Healthy oceans, forests and natural resources depend not only on good environmental laws, but also on people being able to find, understand and use environmental information. Across the Pacific, governments increasingly recognise the importance of transparency and public participation in environmental decision-making. However, there has been relatively little research examining how accessible environmental information is in practice.
During 2026 TINZ worked with researchers in Fiji and Solomon Islands on a research pilot assessing how Fiji and Solomon Islands provide access to environmental information and how closely their systems align with Rio Principle 10 and the Bali Guidelines (Guidelines 1–7).
The pilot, whilst focussing on fisheries and extractives also tested a rapid research methodology that can be expanded to other Pacific countries and be adapted to other contexts.
The report was launched on 28 September with a webinar that included both researchers: Alisi Rabukawaqa from Fiji and Charley Piringi from the Solomon Islands and the research expert in New Zealand, Mark Christensen, who is a Member with Delegated Authority for TINZ (expert volunteer).
The research was conducted in three stages by Alisi and Charley.
- First, a desktop review assessed the country’s legal and institutional framework and the public discoverability of fisheries and environmental information.
- Second, key informant interviews tested and extended the desktop review's findings against the lived experience of journalists, customary resource owners, civil society and community representatives, disability inclusion advocates, and environmental law/governance specialists.
- Third, the study directly tested the country’s access-to-information systems by submitting information requests. The researcher then consolidated their findings into a report with recommendations.
So what did they find?
Fishing in Fiji
The central governance challenge in Fiji's fisheries and environmental sectors, this study concludes, is not the absence of information but the accessibility, consistency, and practical usability of the systems meant to disclose it, a challenge that is technical, legal, and institutional in roughly equal measure, and one that affects different groups of Fijians unevenly.
Addressing it will require not only publishing more information but redesigning how that information reaches the people who need it.
Extractives in the Solomon Islands
The researcher’s central finding is a gap between what Solomon Islands' legal frameworks state should happen and how extractive industry information systems function in practice, as reported by interviewees.
Barriers operate at multiple levels (legal, geographic/economic/institutional, and social). These barriers compound one another rather than operating independently, and several interviewees connected them directly to conditions in which informal payments were reported to substitute for genuine consultation and consent.
Addressing the gaps identified will require coordinated reform across legal, administrative, institutional, and community governance dimensions, informed by further research, including perspectives from government and industry that were outside the scope of this study.
The Project
The project team was led by Rochelle Stewart-Allen. It included Mark Christensen (Member with Delegated Authority for TINZ); Murray Petrie (project reviewer) Julie Haggie with operational oversight. The two in- country researchers are Alisi Rabukawaqa in Fiji and Charley Piringi in the Solomon Islands. The report was launched in September 2026, and is available on our website and at this link. The project also received administrative support from UNODC.
This pilot research can be used as authoritative information for Pacific decisionmakers and civil society advocates. We aim to expand the pilot to look at the accessibility of information for other Pacific civil society groups mainly, we expect, focussing on natural resource management.
In addition to the report TINZ published the Rapid Assessment Tool which sets out the adaptable methodology, grounded in and empowering local knowledge and expertise, whilst also offering an international yardstick.
