Lau islands welcomed the idea of offshore space protection after Fiji’s IUCN project liaison officer stressed the government’s oceans commitment
Villagers on Lau islands in Fiji have welcomed the idea to have their offshore spaces protected.
This came about after it was made clear to them by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) project liaison officer (Fiji) Alisi Rabukawaqa about the role Government and other partners played in protecting these spaces.
During a recent consultation tour by the Lau Seascape Initiative, Rabukawaqa stressed to these villagers Fiji’s oceans commitment.
“Because they are aware that a lot of fishing vessels pass through and for them, their understanding is that if they are able to protect that space then it will be better to monitor these areas for them,” she said.
Rabukawaqa said IUCN works primarily with the Ministry of Environment, Fisheries and also the Ministry of Economy.
She said the three ministries were helping Fiji with its oceans commitment and national ocean policy and the plans and processes in order for Fiji to achieve its international commitments to protect 30 per cent of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
“The commitment was made back in 2005, but a lot of the reason works started off in 2014 with partners coming together to gather all the data and information to help identify our work we call an ecological representative network of marine protected areas.
“The two key things to explain is that our inshore qoliqoli space has customary user rights recognition and also because of its use for subsistence and artisanal living it’s not that we can directly consider to protect and also it just makes up just over two per cent of our EEZ and as work progressed it was clear that we needed to look into the offshore space outside of our boundary to identify the best places to protect to best achieve that 30 per cent commitment.
“Through our partnership with the Government we have been able to identify 15 blocks in our offshore space for protection and these are huge blocks of area. The Government had given the directive that we need two rounds of public consultations and to incorporate climate change into the process.
“Out of the 15 blocks, there are five that are sitting in Lau and half of the sixth block. It’s a huge area and accounts to eight per cent that Fiji is trying to contribute and because the Lau Seascape brings together all these partners with different expertise to share data we are fortunate enough that we have localised data for Lau.
“We are fortunate enough to have Conservation International invite us to be part of this process to explain to the people in Lau within their Lau Seascape proposed boundary on the areas that are being proposed to be protected.”
Meanwhile, communities in the Lau Group of islands have initiated sustainable fishing practices, says Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area (FLMMA) sustainable finance officer Peniana Wainiu.
This was made possible after numerous consultations through the Lau Seascape Initiative.
And a tour to the island has seen that the discussion about the fisheries management campaign has finally come to fruition.
“This has always been FLMMA’s role in any Lau Seascape Expedition and it’s just so amazing to see how the communities are fully supporting these very important causes,” she said.
“It has been overwhelming to see the responses from the villagers and at the same time it is encouraging to see how communities know what marine species are banned and are not for daily consumption.”
Wainiu said this practice by villagers had also boosted their fishing grounds.
“Their fish stock has now been replenished and fishermen and women are getting more than what they got before.
“FLMMA’S role in the Lau seascape is actually around fisheries management campaign and at this point in time I would like to encourage FLMMA’s contribution in the previous years in the work involving Lau seascape in assisting turaga Roko Sau in his cultural mapping activity and this has been proved a success. I’d also like to thank Conservation International for allowing us to be part of the expedition to Lau.”
In a bid to help create awareness about turtle conservation, villagers of Lau were also reminded of the need to safeguard turtle nesting beaches.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) assistant turtle project officer Karalaini Rereavosa, who was part of the two weeks Lau Seascape Initiative expedition, said the island was a significant site for green turtle nesting.
She said since the moratorium on turtles, communities had seen an increase in the number of turtles out at sea. Rereavosa said turtle awareness provided to the island was timely given that villagers ranging from the young to the old, were provided the opportunity to further strengthen their knowledge of turtles.
She said the objective of her trip was to collect data for the Lau Province for a wider national Sociocultural Use and Trade of Marine Turtles Survey.
“The project is funded by the Pacific European Union Marine Partnership Programme through SPREP.” She said students had also been directed to protect nesting beaches and at the same time stay away from it.
“Most of these students have learned how to identify turtle nests. It’s just getting them to use this knowledge, tools and building them up to be monitored as most of them go out fishing with their parents and relatives,” said Rereavosa.
This story was written by Luke Nacei, originally published at The Fiji Times on 04 April 2022, reposted via PACNEWS.
