Support For South Pacific Coral Reefs

SUVA, Fiji (July 5, 2005) – Counterpart International, in collaboration with Partners in Community Development Fiji (PCDF), is about to embark on a new three-year intensive coral reef restoration effort in Fiji. 

The “Living Reefs – Cakau Bulabula” project will be part of the global Coral Gardens program and the new phase will continue the momentum of the existing programs but focus more on the tourism and aquarium aspects.

The East Asia Pacific Environment Initiative (EAPEI), which has pledged funding for the work, wants communities to become skilled in sustainable coral reef resource management, low-tech environmental restoration, marine park management, reef-based ecotourism, and sustainable coral farming, and Counterpart’s proposals fit the bill perfectly.

It will encourage partnerships between resorts and reef-owning communities in Fiji to conserve and restore their coral reef resources, vital to both village food security and to the tourism industry, which recently passed sugar production as the country’s most important industry.
As well as raising local awareness and helping the development of sustainable coral reef management plans in the five project sites, Living Reefs will promote the training of resort staff as “coral gardeners” to protect and nurture the reefs associated with tourism, as well as to repair the inadvertent damage that occurs with heavy usage by tourists and boats. The “reef guide” training program for resort staff and village youth will provide trained local guides to enrich reef encounters for tourists entering the planned marine parks.

They will explain what the guest is seeing, while protecting guests from injury and protecting the reef from becoming damaged. 
Coral gardeners and trained reef guides are new and vital professions for reef tourism areas, adding earning capacity and skills to local communities and to the Fiji tourism experience.
Funding for the EAPEI work, whose goal is to improve environmental conditions and quality of life by increasing environmental capacity and knowledge in the East Asia and Pacific region, will be channeled through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Lelei LeLaulu, President of Counterpart International, lauded USAID for “seeing the enormous value of a program which combines traditional island knowledge with the private sector to conserve a common resource – coral reefs”. He described the program as a “smart partnership” where all sides benefit. “Without healthy coral reefs, the resorts lose their beautiful sandy beaches and the surrounding communities see dwindling fish catches. And, we all know tourists spend their hard earned money to be on clean beaches and to eat a lot of local seafood.

“In addition to revitalizing the subsistence economy,” said the Samoa- born LeLaulu, “the initiative also increases the benefits to communities from sustainable reef-based tourism and ‘coral gardening’
within resort-associated marine parks to supporting a rapidly growing regional tourism industry.”
Local resorts share LeLaulu’s enthusiasm. “The proposed research and activities in the Mamanucas are a more environmentally friendly and conservationist approach to tourism in Fiji, ensuring the protection of natural resources for future generations,” said Hannah Raffe, Director and Sales Executive at Plantation Island Resort.

Managed reefs that close 25-30 percent of their area to fishing, often gain from the increase in catches of fish, octopus, and clams by anything up to five-fold, which makes the locals much better off, financially and nutritionally. The target communities in Fiji and ultimately the coastal populations of all of the Pacific Islands rely heavily on their reef resources for day-to-day subsistence and economic survival.

The Coral Gardens initiative helps these communities protect and restore vulnerable reef resources by giving them a set of practical “tools” for their own local systems for sustainable coral reef management.

Alumeci Gavidi, from the Fijian village of Cuvu, says: “Our fishing grounds are well known for octopus. But for the past six years we recognized that most of the marine resources that we used to catch before had been depleting and then, when PCDF did awareness training for our community, we realized the cause of the problems – depletion of the marine resources. We established our Marine Protected Area and now we get the benefit of the project with the over-spill from the no- fishing area into our fishing zone. We are fortunate to have an organization like PCDF assisting us in conserving our marine resources for the benefit of our young generations.”

Coral Gardens reflect the philosophy of Counterpart International and Partners in Community Development Fiji, its affiliate of over 25 years, and the regional Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI), that communities are better at identifying and meeting their own development needs in a sustainable way, rather than having rules and regulations imposed from above.

Since 1999, Counterpart has worked with PCDF, headed by Alisi Daurewa, and the FSPI network, headed by Ambassador Rex Horoi, on the Coral Gardens Initiative, funded by the Packard and MacArthur Foundations, New Zealand’s International Aid & Development Agency (NZAID), and with additional support from Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort.

During the initial phase in 2000, Counterpart and PCDF were awarded the Henry Award for Partnerships in Coral Reef Conservation. In 2002, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) selected the primary Fiji site, Cuvu Tikina, for worldwide recognition as an International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) model site for coral reef

conservation: http://www.icran.org/SITES/spr.html

A full BBC TV programme on the Cuvu Tikina site has been broadcast four times globally since its release in August 2003:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3141683.stm
Other honors include the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network at the United Nations Sustainable Development Conference on Eradicating Poverty, the United Kingdom’s International Green Apple Award for environmental best practices and the Equator Initiative Award

July 6, 2005   Posted in: South Pacific