistics and the informal that which is not. In New Caledonia, at present, only the professional fishery is monitored, through the administrative registration of the fishers themselves and the information concerning their catches in the logbooks submitted to provincial officials. Defining clearly what a fisher is might be a task in its own right, and necessary for any robust accounting of the numbers of fishers and any understanding of the practice in its various dimensions.

## 5.3 What Are the Underlying Reasons for Fishing?

### 5.3.1 Why Do People Go Fishing?

The amount of fish caught in New Caledonia is substantial but there are few fishmongers in the territory, most in Noumea. Thus, most fishers do not fish to sell their catch through official market channels. Professional fishers do so, although not all of them, especially in the islands and the North Province. Fishing is both a recreational activity and one that provides protein and generates income. It is also a practice that allows one to survive, to maintain social relations and to assume a function or a role in the Kanak customary system. Understanding why people fish, and how they distribute their catch, involves these social dimensions.

Fishing for their own and family consumption is a major reason fishing forms part of local livelihoods. A follow-up study of New Caledonian households conducted between 2014 and 2017 (Fig. 5.5) showed that families consume most of their catch (from 41% to 46%). This rises to 58–72% in the North and the Loyalty Islands Provinces. According to the study, professional fishing using official channels accounts for less than 38% for all New Caledonian households and less than 22% for those living outside of the South Province.

Aside from selling to the scarce fishmongers and other retail outlets, fish products are frequently exchanged or sold, legally or illegally, through channels as diverse as markets, via hawkers, personally from individual to individual, or in meeting places like the *nakamal* where, at the end of the day, many Caledonians consume kava, a tranquilising drink made from the roots of the plant *Piper methysticum* (Chanteraud 2001).

<figure><img src="image_22.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 5.5** Sources of supply of fishery products consumed by New Caledonian households. (Source: Quidnovi, ERPA, ASS-NC, DAVAR 2017)</figcaption></figure>
## 5.3.2 What Do the Distribution Patterns of Fish Catch Reveal?

A study of 78 fishers conducted from 2017 to 2018 in the North Province offers a more “socially embedded” view of the economic dimensions and distribution of fishing products and deepens understanding of fisher motivations. It showed that fishers use a wide variety of channels to distribute their fish (Sabinot et al. 2019). All fishers who received support from the Province between 2005 and 2010 were asked about their distribution channels. On average, a fisher from the North Province uses over four different distribution channels and those from the Oceanian Coast use more than six. Figure 5.6 shows to whom fishers generally sell their catch. The two main channels used, regardless of fish product volume, are the local markets (23%) and fulfilling the individual’s orders (18%). Because of the difficulties with conserving fresh fish, fishers do fulfil pre-orders where a sale is guaranteed.

It should be noted that in terms of frequency, sales for customary purposes account for 10% of total sales made by professional fishers, almost as much as sales to hawkers (12%) and more than to hotels and restaurants. Some professional fishers mentioned that sales for customary purposes are becoming significant. In addition, a large number of fish are gifted during customary events, and also given to family, friends, children studying in the city, etc.

Fish are also sold at fairs or festivals, where trade has strong social value (Bouard and Sourisseau 2010). Even though there are not many such events, the fact that they account for 11% of the total (in number of channels used, regardless of volume) shows their significance. In addition, fishers from the Belep Islands reported having brought two tonnes of fish to the annual fairs held in Poum and Koumac, two remote northern townships (Sabinot et al. 2019). Some fishers even want to turn professional just so that they can participate in fairs. Bringing fish to a place where people gather, whether to give it away or to

sell it, makes it possible for a fisher to assert their “identity”.

Whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes, fishers from isolated areas and with limited transport still send fish across the country – mainly through their family network, for communal, religious, tourist, tribal or customary events and for family celebrations – or to send to children or relatives residing elsewhere. To do so, they use the bus, send parcels and transport fish by car in an ice box or in buses laid on for special events. Figure 5.7a, b show the spatial movement of seafood products caught in 2017 by 31 fishers from the Belep islands, Poum and Koumac. Each arrow illustrates a seafood export to another municipality in New Caledonia. The colours reflect the type of event or person receiving the seafood.

Outside official commercial channels, fish transfer in New Caledonia is mainly social and can occur well beyond the fishers’ residential area, as Fig. 5.7b illustrates.

## 5.3.3 What Are the Motivations to Become a Fisher?

As we have noted, an individual becomes a fisher primarily because of their family context, and they acquire social skills and know-how through daily or regular experience while young. Those who fish do so because they have learned from their family and have the desire to continue the tradition in the lagoons or rivers. Despite changing lifestyles, fishing maintains links with the local environment as the communities’ “pantry”, particularly the lagoon’s reef spaces and streams, to provide healthy food for family and relatives. Today, fishing is also a means to finance the purchase of school supplies, telephones, household appliances and other one-off expenses. A few days or weeks can be devoted to fishing so that a particular expense can be met and then the fishers before returning to other activities.

<figure><img src="image_23.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 5.6** Distribution of responses regarding fish mongers and buyers. Answer to the question “Who do you normally sell to?” (interviews with 78 professional fishers who received funds and subventions from the government of the North Province)</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_24.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 5.7** (a, b) Transport of fish caught in three North Province villages according to the type of destination.
(Source: Authors)</figcaption></figure>

The reasons for opting into commercial fishing can include securing financial support to buy a boat or motor and needing money within the family or making contributions to celebrations and events. Fish are also an “exchange currency” that can be used to barter for agricultural or other products. We observe this practice in Greater Noumea with speargun fishers who trade fish for work on their boat, homemade jams and many other types of products and services.

In Kanak communities in particular, several fishers asserted that there is a “necessity” that leads a person to adopt fishing as a primary activity, especially for professional fishing. The testimony of a man from Lifou Island highlighted the various motivations and constraints that force the fisher to professionalise their activities – mainly relating to leadership and the means to cope with the customary duties inherent with the status:
If I'm a clan leader, I have more responsibilities than my brother. I have obligations and therefore I will not always have time. My brother will have much more time. He will be able to develop an activity that I will not be able to. But somewhere, I still want to undertake this activity. As I said we are pluriactive, we are customary, we are heads of families, we have responsibilities to the parish, we are fishers, farmers ... and one's well-being in the community is based on that balance. By "well-being" I mean that you are accepted by everyone, your clan recognizes you, you are someone in the community. You belong to yours. When there is an imbalance, you feel that there is discomfort. Likewise, those who focus too much on customary activities, who devote all their energy to them, are forced to "parasitize" the other members of the clan in order to be able to support themselves, buy sugar or buy this or that. This is frowned upon. You have to be self-sufficient, while having enough comfort and being well integrated. This balance is needed. (Interview excerpt 2018)

It is clear that pluriactivity is important for Caledonians, regardless of their background or location. Finding the balance between different activities, especially in a context of increasing monetary needs, is an issue that increasingly preoccupies fishers. Tribal members in particular must find a balance between sufficiently remunerative commercial activity and significant involvement in customary life. The latter requires the contribution of not only marine and agricultural products but also personal time.

The specialisations of individuals and their clan are part of their identity and are originally based on the territory they occupy (Leblic 2008; Sabinot and Herrenschmidt 2019). Fisher clans and sea clans have identities based in part on their use of territory, giving them roles that are important for their relationships with their chieftaincy and other clans; for example, their catch may be shared during customary ceremonies or offered to the chieftaincy. Fishing also occupies an important role in non-Kanak societies but in different ways. When receiving guests, it is satisfying to greet them with lobsters or other seafood. For religious events, some fishers are expected to bring the fruits of their catch.

Even when undertaken professionally, fishing remains a family activity. When an individual owns a boat, others also take advantage of it. The boat is used not only for professional fishing with a family crew but also for customary fishing and for transport. A 2017 survey of 78 professional fishers in the North Province found that 92% of the crew members on professional fishing trips were members of the captain's family (Sabinot et al. 2019). The fisher contributes to many different aspects of society through fishing practice and through the type of equipment they own. The economic, customary, religious and family-focused relations around fishing need more detailed study. Fishing contributes not only to the production of intangible wealth but also to stability and opportunities via social relations, in a context where public services are poorly developed, especially in terms of transport.

## 5.4 Institutional Considerations and Integration of the Multiple Dimensions of Fishing

In New Caledonia, the recognition of fishers by formal institutions and their rights are topics that have been much debated in recent years at provincial and governmental levels. As in other countries, the social relations of fishing were given little considerations until recently.

Teulières-Preston (2000) underlined the juxtaposition of the two institutional systems. Kanak people generally see lagoon areas as part of their territory, with rules and ascribed values that predate colonisation. Land was first appropriated by the colonial power in the 1850s and the arrival of General Du Bouzet in 1855 (Merle 2011). French law divided the "public maritime domain" in reef and lagoon areas according to categories of boats in use, with governmental legislation setting limits on their activities. Customary rules are still respected in areas surrounding clan territories where subsistence and customary fishing activity is practised. The Noumea Accord (1998) reconfigured the marine public domain by giving control over it to the provinces. Different modes of social regulation are thus intertwined, namely, "(i) legislative, (ii) hybrid and (iii) constitutional" (Dana et al. 2016).

New Caledonians come under the purview of government departments and provincial departments. Each of the three provinces has departments and directorates dedicated to fisheries and environmental management, with activities that have a varying degree of transversality. The agencies are the SMRA (Department for the Management of Aquatic Environments and Aquatic Resources) in the North Province, DEI (Department of Integrated Economy) in the Loyalty Islands Province and DENV (Department of Environment) and DDR (Department of Rural Development) in the South Province. These organisations have promulgated environmental codes specifying fishing quotas and species protection status according to the seasons and the level of danger to the species, but they also heed economic development policies where these support fishers and their professionalisation. Provincial rules promote a sustainable fishing and the development of the professional and commercial fishing sector and allow better catch monitoring. While the rules differ from one province to the other, professional fishers wanting to benefit from assistance must all fill out and submit logbooks listing the species and quantities caught and sold.

Despite some subsidies, the legal status of the professional fisher at territorial level is only just beginning to get underway. Steps are in discussion by the Fishers Confederation of New Caledonia to professionalise the sector further, by providing tax exemption schemes to buy materials, and a pension scheme.
Subsistence fishing in rivers and in the lagoon is permit-
ted in all three provinces and does not require permits. There
are rules concerning target species and catch quotas. Neither
subsistence or recreational fishers can sell their catch. That
said, there are many different channels for the exchange and
sale of fish and for other fishing products, as we have noted.
The public services find integrating these different dimen-
sions of fishing to be challenging.

In the North Province, fishers can obtain subsidies to develop a “traditional economic activities project”, and those with other salaried or licensed activities can become professional and then claim provincial subsidies. An additional policy is now being formulated to institutionalise and formalise the status of “pêcheurs à pied” (fishers on foot, along shorelines) in the North Province and of subsistence fishers in the South Province. This is partly a surveillance exercise: total catches are unknown, and fisheries and environment departments of all three provinces are trying to better estimate and improve production.

The ability to monitor both professional and informal
fishing varies between the provinces and is shown schemati-
cally in Fig. 5.8. According to provincial representatives, the

logbooks in the South Province report approximatively 90%
of production realised by professional fishers recorded in the
provincial register, in the North about 50% and in the Loyalty
Islands less than 10%. The fisheries departments of the prov-
inces are working to improve the visibility of the harvest, as
well as gradually integrating social and informal
dimensions.

Given the widespread practice of pluriactivity in the terri-
tory, the North Province has made it easier for fishers to
receive professional status. They can obtain a fishing licence
free of charge if they do not engage in any other income-
generating activity that pays more than the minimum wage.
In the South Province, the policy is still being formulated,
but at present, the fisher must not engage in any salaried
activity and must not practise a licensed activity other than
one that exclusively concerns the use of the boat for which a
professional marine fishing permit is being sought. In the
Loyalty Islands Province, the licence is free of charge and
fishers are authorised to have incomes from other activities.
There is a fish conditioning unit, including an ice plant,
financed by the province that offers contracts and guarantees
sales for professional fishers. They can also obtain a fuel

<figure><img src="image_25.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 5.8** The provinces’
ability to monitor catches of
professional and non-
professional fishers. (Source:
Authors)</figcaption></figure>
subsidy, but this is less popular. Generally, all fishers are
expected to file fishing catch volume reports.

The residential unit is the most appropriate unit to under-
stand fishers’ strategies, since it accounts for pluriactivity
and local-level decision-making at the residence level (living
unit) or household level (consumption unit). Decisions are
often taken by one individual; however, if all members of
the domestic group, including men, women and children,
practise fishing, then “social capital” is strong. Especially in
Kanak communities, the collective dimension goes further
than the core family, and different collective levels interact
around fishing activity. Moreover, local cultural or even reli-
gious associations can be important.

A major problem for public authorities remains the lack of data on fishing. They need to know how fishing decisions are made and how individual and collective decisions are articulated (or not) within local realities and constraints, to better monitor catch rates and inform policy and management decisions. Governance requires management of the frequency of trips, as well as the type of operations and fishing gear mobilised. Managing stocks focuses on target species and size classes; fishing grounds are regulated by permission/prohibition to access specific fishing areas.

Work is still in progress, and the understanding of the
multiple dimensions of fishers and of the evolution of the
resource continues to be a major challenge. Formalisation by
provincial authorities, the professionalisation of the sector
and according status to the different categories of fishers will
assist knowledge acquisition, monitoring of fishing activities
and management.

**5.5 Conclusion**

In New Caledonia, fishing is the most common human use of
coral reefs. This was a country of fishers as well as farmers –
but now also one of employment in mining, tourism and
other services. Governmental and provincial institutions
have put rules in place for the professionalisation of their
fishers, intended for those who sell their catch. While they
are struggling to do this, and as we have shown, and cannot
monitor catches comprehensively, it is important to note that
official support for the development of fishing in New
Caledonia has largely contributed to the acquisition of boats
by fishers. Although a fisher who owns a boat no doubt uses
it to fish, permission may be given for others to use it,
depending not only on their need for food or income but also
as an act of customary respect or to earn prestige and legiti-
macy. During our investigations, we were often told that a
good fisher is a “responsible” and “respectful” fisher. The
fisher’s social function is essential to the well-being of New
Caledonian society as a whole. Recognising these multiple
dimensions within small-scale fisheries management poli-

cies is difficult, but it has already begun in New Caledonia,
and the study of these issues can shed light on evolving prac-
tices elsewhere, too.

We have demonstrated the multifunctionality of fishing
and in particular the diversity of functions that fishers fulfil
and the various roles they play. Research interest has
increased in small-scale fishing over the last decade, with
renewed interest from international institutions, in particular
because of its importance for the food security of coastal
populations. The global “Too Big to Ignore” (TBTI) project,
led by the University of Newfoundland, which “focuses
on addressing viability and sustainability of small-scale
fisheries”¹ is a perfect example of the manifestation of
this interest.

In our globalising world where urban life tends to sup-
plant rural ways of living, the risk to balanced management
of marine fish stocks comes from accelerating concentration
in the fishing sector, through large industrial-scale fishing
fleets operating in the global ocean. Widespread over-
exploitation is therefore the dark future that threatens fisher-
ies. In 2016, about 35% of global fish production entered
international trade in various forms for human consumption
or non-edible purposes. The 60 million tonnes (live weight
equivalent) of total fish and fish products exported in 2016
represent a 245% increase over 1976 (FAO 2018). With a
population that could exceed 10.3 billion by the end of the
twenty-first century (medium variant; the high variant
even predicts 14.8 billion; UN Department of Economic and
Social Affairs 2022), humanity cannot survive without sea-
food and without protecting local fishing grounds against
poaching and global overexploitation. New Caledonia has
seen some efforts to preserve resources and to assist fishers,
and future developments will need to be monitored.

The only alternative to avoid the looming disaster of
widespread over-exploitation is to bring small-scale fisheries
back to the forefront, which means enhancing and acknowl-
edging the importance of small-scale fishers and their
knowledge and practices within society so that they can be
considered the rightful custodians of a coastal fisheries heri-
tage (Cillaurren and David 2003). To this end, coral reefs and
lagoons, for the most part inaccessible to large fishing ves-
sels, can play a key role. New Caledonia, whose reef ecosys-
tem is still in good condition (or even in very good condition
in the case of some areas further away from Noumea), could
serve as a model for other countries. Giving fishers a real
chance to take their place in society, by feeding the popula-
tion; managing the resources, transmitting their knowledge,
values and know-how; bringing money into the home; and
fulfilling their customary role when they have to, are future
challenges.

<footnote>http://toobigtoignore.net/.</footnote>
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<figure><img src="image_26.png" /></figure>
# “Fortunately, I Have My Field”: Changes and Permanencies in Kanak Family Farming

Séverine Bouard, Leïla Apithy, Stéphane Guyard, and Jean-Michel Sourisseau

## Abstract

In this chapter, we examine the main transformations that have marked Kanak family farming and describe in particular the ways that monetarisation and globalisation have influenced Kanak custom. First, we briefly recall the historical foundations of Kanak family farming. We then describe the transformations that have swept through it: changes in the functions associated with Kanak family farming, the magnitude, the technical evolutions and the methods of deriving value from products obtained from agricultural activities, hunting and fishing, embedded in wider relationships of exchange and territorial anchoring. We go on to explore the sustainability of the non-commercial dimension of these activities. We conclude with lessons we can learn from the practice of family farming in order to think about its place and its contribution to the rural New Caledonian world and more broadly in future economic models.

## Keywords

Family farming · Domestic economy · Social change · Pluriactivity · Households · Livelihoods

S. Bouard (✉)
New Caledonian Institute of Agronomy, Nouméa, New Caledonia
e-mail: severine.bouard@iac.nc

L. Apithy
Department of Economic Development and Environment,
North Province, Koné, New Caledonia
e-mail: l.apithy@province-nord.nc

S. Guyard
Institut Universitaire de Technologie de la Roche-Sur-Yon,
Nantes Université, Nantes, France
e-mail: stephane.guyard@univ-nantes.fr

J.-M. Sourisseau
French Agricultural Research Centre for International
Development (Cirad), Montpellier, France
e-mail: jean-michel.sourisseau@cirad.fr

## 6.1 Introduction

In this chapter, we track the trajectory of Kanak family farming by taking into account the cultural foundations of clan (or tribal/community) organisation – largely hybridised today with settler, mainly European culture and language, but still playing a structuring role. Among these foundations are the marginalisation and relative confinement of Kanak people in reserves during the early days of colonisation, the still-present influence of those spatial logics and the way actors perceive and interact with labour and product markets while maintaining a continuity between the productive and domestic spheres.

Firstly, we briefly recall the historical foundations of Kanak family farming. We then examine the transformations that have swept through it: changes in the role of farming, the magnitude, the technical evolutions and the methods of deriving value from products obtained from agricultural activities, hunting and fishing and how these are embedded in wider relationships of exchange and territorial anchoring. We go on to explore the sustainability of the non-commercial dimension of these activities.

These themes exist in the literature. Several studies on Kanak society have noted not only the permanence and the resilience of customary values but also their transformations and their hybridisation with a market economy that was established and expanded with European settlement from the 1850s (Guiart 1998; Leblic 1993; Bensa and Leblic 2000; Demmer and Salaün 2006; Faugère 1998; Faugère and Merle 2010; Kowasch 2010). Other studies highlight the risks of a non-economic interpretation of Kanak social dynamics, while pointing out the Kanak specificities in New Caledonian society. These emphasise the Kanak world's relationship to work and the detailed rationales behind accumulation by rural households (Mercoiret et al. 1999; Gorohouna 2011; Gaillard and Sourisseau 2009).

The available literature has little to say on the dynamics of microeconomic and social change, beyond the unresolved
debate between those who fear the disintegration of Kanak society and its subsumption by the market economy and those seeing hope of innovation among New Caledonia's indigenous population that will allow the maintenance of their societal foundations and preservation of clan relationships and their link to the natural environment. Bensa and Freyss (1994) concluded that "For the time being, money is more soluble in Kanak society than Kanak society in money ...." But they did not explore in any detailed way the possibility of maintaining agricultural activities, hunting and fishing or even continued residence in Kanak villages, on customary lands while in – or adjacent to – "western" society. They focused more on the capacity of tradition to control the consumption of consumer goods and to separate economic and political power. They noted the durability of this separation, as well as the maintenance of high levels of food self-sufficiency, which implied the maintenance of agricultural production and hunting, fishing and gathering activities. One of their original observations was to say that maintenance of tradition has an economic logic, as well as important social value. In the rationale of New Caledonia's "assisted" economy (with substantial subsidies from France and overseas imports), it is difficult for products from Kanak family farming to find their place in a very narrow market dominated by large importers or European farmers. New Caledonia also has a high cost of living and wages that limit the interest in, and the profitability of, agricultural work. These activities therefore remain weakly monetarised. In the end, for Kanak households, money can only be earned through waged labour, mainly from public employment and more recently from mining opportunities. This situation does not favour the rise of agrarian capitalist entrepreneurs.

## 6.2 Recent History of Kanak Family Farming

### 6.2.1 From Segregation by Confiscation of Land and Confinement...

The structuring of Kanak society and its associated production systems were deeply modified by colonisation. The transformation started with the demographic and health shocks brought with the first contacts in the 1840s (mainly with Marist missionaries in the north of Grande Terre). Then, after the French takeover in 1854 and the prevarications between the various colonial projects (penal servitude, free colonisation from France and mining), the Feillet plan (1893–1905) marked the beginning of colonisation through settling European farmers, which displaced Kanak communities. In parallel with the expropriation of land for these free settlers, the French colonial administration organised and

enforced the confinement of the Kanak, subjected to the Code de l'Indigénat (Indigenous Code; Merle and Muckle 2019). Thus, the reduction in available land due to confinement, and the need to find time to work at remunerative activities in order to be able to pay the colonial capitation tax, compelled the Kanak to radically simplify their agricultural production systems. Their bundles of land rights were either made irrelevant or overridden. The extensive pre-colonial agricultural techniques (terraces, ridges) declined, along with their mastery of tuber cultivation over thousands of years (Haudricourt 1964). The number of crop combinations, rotations and fallow periods all decreased. While horticultural know-how remained the foundation of the Kanak agricultural model, its refinements faded away (Barrau 1956), and fields requiring less attention and care made their appearance. The garden, still organised around the cultivation of taro and yam, continued to exist but at lower densities. Other plants, more rustic and requiring less husbandry (taro from New Hebrides, legumes), were incorporated into cropping systems (Barrau 1956; Saussol 1979). While cattle husbandry remained rare, pigs became part of livestock systems, especially in the Loyalty Islands. Hunting, ancestrally limited to the fruit bat, expanded to other species following the ill-controlled multiplication of pigs and wild deer, initially introduced for domestication.

The Kanak responded to the scarcity of land and the need to work with a simplification of crop management sequences and the rapid adoption of alternative solutions, but adaptation to the new circumstances also necessitated livelihood diversification. Households began combining agriculture, fishing and hunting with wage labour. The "mining boom" period in the late 1960s resulted in a diversification of activity systems towards employment in the mines. Subsequently, the French government decided to help manage the economic depression that followed the boom, with more provision of administrative or government jobs (Freyss 1995).

Despite the abolition of the Code de l'Indigénat, expansion of reserves and a mishmash of development efforts, Kanak agriculture was largely ignored by the public authorities until the 1970s. The Opération Café, to encourage the Kanak to cultivate coffee, is emblematic of the effort to improve the living conditions of community populations in response to rising demands for their independence in the late 1970s. This significant operation had mixed success despite the significant financial and human resources that were committed to it. In any case, agricultural and social policies did not reverse the feeling of marginalisation among Kanak people (Kohler and Pillon 1986).

Today, New Caledonia enjoys a specific political status, a result of the Matignon-Oudinot Accords (1988) and the Nouméa Accord (1998), signed in response to the violent expression of claims for Kanak independence in the 1980s.
In addition to a programmed transition to independence, still in negotiation in 2023, this status created three provinces endowed with significant powers. After decades of marginalisation linked to the settlement of colonisers of European origin, these recent political changes have considerably improved the integration of the Kanak in the market economy.

### 6.2.2 ... to Current Kanak Family Farming

Even though Kanak agriculture has been marginalised historically, confined to unfavourable soils by colonial land seizures and displacement of Kanak communities, it continues to play a key role in household food security, non-commercial exchanges and the local economy. Nowadays, family farming in communities still exists, but surveys and agricultural statistics show difficulties in measuring its non-commercial elements (self-consumption and exchanges) and the “informal” dimensions of agricultural production. For example, the general agricultural censuses (ISEE/DAVAR 2004, 2013; ITSEE 1993) propose snapshots of the agricultural sector and interesting diachronic syntheses, but the majority of Kanak households involved in agricultural production are invisible in them. This is because the information is largely based on the measurement of production for which accounting records are maintained. Also, a threshold is applied corresponding to a level of production and/or minimum surface area cultivated. The agricultural population is therefore only partially described, and the volume of its production is underestimated. A survey conducted in 2011 of 1786 Kanak households representing 12.5% of the population residing in communities (Guyard et al. 2013a) showed that almost all families have at least one field but that production varies considerably.

Harvested agricultural volumes (from fields and home gardens) reflect the importance of community agriculture. They amounted to 31,000 tonnes in 2010, with tubers and bananas accounting for more than half (respectively, 10,000 tonnes of tubers and 6000 tonnes of bananas, that is to say an average of 940 kg tubers/household and 550 kg bananas/household). The provinces do not all contribute equally to production: the North Province generates half of the community crop production, the Loyalty Islands Province one-third and the South Province only 13% where Kanak people living on customary land represented only 6% of the population (Guyard et al. 2014) and 9% of customary land (DITTT, ADRAF 2019). Specifically, the North Province produces half of the tubers (mainly on the Northern East Coast) and 80% of the bananas (mainly in the North). The Loyalty Islands produce half of the coconut crop (mainly on Ouvéa and Lifou) and 42% of fruit (excepting bananas) and field vegetables. Maré is conspicuous for its production of tubers. While almost every domestic group owns at least one field,

the quantities harvested vary: 25% of domestic groups generate 60% of the total volume, each of them harvesting an average of 6.5 tonnes per year (with a minimum of 3.3 tonnes). On the other hand, 50% of the domestic groups contribute only 12% to the total agricultural production of Kanak people on customary lands (860 kg on average) (Guyard et al. 2014).

Most of all, this research confirmed the economic importance of farming and hunting/fishing activities for community populations: product sales make nearly 16.7 million € from a total of 276 million € of monetary income, which is just 6%. For each domestic group, the mean is 120 € from a mean total income of 2045 € per month. At first glance, this monthly income may seem high compared to the average disposable income in metropolitan France (36,740 € in 2017 or 3061/month), but the average cost of living is 33% higher than in France. Some items are considerably more expensive than in France (64% for communications and 73% for food) but only 2% more for transport. Furthermore, the average size of domestic groups is 4.9 people, compared to 2.2 in France in 2017. Agricultural monetary income is higher in the Loyalty Islands Province (166 €/month) than in the North Province (106 €) or in the South Province (91 €) (Guyard et al. 2014).

However, by including home consumption, gifts and customary transfers, the value of these agricultural activities rises to 65 million €. This figure is not insignificant when compared to the market agricultural production captured by official statistics: 87 million € (DAVAR, ISEE 2011). For domestic groups, their total income from agricultural and hunting/fishing activities thus amounts to 755 € on average from a total of 2677 € per month. It amounts to 825 € for the domestic groups of the Loyalty Islands Province, 816 € for those of the North Province and 500 € for those of the South Province. With this method of calculation, the ranking of provinces with the highest average income (agricultural and non-agricultural) varies. In terms of monetary income, it is in the South Province where the average monthly income is the highest, at 2305 € per month against 2103 € for the Loyalty Islands Province and 1902 € for the North Province. However, taking into account the non-market value of agricultural and hunting/fishing products, the Islands Province (2757 €) overtakes the South Province (2707 €) and the North Province (2606 €) (Guyard et al. 2013b).

Even though we cannot incorporate the value of social and cultural practices by putting a price on products given away, exchanged or consumed within the family, this calculation shows that the wealth generated by agricultural and hunting/fishing activities cannot be reduced to their commercial dimension. The amount of time devoted to these activities, the volumes produced and exchanged and their contribution to incomes, food and social capital leave no doubt: agriculture, hunting and fishing continue to occupy a central place in the economy (in its broader meaning) of the
Kanak clans and communities in all parts of the territory, including of those in close proximity to urban centres and development hubs (Guyard et al. 2013a). Even though Kanak family farming has historically been marginalised and confined to unfavourable land, it continues to play a key role in household food security, non-commercial exchanges, the local economy and the maintenance of customary, family and social ties.

This study also revealed the prominent place of income from waged labour for households living in communities, which reflects a gradual transformation of activity systems over time. Wages and other incomes from “self-employment and odd jobs” now represent, on average, 60% of the monetary income of domestic units. We will now discuss the combination of family farming with hunting and fishing activities and other work activities (wage labour, entrepreneurship, etc.).

## 6.3 Rural Activities in Kanak Communities: A Way to Understand Recent Economic and Social Recompositions?

Throughout the archipelago's precolonial and colonial history, agricultural, hunting and fishing activities constituted the economic core of Kanak organisation, to provide food for the households as well as to build power relationships and alliances within and between clans. These activities therefore have a social dimension and their implementation has adapted to the major historical periods. Today, the Kanak farming systems are very diverse, especially in technical terms and in the way in which production generates value. Nevertheless, Kanak family farming continues to rely on:

* The production of tubers (yam, taro and, more recently, cassava) as also other food plants (with a particular role for the banana), grown on small plots, mainly with manual labour. There is very limited access to inputs and hired labour.

* A sophisticated management of genetic material, based on the maintenance of diversity and the dissemination of knowledge and techniques and the exchange of clones and varieties.

* Geographical specialisations in the combination of agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering, which more or less structure long-distance exchange systems.

* Very limited pig and poultry farming activities.

* Very often a distant and restricted relationship with markets: we observe the recent and limited appearance of one or two commercial farms per municipality by some Kanak agricultural entrepreneurs, most often on land allocated to groups subject to special local rules (groupement de droit

particulier local, GDPL) or on rented land, but always separated from food and customary plots.

An element of durability is the involvement not only of domestic groups but also of the individuals who compose them. In 2010, 93% of Kanak domestic groups residing in communities owned at least one field, and 90% of all working-age people (85% of 39,000 workers over 16 years of age) reported farming, hunting, fishing or gathering activities, and for 56% of them, these were their only activities in the year. The survey also showed that 72% of individuals between the ages of 14 and 15 also took part in these activities and that, occasionally, even younger children did so. The changes therefore concern the intensity of involvement in community activities, more than this involvement itself (Guyard et al. 2014).

Figures specific to Kanak agriculture are hard to come by, but Françoise Brune (1993) studied the “food” fields of four communities located along the Koné-Tiwaka transversal route during the 1991–1992 agricultural season. She built on Jacques Barrau’s survey in 1952 (Barrau 1956), and the work is invaluable for tracking historical transformations. Both surveys were conducted prior to the inauguration of the current road (in 2000), which we can assume has greatly increased the mobility of these communities and therefore modified their activity systems. These four communities were chosen to be typical of a coastal environment on the leeward coast (Oundjo in the West), two contrasting inland settings (Atéou and Bopope) and a coastal environment on the windward coast (Kokengone in the East).

Representative results at the community level cannot be derived from the IAC survey realised in 2011 (Guyard et al. 2014), and therefore a strict comparison is not possible. However, case studies on the Koné-Tiwaka communities add to the data collected by the later statistical study. The communities in question straddle two areas of the North Province for which the IAC survey is representative: the area known as the Western Spaces (communes of Poya, Pouembout, Koné and Voh) and the area called the Ocean Coast (communes of Hienghène, Touho, Poindimié and Ponérihouen). These areas are much larger and add up to a population of 14,000, while the four communities of Tiwaka had a total of only 650 inhabitants in 1991 (Brune 1993). In both cases, the surface areas were calculated from the footprint of one plant of the crop concerned, using the same conversion scales. The number of plants is probably slightly underestimated by the IAC survey. Indeed, the method uses estimations, and some plots may have been overlooked, while Brune and Barrau were accurate and exhaustive in their assessments.

Between 1952 and 1991, per capita acreage of tubers plummeted from 461 to 136 m²/inhabitant. This drastic decline concerned all types of tubers, but taro was the most affected (from 170 to 25 m²/inhabitant, with a quasi-
disappearance of irrigated taro). The yam, which has the most symbolic value, was the least affected, with the areas under cultivation appearing to bottom out at a low threshold of production necessary to meet household needs for food and customary donations; the quantity of the latter has been revised downward, notably because money and other food-stuffs could be used. For banana, the acreages decreased by half (from 128 to 57 m²/inhabitant), which is commensurate with the less demanding character of the plant and less rigorous management, although with more crop losses. Between 1991 and 2010, the area under cultivation continued to fall, but the pace had slowed down, and more importantly, the decline was mainly for cassava. Yam acreages per capita seemed to be stable, around 40 m² per inhabitant, especially if one considers the conditions of the comparison. We note that the surface areas were very similar, in aggregate, over the whole of the North Province and the two zones of the Western Spaces and the Ocean Coast. For bananas, on the other hand, the estimated areas increased significantly. At first glance, the decrease in cassava, which is not very demanding in terms of labour, means we can assume that the time devoted to tuber cultivation has not changed significantly over the last 20 years. The increase in banana acreages can be explained by the fact that this crop has low labour requirements and is valued for its culinary qualities. Bananas have also been used to "mark" or lay claim to land, in a context of competing land tenure claims and tensions. This may explain land use trends after the decline in cultivation observed between 1952 and 1991. Moreover, while other crops, especially fruit trees and open-field vegetables and fruits, occupied only 10% of the surface areas along the Koné-Tiwaka route in 1991, they represented nearly 25% in the North Province in 2010. Even though these other crops are less widespread, they nonetheless form part of the agriculture practised in Kanak villages.

With respect to Jean Freyss's thoughts on diversification of household incomes resulting from New Caledonia's "assisted economy" (1995), we find it difficult to judge the processes of attraction/repulsion to the labour market in the nickel sector or to paid work in public administration. We lack points of comparison or benchmark data on fishing and hunting for the 1990s. And yet, community agricultural activity seems to have endured despite an increase in off-farm options and was estimated in 2010 to be close to its 1991 level. This is despite the period being much more favourable economically, with high nickel prices and a level of foreign direct investment that boosted the economy (Geronimi and Blaise 2016) and also a much lower unemployment rate and considerable social progress (CEROM 2008).

The case of the communities around Voh, Koné, Pouembout (VKP) and Poya in the North Province is interesting. With the recent growth of VKP as a Kanak-dominated

urban hub anchored by the Koniambo mine (see Chaps. 8 and 9 by Kowasch and Merlin, and Demmer in this book), with associated local economic development and subcontracting work, a decline in local activities in the communities located nearby would be expected. Indeed, the firm Émergence estimated that almost all of the households and domestic groups of the Koné and Pouembout communities had at least one of their members employed in 2008 (Emergence 2008). However, the IAC survey shows that domestic groups residing in this area maintain an above-average non-monetary income from agricultural, fishing, hunting and gathering activities (680 € against the average of 635 €). The region's development does not seem to have had an impact on the time spent on these (Guyard et al. 2013a). Figure 6.1 shows that the time invested in agricultural and hunting/fishing work in the *Espace de l'Ouest* (Voh, Koné, Pouembout and Poya) is close to the time spent in agricultural activities by individuals in Kanak villages on the East Coast (*Côte Océanienne*), more distant from the mining and urban hub. Formal employment opportunities are much rarer on the East Coast. But the average hours spent on other activities are almost as great as for individuals in the South Province, while the average hours spent on other work activities is close to those of individuals in the South Province and Greater Nouméa.

## 6.4 Kanak Farming Systems: Still Complex and Responsive to Innovation

Historically, as we have outlined, the sale of crops produced on household gardens has been limited. The choice of crops, at least as far as tubers are concerned, has remained stable. Aside from rare exceptions, in 2010 the estimate by the IAC community survey of the proportion of products sold commercially is not high (13% of the products, see Fig. 6.2).

The development of more intensive and specialised orchards, fruit and vegetable production using the cultivation techniques disseminated by agricultural services has only occurred among a small number of domestic groups (Fabert 2013; Guyard et al. 2014). This has been a hesitant change in farm configurations, marginally affecting the agricultural practices of the "core" of the food system, which consists of the tuber-banana combination, more specifically the yam-banana association. The banana, as already noted, retains a special place in Kanak agriculture and contributes to the permanence of agricultural activity. Growing bananas does not restrict pursuing other livelihood activities, so it is highly compatible with pluriactivity.

In the end, even if some diversification of cropping systems is underway, the surface areas devoted to the heart of the Kanak agricultural food system do not seem to be diminishing and nor is the proportion of yams in crop rotations.
<figure><img src="image_27.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 6.2** Destination of food system products in 2010, the prevalence of the non-market. (Source: Guyard et al. 2013a)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_28.png" /></figure>

The strong economic development of the past two decades has not been accompanied by a decline in food cultivation. One hypothesis is that in a logic of social reproduction, it is strategically important to maintain a minimal productive base even as household income shifts to wages. There is a “threshold” – the lowest amount of activity necessary to activate social links via exchanges and an active relationship. Since the 1980s, the surface areas farmed and the labour mobilised have stabilised.

To understand the richness, diversity and complexity of technical systems and cropping practices, it is necessary to observe them directly, along with the composition of agricultural plots. Insights into this complexity are provided by a study by Gaillard (2007) on the different cropping practices of yam-based gardens, an extremely rich PhD and book by

Godin (2009, 2015) on the yam cultivation calendar of the Tendo community (Hienghène) and an analysis of Kanak traditional gardens by Fabert (2013). As far as yams are concerned, the typology established by Gaillard (2007) defines five cropping systems which are part of three production systems (differentiated according to the degree of market integration of products), which are themselves included in three activity systems (differentiated by social anchoring to the producer's clan and community) (Table 6.1).

The first two cropping systems (“all manual” and “not very intensive”), emblematic of the “traditional” subsistence system, retain many of the attributes from those observed by Brune in 1991 or even by Barrau in 1952. They concern more than a third of all Kanak gardens (in all configurations, Fabert 2013) and almost three-quarters of plots dedicated to yams.
<table><caption>**Table 6.1** Typology of yam-based cropping systems</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Number of yam varieties</th><th>Crop support</th><th>Equipment, tillage and soil preparation</th><th>Staking</th><th>Degree of market integration</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>All manual</td><td>&gt;10</td><td>Furrow</td><td>Manual</td><td>Poles</td><td>No integration at all, to low integration</td></tr><tr><td>Not very intensive</td><td>&gt;10</td><td>Furrow</td><td>Tiller</td><td>Poles</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Intensifying</td><td>5 &lt; X &lt; 10</td><td>Narrow ridge</td><td>Service delivery tractor</td><td>Wires</td><td>Ongoing market integration</td></tr><tr><td>Intensive with little soil preparation</td><td>&lt;5</td><td>Narrow ridge</td><td>Service delivery tractor</td><td>Simplified</td><td>Strong market integration</td></tr><tr><td>Intensive with little soil preparation</td><td>&lt;5</td><td>Narrow ridge</td><td>Personal tractor</td><td>Wires</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

Source: Gaillard (2007)

In the traditional cropping systems studied, two yam species – *Dioscorea esculenta* and, in particular, *Dioscorea alata* – dominate very widely. There is an average of more than ten varieties on each plot, a statistic confirmed by Fabert (2013). As noted by Barrau in the 1950s, these varieties are mainly hardy ones and require shallow planting and limited soil preparation. The focus on these varieties has led to the loss of the more delicate and demanding varieties present before colonisation, such as the old “batane”, which could reach three metres in length. Diversity has therefore altered, mainly through abandonment but also through the introduction of varieties from other archipelagos in the region, especially those originating from agronomic research institutes. But some diversity does exist and continues to follow the same rationales and objectives as in the past. Firstly, early first-crop varieties as well as varieties harvested later (second crop) are planted to spread consumption over the season and optimise conservation operations. Since the 1950s, third-crop varieties have become rarer, but despite proven increased hardiness, the staggering of crops still seems to work well with the genetic material available. Secondly, diversity makes it possible to distribute production according to the various functions assigned to it. A clear differentiation exists between yams for day-to-day consumption, yams for sale, yams for seeds and yams for customary purposes exists, as do differentiated cropping practices.

Today, the revival of new yam ceremonies, with an increase in attendance and the quantities that are exchanged, and the existence of seed fields dedicated to the conservation of clones and varieties at by clans or communities demonstrate the sustainability of practices that maintain a minimum level of cultivated biodiversity (Gaillard 2007).

The same logic is observed for the banana. For this crop, diversity is managed more at the territorial level – and less at the plot level. This is to adapt to the different conditions of the archipelago but also for strategic reasons (Fabert 2013). Furthermore, the distinction between the “real” old bananas with customary value and the “dessert” bananas introduced more recently shows the durability of the cultural aspects of Kanak agriculture and proves that Kanak farmers possess the

fine knowledge required to cultivate the different varieties (Kagy and Carreel 2004).

The traditional yam cropping systems observed involve regular periods of agricultural work over the year. Preplanting operations are especially important, with special attention paid to the making of ridges, and then digging holes, with extended tillage to loosen the soil. The richness of the various techniques of staking deserves mention: choice of poles and ties, the geometry, choice of knots according to the varieties, etc. They are all indicative of the special care that farmers take. In the same way, manual harvesting always follows strict rules concerning not only who is authorised to “pull out” the yam but also the techniques to use so that the tubers are not damaged and can be preserved. For the entirety of the technical itinerary of yam production, the erosion of knowledge and the loss of the genetic quality of the plants observed in 1991 by Brune does not seem to have worsened (Fabert 2013). Recent studies (Fabert 2013; Bouard et al. 2020) indicate instead a continuity in the care accorded to symbolic plants – the yams first and foremost among them – in conjunction with a diversification of production systems with an acceptance of other plants and other techniques, as long as they do not adversely affect the heart of the food system.

The practices also reflect changes and adaptations made over time, indicative of the ability of producers to innovate despite the codification imposed by customary requirements. For example, production systems now include different types of gardens, since crop diversification leads to the reallocation of cultivated spaces and new ways of managing fallows. Indeed, even if the latter have shortened in duration, the practice of fallowing is still widespread, especially because the use of fertilisers is still very marginal. Fabert (2013) distinguishes seven types of gardens, four specialised (tubers and banana) and three diversified. More than 90% of the domestic groups in the IAC survey cultivate a combination from these two categories of gardens. Depending on the type of gardens, producers draw on the availability of land in mountain areas or on riverbanks and manage five blocks of crops in an overall logic, as shown in the following figure.
Farming systems are increasingly incorporating small-scale motorisation, appreciated because it reduces drudgery and greatly decreases time spent on cultivation activities. Small tillers, tractors and pumps are important innovations because they facilitate pluriactivity and the combination of agricultural and wage labour. Even for the workers who do not earn income outside the community, the time saved can be devoted to collective work and other customary tasks. There is some commercialisation of cropping systems through leasing and contract services. We are even witnessing the emergence of a category of Kanak entrepreneurs who diversify the use of their machines, initially meant for soil levelling or for obtaining public road-maintenance contracts and now being offered for clearing and tilling fields (Bassuel 2013). Other innovations are also being adopted to save time, including a change in the method of yam staking/trellising (Figs. 6.3 and 6.4). The pressure of wild deer and pigs consuming crops is also leading changing plot location, with a tendency to group them together and move them closer to homes or at least to roads, where they are easier to monitor. It also encourages the proliferation of fences and traps, innovations that have specific support programmes from the provincial technical services. Fabert (2013) notes that “the evolution of Kanak gardens and their organisation shows the dynamic side of their traditional aspect through the use of modern tools and practices, ensuring that they are always up-to-date and always compatible with the new socio-economic constraints of today” [p. 1]. Similar conclusions can be reached for fishing and hunting activities, whose techniques have evolved through adaptation to time constraints. There have been technical innovations, like improvements to the quality and reliability of boats, new ways of managing fishing zones and understanding marine spaces and access rights to them (Léopold et al. 2009).

An impression of diminishing community agriculture persists largely because of the inability of statistical techniques to adequately capture the underlying trends. Our observations put “the strong tendency towards regression” or a perceived reduction in time devoted to agriculture in context. While the surface area devoted to tubers has decreased and is not possible to estimate accurately the changes over time in Kanak gardening, we know that the time devoted to community activities has not reduced. It is not possible to capture the regulatory function in terms of employment attributed to community agriculture (as also in fishing and hunting), which provides workers during good economic times and reabsorbs them during less favourable ones. The sustainability of activities and the food system is evident from available data, and adaptive strategies are being implemented that incorporate anchoring to the land and maintaining its economic and social implications, while also participating in the wage labour market.

## 6.5 Conclusion

Recent transformations like the increase of monetary wages for Kanak households have rarely translated into the total abandonment of farming and hunting/fishing activities. The data collected for the year 2010 by IAC shows that a monetary wage is not systematically reinvested in agriculture and especially not in the purchase of equipment (Guyard et al. 2014). The unwillingness to do so confirms the importance that these families accord to the traditional identity and cultural dimension of family farming. From the perspective of cultural identity, agricultural activities have to be maintained, even if the time spent “in the community” is more and more reduced and fragmented. The following few quotes collected

<figure><img src="image_29.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 6.3** Different organisations of yams on a ridge. Source: authors</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_30.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 6.4** Yam on narrow ridges with simplified staking. (Credit: Fabert 2013)</figcaption></figure>

during the large statistical survey in 2010 illustrate the social and identity value accorded to agriculture: “Community agriculture is very important for our lives in order to perpetuate our culture and our traditions” (Galilée, Poindimié, 11/08/2011). “A Kanak must have his field of yam, taro, and banana” (Gohapin, Poya, 04/07/2011). In addition, as far as the destination of their products is concerned, domestic groups rarely “benefit” from a favourable local market. The market is often far from the house and the community, and 49% of households do not have a car. Moreover, in the context of the high prices that characterise the New Caledonian economy (Dalmas et al. 2016), self-consumption of cultivated, bred, hunted or fished products is of fundamental importance and perceived as such: “Fortunately, I have my field! There are bananas, yams... There is balance, no question of a great deal of shopping” (Baco, Koné 12/07/2011). [Given the] high cost of living: the field is indispensable for us!” (Mou, Lifou, 27/09/2011). The following statement perfectly embodies this dual function attributed to Kanak agriculture: “Agriculture is sacred, it is something that comes to us from our ancestors, we must not forget to respect the earth that nourishes us ... the high cost of living will bring young people back to the field” (Unia, Yaté, 13/10/2011).

To conclude, these outcomes highlight that Kanak domestic groups continue to undertake agricultural and hunting/ fishing activities, even though some members leave to work outside the community. The growth of development hubs, around mine sites like the large one around Vavouto, the increase in the level of education and the improvements in material conditions of life are not systematically synonymous with a decline in agricultural activities or with continuing to fish and hunt. The persistence of these activities is explained not only by their non-commercial dimension and

relative independence from the commercial food system but also, perhaps, by the recentness of economic development. Furthermore, a strategy for conserving natural capital and for maintaining a high level of social capital through gifts of agricultural products could be relevant in the context of a fluctuating economy based on mining income. Previous generations still have not forgotten having to “return to the soil” during the nickel crash of the 1970s. Kanak family farming thus retains its roles, even in a context of major economic change, marked by the industrialisation of the local economy.

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Part III

Extractive Industries, Mining Development and
Waste Management
# Waste Level Rise? Scales, Spaces and Policies of Waste in New Caledonia

7

Gilles Pestaña, Romain Garcier, Laurence Rocher, and Nathalie Ortar

## Abstract

New Caledonia is known as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. However, it began developing its environmental policies and improving operational measures with an eye towards prevention and protection only two decades ago. So far, waste management responsibilities have been shared among the various levels of government (municipalities, provinces and territories) by default, based on other explicitly defined responsibilities, including public hygiene, health, mining, environment and energy. This chapter analyses waste management in New Caledonia in terms of territories and levels of government. Its central hypothesis is that there is tension between increasing waste generation and territorial waste management practices. The first section discusses the qualitative and quantitative evolution of waste during the last two decades. The second section examines the subject of political and territorial responsibility for waste and how the multi-layered web of these responsibilities is constructed. The third and concluding section of this chapter builds on the case of New Caledonia to address future concerns about the Pacific's cultural politics on waste.

## Keywords

Waste management · Waste legacies · Waste governance · Scales of waste · New Caledonia · Consumption

G. Pestaña
University of New Caledonia, Nouméa, New Caledonia
e-mail: gilles.pestana@unc.nc

R. Garcier
ENS Lyon, Lyon, France
e-mail: romain.garcier@ens-lyon.fr

L. Rocher · N. Ortar (✉)
University of Lyon 2, Lyon, France
e-mail: laurence.rocher@univ-lyon2.fr; Nathalie.ortar@entpe.fr

## 7.1 Introduction

Although waste has long been neglected in geography and the environmental social sciences, the development of material studies has spurred renewed interest in the subject. In her overview of waste as an object of inquiry, Sarah Moore defines waste as an “object of management” or “a matter to be managed and governed at different scales” (Moore 2012, p. 786). Indeed, waste management is not merely a local issue concerned with maintaining hygienic conditions or limiting pollution; it involves complex and evolving forms of public and private intervention at various levels. Previous literature has contributed to the analysis of waste management by characterising modes of governance as moving away from the disposal mode over the last two decades ( Bulkeley et al. 2005, 2007 ), by conducting comparative waste governance analysis (Davies 2008), by drawing attention to rescaling in waste management planning (Davoudi 2009) and by demonstrating how waste regulation makes possible the governance of the citizenry (Hird et al. 2014).

For several reasons, these questions take on an acute significance in New Caledonia. The first is concerned with the system of governance that has been in effect since the late 1990s. Building on the Nouméa Accord of 1998, the organic law (n° 99-209 of 19 March 1999) and the ordinary law (n° 99-210 of 19 March 1999) define the jurisdiction of the territory. However, nowhere do these laws address the issue of or even mention the term “waste”? Who is then responsible for waste management? This question has been met with an ad hoc response: waste management responsibilities have been shared among the various levels of government (municipalities, provinces and territories) by default, based on other explicitly defined responsibilities, including public hygiene, health, mining, environment and energy. This explains the hesitation that has characterised the organisation of waste management. For example, the waste management responsibilities in the North Province remained undefined. It was not until the first decade of the twenty-first century that it
eventually was assigned to the Department of Economic Development and Environment of the North Province (DDEE-PN).

Another reason lies in the way in which waste stands among other environmental issues. New Caledonia is known as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. However, it began developing its environmental policies and improving operational measures with an eye towards prevention and protection only two decades ago. Despite its mining activity on the main island Grande Terre, the archipelago strives to distinguish itself through its outstanding environmental policies. Among its agenda-setting successes are the 2008 UNESCO classification of the New Caledonian lagoons and the 2014 creation of the Natural Park of the Coral Sea, which spans nearly 1.3 million square km (see Chap. 2 by Rodary and Chap. 4 by Pelletier in this book). Waste is a crucial topic in this "green" public policy context. It alone has the potential to jeopardise the balance of New Caledonia's natural heritage spaces, impact the island's unique biodiversity and threaten the health situation in various spaces, whether island, lagoon, urban or rural. The government's interest to protect the environment from waste is evident from its political agenda items, such as the adoption of the *Loi du pays n°2019-2*" law on plastics (Congrès de la Nouvelle Calédonie 2019), which aims to restrict the use and spread of disposable plastic materials in terrestrial, aquatic and coastal areas throughout New Caledonia.

Comparatively, the third reason is more complex. As the more deprived provinces in New Caledonia have “caught up” in social and territorial terms through the *rééquilibrage* (rebalancing) policy, the consumption patterns in New Caledonia have changed. The inhabitants increasingly generate more varied types of waste. This waste results from consumption practices, which, like its modes of governance, are inseparable from the country’s long political and cultural history. However, New Caledonia is subject to contradictory influences with respect to consumption and management norms. Though it remains closely linked to France and Europe (which share both their experts and norms with the territory), it is also charting its own path, one that considers its millennia-old history and its location in the Pacific. Here, waste functions as an indicator of fundamental cultural, economic and geographic transformations. New Caledonia represents an opportunity to examine waste in all its sociocultural dimensions.

This chapter analyses waste management in New Caledonia in terms of territories and levels of government. Its central hypothesis is that there is tension in New Caledonia between increasing waste generation and territorial waste management practices. The first section discusses the qualitative and quantitative evolution of waste during the last two decades. The second section examines the subject of political and territorial responsibility for waste and how the multi-layered web of these responsibilities is constructed. The

third and concluding section of this chapter builds on the case of New Caledonia to address future concerns about the Pacific's cultural politics on waste.

## 7.2 The Rising Tide of Waste in New Caledonia

New Caledonia's population is distributed unevenly over three provinces. Two-thirds of the population, or 182,000 out of 271,000 in 2019, lives in Greater Nouméa which includes the municipalities of Nouméa, Mont-Dore, Dumbéa and Païta (ISEE 2020) (see Chap. 11 by Pantz in this book). Outside the Greater Nouméa metropolitan area, population density is very low (on average, 15 inhabitants per square kilometre). Therefore, waste generation is very scattered, especially considering that some of the 340 communities are far from towns and suburbs on Grande Terre.

### 7.2.1 Development, Consumption and Waste

Beyond its distinctive demographic traits, New Caledonia is economically unique in Melanesia. A high level of waste generation characterises the country. Since the 1960s, its economy has developed based on a model of economic extraversion. First and foremost, the economy relies on services, public administration and financial flows tied to the residential and tourist economy (70% of GDP in 2017) (Bouard et al. 2016). Second, the economy depends on nickel exports (7% of GDP in 2017) (Bouard et al. 2016). Regionally, New Caledonia has prospered, and imports of capital and consumer goods are high. Depending on the year, they account for 40–50% of GDP, including both manufactured goods and foodstuffs (not including seafood, meat and certain agricultural products).

Although detailed results from studies of consumption that began in 2019 are not yet available, results from previous studies (Decruyenaere and Sauze 2012), provisional data and a qualitative assessment of the situation allow for a cautious two-pronged hypothesis. First, Caledonian consumption of fungible goods is high for the South Pacific zone and is not declining (New Caledonia's per-capita GDP is third in the region, after Australia and New Zealand). Second, the socio-spatial structure of consumption is changing. As a more significant percentage of the population joins the wage economy, and fewer people engage in traditional forms of subsistence economy, consumption of imported goods in the North and Loyalty Islands provinces has increased. Consumption habits have shifted since the appearance of supermarkets in the 1980s and subsequent development beginning in the first decade of the twenty-first century, including the spread of stores to service stations across the territory, notably in the least economically developed areas.
It has led to an increase in the use of precooked and pre-
prepared products and the accompanying packaging. Certain
parts of the territory, such as the “Voh-Koné-Pouembout
zone”, have undergone significant lifestyle changes due to
the availability of more products. In addition, wage economy
participation rates increased dramatically following the con-
struction and opening of the Koniambo nickel smelter in
2013 (see Batterbury et al. (2020) and Kowasch (2018); see
Chap. 9 by Demmer and Chap. 8 by Kowasch and Merlin in
this book). Although wage labour impacted the volume of
flows, consumption habits have shifted across society,
changing the nature and quantity of household waste in
the process.

New Caledonia generates trash at a rate comparable to metropolitan France (354-536 kg per person per year, contingent on the year). Although reliable data are not available, the provincial government of North Province estimates that the average resident creates approximately 180 kg of household garbage per year (Province Nord 2013). As a result, the North Province generates between 8000 and 9000 tonnes of household waste each year, consisting of bulky waste, green waste, waste from economic activity and end-of-life vehicles, as well as approximately 850 tonnes of hazardous waste. In 2013, the Province's 50,000 inhabitants generated a little under 18,000 tonnes of waste or nearly 400 kg annually. These figures vary significantly depending on whether the statistical inhabitant lives in a Kanak community (less than 300 kg per year) or an urban area (more than 450 kg per year) (Province Nord 2013).

These considerations are valid for the other provinces as
well. The South Province, which accounts for three-quarters
of the Caledonian population, generates over 80,000 tonnes
of household waste annually or 428 kg per person. Household
waste generation is notably high in Nouméa, which counts
over one-third of New Caledonia's population. The city's
affluence, the diversity of its economic structure and its
urban lifestyle contribute to high waste generation rates,
although they tend to level off (Province Sud 2018). The
Loyalty Islands Province, which is sparsely inhabited and
contains virtually no industry, generates slightly less house-
hold waste per capita, at approximately 280 kg per year
(Institut d'Émission d'Outre-Mer 2019).

This data is informative but not particularly evocative.
The following image (Fig. 7.1) provides a more graphic
depiction of waste in New Caledonia.

The vast majority of waste generated in New Caledonia is sent to landfills, but only part of it is sent to regulated landfills. Some waste, particularly in rural areas, ends up in open dumping sites, brought there by local inhabitants or waste collection services. Household waste, animal carcasses and vegetable matter and previously sorted waste (plastic bags and boxes in the foreground of the photo) are piled up without fencing or other protection. In the best-case scenario, the sorted material is recovered, but most of it is incinerated (as in the background of Fig. 7.1).

<figure><img src="image_31.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 7.1** Open dumping site in New Caledonia. (Credit: Garcier, October 2018)</figcaption></figure>
### 7.2.2 Waste Legacies

Official documents often focus on issues of household waste, which hides the fact that this type of waste accounts for only a tiny proportion of the total waste generated or present in the territory. Most waste produced in New Caledonia is associated with nickel extraction and processing, including construction and public works. Furthermore, along with mining debris, scoria from nickel processing accounts for more than three million tonnes of waste in the South Province each year or 15 times the amount of total household waste (Province Sud 2018). Add 800,000 tonnes of building and public works waste and between 30,000 and 50,000 tonnes of ash from the Prony power plant, which provides power for the nickel smelter in the South of the main island Grande Terre.

Adding sterile mining waste (mine tailings) to these quantities increases them by orders of magnitude. Between 1904 and 2017, estimates of the total tonnage of mining tailings produced in New Caledonia approached one billion tonnes (Richard et al. 2018). This is growing (Fig. 7.2) because the mined ores are increasingly poor in mineral content: today, nearly 40 million tonnes of mine tailings are produced annually.

Therefore, the waste issue in New Caledonia is inextricably linked to the local government's economic growth decisions or those imposed on it throughout history. Nickel extraction and processing, in particular, have generated significant amounts of mining and industrial waste to manage. When analysing how specific waste management models are promoted or proposed, it is critical to bear this history in mind because models tend to conceal politically sensitive waste selectively. As a result, mining waste receives less

attention than household waste and is treated like a natural problem (particularly when it comes to sediment deposits in rivers). In addition, mining waste is more difficult to investigate than household waste because the nickel industry is a highly contentious political and economic issue in New Caledonia.

### 7.2.3 The Troublesome Governance of Waste

The juxtaposition of such diverse issues within a limited territory raises the complex question of waste governance.

Generally speaking, discard studies have shown that waste governance rests on a set of norms that seek to limit waste collection and treatment to equipment constructed and managed by public or private agents and controlled by the government. At the global level, these norms have spread since the 1990s, as waste management has become increasingly focused on recycling. Local and national fiscal measures have been implemented to finance collection services and pollution absorption and to discourage certain practices such as uncontrolled dumping and car wreckage in public space. Waste regulation and management responsibilities are distributed across various levels of government, as is planning, which is often the domain of intermediary levels charged with rationalising policy at the municipal level. Additionally, consumers are now more involved in waste management and are being encouraged to adapt their daily practices to ensure that residual materials are disposed of "in the right spot".

Growing normalisation, specific fiscal measures, responsibilities shared across different levels and the moral

<figure><img src="image_32.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 7.2** Annual and cumulative mine tailings produced from 1904 to 2017 throughout New Caledonia (in tonnes, DIMENC/SMC data). (Source: Richard et al. 2018)</figcaption></figure>
implication of individual citizens are all aspects of waste management in New Caledonia, with the added particularity of its organisational structure being relatively new. Most Western countries developed waste policies in the 1970s. These were reformed in the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s to incorporate reuse and recycling objectives before pivoting more recently towards the circular economy (Bulkeley et al. 2007; Davies 2008). In New Caledonia, such waste policies were not instituted until the early twenty-first century. This explains why in New Caledonia open dumping sites where waste is burnt in the open air exist side-by-side with an advanced regulatory system aimed at, in particular, banning single-use plastics. Attaining sanitary and environmental objectives and changing people's perspectives on the waste that ought to be prevented rather than eliminated are goals that require persuasion (Rocher et al. 2021). Therefore, our analysis focuses on the superposition of objectives and their multi-scalar distribution rather than on the modifications or impacts of reforms.

## 7.3 A Central Question: Who Is in Charge of Waste?

Two levels of an organisation are primarily responsible for waste management: municipalities (*communes*) or groups of municipalities (*intercommunalités*) are responsible for waste collection and treatment, while the provinces are in charge of regulation and planning. The New Caledonian level is vital for its relationship to metropolitan France and the rest of the Pacific region.

Despite this formal organisational structure, waste management is subject to numerous tensions. Resource-sharing is not easy to establish, and specific treatment schemes have been left without support. Consequently, increasing waste generation puts pressure on the collection without necessarily allowing for better recycling practices. In addressing these themes, we focus on the fiscal dimensions of these problems.

### 7.3.1 Domestic Waste Management: Municipalities in Charge

New Caledonia's municipal code does not explicitly make municipalities responsible for waste management. Article L131-2 of the code mentions "public health" as a matter for local police enforcement. It states that it includes, among other things, "cleaning" and "removal of bulky waste" services for which municipalities or their associations "can implement a fee-for-service program" (Article L233-3). According to this article, municipalities are engaged in waste collection and treatment while adhering to each province's

environmental regulations. That said, these responsibilities are challenging for the municipalities to meet for three interconnected reasons.

The first reason relates to the financial burden of these responsibilities on local budgets. The revenue generated from waste collection and management fees does not cover the costs of these services, which must be subsidised by local budgets (most municipalities receive under 50% direct financing, according to the *Calédonie Bureau d'Études* (Caledonia Consulting 2019)). Of New Caledonia's 33 municipalities, the burden falls most heavily on the rural ones, which are vast and sparsely populated. Waste management services in these areas tend to be provided directly by municipal teams, which are often poorly equipped. Urban municipalities are also seeing a gap between limited resources and growing needs. The waste collection tends to be outsourced to private service providers (in Nouméa and Dumbéa, for example, to the local business, *Caléco Environnement*). However, the responsibility for collecting fee payments still falls to local governments. Local budgets are burdened by increasing volumes of waste, population growth, stricter waste collection and management norms and the construction of new facilities. Inspections of old stock (such as open-air dumping grounds and end-of-life vehicles) would require further raising fees. Many municipalities, therefore, do not have the funds to pay for waste sorting, transfer or treatment facilities on their own. They are forced to count on provincial aid, ad hoc packages (ADEME or government) or loans (French Development Agency or private banks). Twelve of New Caledonia's thirty-three municipalities have partially or entirely outsourced waste management to one of the four inter-municipal associations: service-sharing saves on costs.

The second problem is related to the spatial structure of waste services in New Caledonia. In 2014, the average volume of waste collected per week in the North Province was 72 l per community person and 146 l per townsperson (Institut d'Émission d'Outre Mer 2017), making the need for collection more urgent than ever. However, users in rural municipalities tend to be widely dispersed. In contrast to towns, where inhabitants are grouped, door-to-door household waste collection in rural areas entails long travel times: each additional household served comes at a cost. The population density in the Grande Terre municipalities (not including Greater Nouméa) is less than five people/km², which is exceptionally low even by rural standards. Outside of towns, dispersion is the rule, either in the form of agricultural properties or communities. For example, in the Hienghène municipality (population 2454 in 2019), the Ouayaguette community resides over an hour's drive from town. Weekly waste collection by municipal teams is thus a logistical and economic challenge destined to result in deficits. For island municipalities that are entirely tribal, some waste can only be
disposed of via maritime transport to Nouméa. Such munici-
palities include Île des Pins (South Province), the Belep
municipalities (North Province) and the three municipalities
of the Loyalty Islands Province: Maré, Lifou and Ouvéa.
Certain small islands around Grande Terre (such as Île Ouen
or Tiga, which depends on Lifou) depend on municipal waste
disposal methods. These are not merely anecdotal cases,
given that several islands have limited freshwater supplies,
and poor waste management seriously threatens the sanitary
quality of water tables and freshwater lenses.

Lastly, municipalities have to work within the context of
waste practices challenged by waste collection. Until
recently, the custom was to bring waste to private or public
dumping grounds; while vegetable waste was gathered into
piles or containers and burnt before enriching the soil, fer-
rous material was reused. Waste collection requires changing
these practices, which is not always straightforward. As one
mayor interviewed in 2018 states, “Forcing people to throw
things away in rubbish bins wasn’t a social norm. Open-air
dumping grounds were too deeply engrained and it took
time. With the recycling centres, too, some people would go
when it was closed and just dump everything out in front, at
first” (Interview, 2018).

The sociocultural context in communities appears partic-
ularly distinctive and imposes specific modes of social trans-
actions on waste management (Blanc 2009). A technician
interviewed in 2019 explains how the use of new services
and infrastructures was made acceptable: “We find a contact
person in the community [...]. We put it in place, and then
we leave it for three weeks, and I stop by once a week [...].
Maybe you have to go four or five times to discuss things
before the operation [...]. Often, when people work with a
community, they do not understand that they do not live in
the same timeframe, that information is not absorbed and
processed the same way. After providing them with the infor-
mation, it is their responsibility to share it across the com-
munity. Even if they were present, they must discuss it in the
village. This is the process by which information is absorbed.
[...] That's the way the system is set up" (Interview, 2019).
Multiple actors interviewed stated that paying fees for waste
management is not yet entirely accepted by community peo-
ple, considering their modes of consumption and discard
practices of composting, recycling, burning or piling up
locally without assistance from the local authorities.

Municipal waste management is currently a kind of com-
plex mosaic. Certain inter-municipalities only have rubbish
dumps, such as Voh-Koné-Pouembout (VKP), while others
have established civic amenity sites (mainly in the North
Province). The organisation of waste management is rapidly
evolving. Using Greater Nouméa as an example, the Greater
Nouméa inter-municipal service (Syndicat intercommunal du
Grand Nouméa) for household waste treatment was estab-
lished in 2005; in 2010, its competencies increased and

became a generalist service. In 2007, waste management, sort-
ing, transportation and reuse were reformed entirely. Greater
Nouméa's municipal and open-air dumps were closed for
good in 2008. The civic amenity site in the Ducos peninsula
(municipality of Nouméa) was renovated and replaced with
three modern recycling centres managed by *Calédonienne de
Services Publics* (CSP Fidelio). That said, selective waste col-
lection and sorting for recycling is not optimal because of
problems related to the economic equilibrium of recycling
programmes (see below) and inter-municipal organisations.
Such problems include under-utilised equipment, such as in
Mont-Dore's sorting centre.

7.3.2 Legal Leadership and Planning
Responsibility in the Provinces

Environmental law gives New Caledonia's provinces a pivotal role when it comes to waste. Under Article 20 of the organic law (n°99-209), any authority not explicitly delegated to other levels of government (municipal, New Caledonian, French state) is the domain of the provinces. Since waste is not discussed in the organic law, it comes under the purview of the provinces. Furthermore, since the provinces are responsible for environmental protection, they also supervise waste treatment equipment. Provinces thus play a role in regulation and financing; they can help finance new infrastructures and work with municipalities to establish streams, but they play no part in day-to-day management costs. This shared authority is primarily a modus operandi resulting from legislative silence on this issue.

Here, too, things began to change more quickly after
2000. Before then, action on the part of the provinces was
irregular (subsidies, agreements and so on). The South
Province institution, which was established earlier, was able
to act sooner in the waste sector. It also benefited from the
actions of Greater Nouméa urban municipalities, unlike the
North Province, which is more rural. The North and South
Provinces' environmental codes, which were adopted in
2008 and 2009, respectively, constitute the first major public
policy initiatives concerned with waste management. These
codes establish durable frameworks for action. Variations in
the roles attributed to particular provinces in relation to waste
can be explained by an appreciation for competency and ter-
ritorial context disparities. For example, the Loyalty Islands
Province is in a unique situation: its environmental code was
established only recently, in 2016, and its territory is not only
rural but also characterised by “superinsularity” (*surinsu-
larité*), also known as “double” or “triple insularity”: the
concept refers to the increased remoteness, isolation and
dependence of small islands attached to a larger island. The
Loyalty Islands Province is thus responsible both for its civic
amenity sites and for transporting waste to Grande Terre.
One main objective of the North and South Provinces was, and remains, to eliminate municipal and open-air dumping sites (or landfills) and replace them with engineered landfills and recycling centres.

This civic amenity site serves as a “voluntary drop-off centre” for local residents can bring waste that corresponds to regulated streams. This waste is then transported to Nouméa for treatment. The South Province has established a network of such centres on a municipal or multi-municipal basis. The Yaté centre (80% financed by the South Province and ADEME) is the most recent (2016, Fig. 7.3); it was established after the modernisation of the municipal dump was completed in 2013. This gives some idea of the level of equipment that can be built in a very rural area: at 1 resident/km². Yaté is the municipality with the lowest population density in New Caledonia (1667 inhabitants in 2019).

For the North Province, the waste issue did not emerge until 2009–2010, with the 2008 classification of a part of the lagoon as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the enactment of the Environmental Code, the establishment of the DDEE-PN and the renewal of the mandate of the province’s political majority. The goal of phasing out dumping sites comes with the related goal of establishing a waste storage centre in each subdivision of the North Province (known as Homogenous Territorial Entities or HTEs) in order to create a base geographic network over the province’s vast rural areas. This project is still in progress and has come up against several challenges. First, there are significant pre-existing differences in the level of waste service, as well as the degree of mutualisation among municipalities. Second, waste is not at

the top of every municipality’s political priority list; drinking water conveyance, municipal roads and schools typically take precedence. Lastly, certain projects have encountered land tenure or real estate problems.

The provinces also play a strategic role in waste in terms of planning. The South Province did not establish a public policy programme for waste until 2012, with the *Schéma provincial de gestion des déchets 2013–2017* (Provincial Plan for Waste Management 2013–2017). This plan assessed the current state of affairs and laid out four operational plans for waste prevention, non-hazardous waste management, hazardous waste management and building and public works waste management. Following a “cooperative effort”, the plan was updated with the *Schéma provincial de prévention et de gestion des déchets 2018–2022* (Provincial Plan for Waste Prevention and Management 2018–2022). Its objectives include reducing waste production and impacts on the environment, generating structural responses to universal hazardous waste management, improving collective service coverage and increasing efforts towards reuse and the circular economy. These objectives are defined as quantitative targets, for example, reducing the amount of household waste generated and processed by 10% relative to 2016. A provincial waste management plan was drawn up for the 2013–2018 period for the North Province, but it has not been updated. Lastly, for the Loyalty Islands Province, the enactment of the environmental code has been coupled with efforts to better coordinate waste management. The province aims to establish one civic amenity site per island to put the same set of regulated waste streams as in the North and South Provinces.

<figure><img src="image_33.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 7.3** Inauguration of the Yaté civic amenity site, in 2016. (Credit: South Province 2016)</figcaption></figure>
### 7.3.3 At the National Level: An Ambiguous Scale of Action

At the territorial level, the New Caledonian government is responsible for certain hazardous substances. These include infectious clinical waste, unused drugs, asbestos waste, batteries and industrial and household solvents. None of these is treated locally – most are sent to New Zealand, Australia and South Korea. New Caledonia is subject to the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. The convention lays out specific rules for exportation, which requires explicit approval from host countries.

The New Caledonian Board of Mines and Energy is essential for the surveillance and regulation of these wastes, posing serious pollution risks. It is responsible for keeping inventories, particularly of materials destined for export, including collecting and redistributing tax revenues. The tax on polluting activities, established in 2003, is collected upon importing eight types of products, including lubricating oils, batteries, lead batteries and tyres. Revenues from this tax are used to combat pollution and to process these problematic materials. For example, the funds are to eliminate old stocks of end-of-life vehicles, finance infrastructure (such as new equipment or dump restoration) and organise the disposal of certain objects, such as electronic waste (Calédonie Bureau d'Études 2019).

Therefore, waste management responsibility is divided in a scalar fashion according to the nature of materials and the sanitation and environmental risks they present. Beyond the specific aforementioned wastes and the provisions for implementing international laws such as the Basel Convention, the New Caledonian government does not have organisational authority regarding waste. On the other hand, quasi-public and private organisations (called *Éco-organismes* in French) have significant structuring effects at this level. Such is the case for regulated waste streams. Even if the provinces are responsible for the regulatory oversight of these streams, their actual organisation involves coordination on a national scale and the heavy involvement of *Éco-organismes*, as we shall see shortly.

Since 2005, the South Province has established regulated waste streams for dangerous waste (oils, batteries, tyres, WEEE, vehicles) and packaging waste (paper/cardboard, plastics, aluminium cans, glass). In addition to capturing recent waste flows, the purpose of these streams is also to absorb stocks of waste that have accumulated over time. The working principle is that of “extended producer responsibility” based on the French model. In this model, authorised “Eco-organisations” handle collecting various materials at

“voluntary waste drop-off centres”. The consumer pays these organisations a fee called an “Eco-contribution” (Verrax and Garcier 2017). Regulation of these streams occurs at the provincial level, but their economic organisation is an issue of national scale. The Eco-organisation TRECODEC, for example, was created in 2008, following a joint effort on the part of importers, producers and manufacturers. Soon after being authorised by the South Province, it began operating in the North Province and the Loyalty Islands Province in 2013 (Lifou and then Maré and Ouvéa), agreeing to collect and process used batteries. Thus, while each province is theoretically autonomous with respect to waste regulation, the South Province’s action (Province Sud 2018) influenced not only the actions of other municipalities but also terms of the debate by “naturalising” a regulatory choice and policy that were imported from the French metropolitan model. As long as the collected waste materials are destined to be treated (particularly hazardous waste) or recycled, this de facto coordination has an economic justification. However, from this point of view, it seems that the appropriate scale has not yet been determined, because there are insufficient materials collected to be treated or reused locally; instead this waste is exported.

The structuring effect at the national level is not limited to recyclable materials: it concerns the entire waste sector. In this respect, the similarities to metropolitan French norms and modes of action are striking, given that New Caledonia's status gives it a great degree of autonomy in this domain. Advisory and oversight bodies, first and foremost the local branch of the ADEME, play a significant role in transposing French metropolitan frameworks to New Caledonia and working with local government at various levels. This is why frames of reference, the choice of instruments, the jargon employed in the domain, the distribution of responsibilities and, more broadly, the logic of public action are influenced largely by the French model. Other quasi-public institutions, such as consular chambers, help address waste management issues at the national level. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), for example, produces assessments of industrial waste generation and exportation, thereby helping to quantify the metabolic fluxes generated by the sum of the archipelago's economic activities.

These forms of government intervention – assisting public and private actors with financing and information-sharing – structure the waste management system in decisive ways. They reveal an effort to guide and frame the system by assisting in the smooth and uniform operation of the regulatory production process at the provincial level. Lastly, they attest to the existence of a de facto national policy programme.