Coastal issues for oceanic islands: implications for human futures

Compared to continental areas, most islands have exceptionally long coastlines relative to their total land area. For this reason, islands are uncommonly vulnerable to problems associated with coasts. The future of the human inhabitants of many island states depends intrinsically on the sustainable management of their coasts, a challenge which grows more pressing as island populations increase and the associated demands on island coastlines change and grow. These issues are presented and discussed in this article. The mechanics of the sustainable management of island coasts is itself an important issue. At the national or local level, management is plagued by problems of insufficient and/or imprecise data and understanding that may lead to inappropriate solutions that even exacerbate the problems they are intended to solve. At an inter-governmental or international level, problems associated with the understanding of island environments need to be resolved before optimal management strategies can be developed. This article presents a brief explanation of the nature of coastal vulnerability on oceanic islands, followed by a discussion ofseveral key problems associated with their sustainable development and the role of human and non-human factors in recent environmental change. It discusses the future of oceanic island coasts in the face of both internal and external threats to their sustainable management. It concludes with a blueprint for their survival

Mainstreaming resource conservation: the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network and its influence on National Policy Development

The experience of the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMA) network provides an illustration of how to mainstream community-based resource management practices that began with local communities, and were in-turn supported by a Government which has witnessed the success of community-based intervention. To improve the success of conservation in the communities and attract attention to its approach, FLMMA formed a learning portfolio. This is a network of projects that use a common strategy to achieve a common end and agree to work together to collect, test and communicate information about the conditions under which the strategy works, to enable the partners to exchange ideas and experiences. The learning portfolio enhances collaboration and also ensures that lessons learnt are shared widely with people in the network. FLMMA is working to increase the effectiveness of conservation and to ensure that the involvement of people in the management of their marine resources is both satisfying and meaningful. Modern science is an important part of the FLMMA approach because it is used to demonstrate the effects of the use of traditional resource management practices. Using simple biological, social, and economic monitoring methods, the villagers are collecting impressive results on resources and habitat recovery and the associated social and economic improvements in living conditions. The objectives of improving conservation to protect biodiversity and improve people’s living conditions are important features of the kind of community-based resource conservation that is now being undertaken in the Pacific and Asia region. The objectives are also consistent with national policies for inshore fisheries development and global concerns about poverty alleviation. The success of community-based conservation in different parts of Fiji has resulted in long-term support from the communities. It has also facilitated the articulation of Government fisheries development policies. The Government has set up a new conservation unit and has formalised its support, and adopted the FLMMA method of involving local community units in the sustainable use of their marine resources. Under FLMMA, the success and combined experiences of conservation practitioners are being used to mainstream resource conservation and influence policy development in Fiji

Na Vuku Makawa ni Qoli: Indigenous Fishing Knowledge (IFK) in Fiji and the Pacific

The time-tested Indigenous fishing knowledge (IFK) of Fiji and the Pacific Islands is seriously threatened due to the commercialization of fishing, breakdown of traditional communal leadership and oral knowledge transmission systems, modern education, and the movement of the younger generations to urban areas for work and/or study. Consequently, IFK, which has been orally transmitted for generations, has either been lost, not learned by the current generation, or remains undocumented. This study focuses on the critical need to conserve and include IFK as a basis for assessing the conservation status of ecologically and culturally keystone fisheries species as a basis for planning site-specific management of marine and freshwater fisheries in Fiji and the Pacific Islands. The study reviews studies of the last two and a half centuries on IFK from Fiji and elsewhere in the small oceanic islands of the Pacific, as a basis for the conservation, documentation and intergenerational transfer of this knowledge as the foundation for sustainable fisheries management. The study also reviews: the nature and conservation status of IFK, itself; and the conservation status of species considered to be of particular ecological and cultural importance; reasons for the loss of species/taxa and associated knowledge and practices; and actions that can be taken to address this loss

Conservation status and cultural values of sea turtles leading to (un)written parallel management systems in Fiji

Globally and locally, conservationists and scientists work to inform policy makers to help recovery of endangered sea turtle populations. In Fiji, in the South Pacific, sea turtles are protected by the national legislation because of their conservation status, and are also a customary iTaukei resource. Centered on our interview-based study at Qoma and Denimanu villages, parallel management systems coexist, where both the (written) national legislation and the (unwritten) customary iTaukei rules determine the time and the quantity of sea turtle harvest. In addition, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions may influence local sea turtle management by providing scientific awareness and helping divert the economic values from the meat to the living animal. We suggest that the government and non-governmental organizations emphasize community management of sea turtles, and work alongside the customary chiefs and their fishing clans to understand the real harvest (eventually by allowing quotas) and to monitor the recovery of South Pacific sea turtles in Fijian waters

Customary marine tenure and the empowerment of resource owners in Fiji

One of the last decisions of the Rabuka Government was to return the ownership of customary marine tenure (CMT) areas to indigenous Fijian resource owners. This decision, if legalised, would rectify one of the points of contention regarding the transition in resource ownership rights in Fiji after Cession to Britain in 1874: i) The decision would return the ownership of CMT areas to indigenous Fijians who under previous constitutions had only the right to fish as opposed to ownership rights; ii) The decision would formalise the empowerment of resource owners under the integration of the traditional system of resource management and more contemporary arrangements; iii) The decision would also highlight the important role that resource owners can play in the management and use of marine resources within their realm. The CMT system in Fiji offers useful lessons to the world on the empowerment of resource owners. The Government has recorded, demarcated and registered customary fishing grounds. The people, through their chiefs, decide on the use of their fishing areas. In recent times, owners of CMT areas have banned commercial fishing and the use of certain fishing gear. In other places, the resource owners have taken up resource management exercises such as monitoring, the replanting of mangroves and declaration of marine conservation and protected areas. These are good signs but a lot is still needed to be done to ensure that the full potential of the measures to empower the resource owners, that are being pioneered in Fiji, are fully realised