Government is working with stakeholders to empower communities to take on conservation and adaptation capabilities on their own.
This is done in coordination with many other organisations on the ground, one of them being the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network, which works with Government, private sector and other stakeholders to engage communities.
Network coordinator and University of the South Pacific scientist, Semisi Meo, while relaying one of Fiji’s success stories to the 9th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas, said that more communities are now taking initiatives involving conservation from ‘ridge to reef’.
He said there were 400 villages which includes 12 coastal provinces in Fiji that have taken on conservation efforts and building resilience such as replanting mangroves, protecting fishing areas and many more.
Mr Meo said after capacity building exercise these communities have now adopted holistic approaches such as vanua framework and yaubula management support teams that was now being used by Government as well to implement their environment programmes.
“We are thankful to the i-Taukei Affairs (Ministry) because they have done a lot of work on the ground by way of raising awareness at the community level,” he said.
Communities, he said, formed the heart of the activities undertaken to build resilience and have been committed and extremely receptive to initiatives such as the programme by the World Wildlife Fund of appointing villagers as turtle monitors.
Meanwhile, FLAMMA has provided its input on giving these initiatives the legislative teeth to act as deterrent in cases of over exploitation of resources and environment degradation.
“We are also working with Government on legislations that are quite outdated such as the Fisheries Act which has been around since the 1960’s and has very low penalty for violations,” he said.
He said some of the penalties in the Act were no longer effective and they were engaging with the communities to get their views across.
Themed “Natural Solutions: Building Solutions for a Changing Pacific”, the conference will be developing the five year action strategy that will ensure application effective national or regional conservation strategies.
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