Locally-Managed Marine Areas (LMMA) Network International Trust is a growing grassroots network dedicated to championing and advancing community-led and locally-driven solutions to integrated coastal management, LMMAs, sustainable fisheries, sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, climate change adaptations and sustainable/resilient livelihood development. The network believes in the collective power of the resource rights-holders, rights-based approaches and the potential of grassroots communities to care for nature, implement nature-based solutions and lead in managing their land, sea and ocean resources effectively with climate-smart strategies. The ultimate goal is to improve grassroots and community livelihoods while growing a network of empowered, healthy/vibrant and resilient communities. LMMA have been advocating for the collective voices of communities in national, regional, global and UN forums.
While founded in 2000, LMMA was only registered in 2018 as a Charitable Trust organization in Fiji with a shared vision of “vibrant, resilient and empowered communities who inherit and maintain healthy, well-managed and sustainable resources and ecosystems.” LMMA Network is a homegrown Indo-Pacific initiative that now has global reach and recognition. In the Pacific, LMMA has a growing presence in Fiji, Solomon Island, Palau, Pohnpei, FSM, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Nauru, Tonga, French Polynesia, Torres Strait (Australia), Niue, Vanuatu, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.