Traditional Knowledge integration within Marine Spatial Planning in Action!

Building on the workshop conducted with focus groups from the community consisting of women, youth and older men on  South Tarawa in September 2026, with the support from  Earth Science New Zealand colleagues for CabSMART Multi-Country Component 2 on Traditional Knowledge (TK) and the KMSPCC members have applied recommendations for better MSP engagement and TK in recent engagement with the other communities in North Tarawa for MSP work.

Following the successful engagement with more communities on North Tarawa from 2nd to 7th October 2027 and we were able to:

• Collect more community-prioritised MSP recommendations from outer island stakeholder perspectives
• Refine MSP-traditional knowledge integration pathways
• Receive guidance on MSP implementations
• Prioritise good practice statements

Integration of Traditional Knowledge in MSP engagement at every community is crucial throughout the implementation work and the outputs of these consultations are fundamental to the establishment of a national guideline for integration of Traditional Knowledge in MSP work. 

We would like to acknowledge Earth Science New Zealand and our colleagues in Culture and Museum Division for their leadership in this component working closely our dedicated committee members towards a more inclusive and traditionally grounded Marine Spatial Planning process in Kiribati. We also extend our gratitude to the local communities for their active participation in the consultations and their insight that will help shape our meaningful engagement with communities in the future.