Fiji’s coastal ecosystems boast some of the highest biodiversity in the world.

Three men went out fishing one night in ; two returned. They A CULTURE OF had been heading to Cakaulevu, the third-longest reef system in the world. Known as the Great Sea Reef, its ecosystem teemed with sharks, CONSERVATION fish, and turtles. But the men’s boat sprung a leak and capsized. That April night in 2013, the third man IN FIJI tragically died in the waters of , the territory for Fijian villages, nonprofits and government which he served as tribal chief. Aisea Katonivere was 57 years old. officials have built a lasting movement to protect During three days of funeral rites, ecosystems and fisheries across their archipelago. men in traditional dress stood guard with Fijian war axes as mourners Now, as two decades of support for that effort by brought traditional colored mats, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation comes pigs, fish, and turtles to Katonivere’s village of Naduri. The nation’s prime to an end, the community looks back at its minister and military leaders gath- accomplishments — and ahead to the ered along with hundreds from the conservation challenges that loom. province’s roughly 100 villages and beyond. Days later, Katonivere’s By Eli Kintisch

Fiji Profile 1 mourning brother Wiliame was monitor and defend the nation’s coastal fisheries and biodiversity. named as the provincial Tui, or chief. coastlines and biodiversity. But Fiji’s Agencies responsible for that task At the ceremony for his selection as local leaders like Wiliame have just are underfunded compared to chief, Wiliame spoke humbly. “Lord as much influence, if not more. They higher priorities like economic make me an instrument of your exert local control over fishing in development. desire,” he told a reporter. Inside, Fiji’s traditional fishing areas, or he felt shock and the weight of qoliqoli (pronounced “nghol-ee To improve its conservation gover- expectations given the wide respect ngohl-ee”). In that role, they oversee nance, can Fiji make partnerships Aisea had enjoyed. “I never had the applications for fishing licenses, work between local and national, slightest idea I would be here,” he determine where and when fishing traditional and modern? How should said. Suddenly, 70,000 residents is allowed, and coordinate volunteer this rapidly developing island were relying on him to lead. fish wardens to monitor the qoliqoli nation of more than 900,000 people For Fiji’s conservation community, and fight poaching. protect its ecosystems while growing the transition to a new chief pro- its economy? And what is the role of voked particular anxiety. Known The task of balancing these two the civic sector, and its international as the “fish basket of Fiji,” Macuata forms of control over land and funders, in that effort? provides around 60 percent of the coastline lies at the core of Fiji’s For two decades, these questions seafood consumed in the South Pa- conservation challenge. “The have faced both Fijian coastal com- cific nation, whose habitats feature local communities and the govern- munities and the international con- some of the greatest marine biodi- ment have to work together to servation groups that have sought to versity in the world. It’s a fish basket make progress on restoring our protect the nation’s threatened reefs. in decline: a survey of Cakaulevu Since 1998, the Packard Founda- in 2004 found commercial fish tion has given roughly $12 million species in “very low numbers to conservation efforts in Fiji. Most and small sizes,”1 echoing stud- Macuata provides around 60 percent of that funding has supported the ies across Fiji that have identi- of the seafood consumed in the nonprofit organizations, described fied coastal ecosystems at risk. in this article, who have sought Over his 12 years as chief, Aisea South Pacific nation, whose habitats over the last 20 years to work at had sought to safeguard that feature some of the greatest marine various levels of governance to biodiversity against overfishing, sustain coastal ecosystems. But earning a reputation as a “great biodiversity in the world. in 2020, the Foundation’s fund- conservation partner,” as the ing to Fiji will end, providing an World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) ecosystems,” says Kiniviliame opportunity now to evaluate how called him. Ravonoloa, a community represen- tative in a Fijian village called Votua. the conservation community there Would Wiliame forge his own repu- has evolved over two decades of tation as a protector of Macuata’s “The two systems are very comple- philanthropy. (This article, funded by natural richness? The question mentary,” says James Sloan, an the Foundation, is part of that evalu- mattered because of Fiji’s evolving attorney in Fiji whose law firm has ation.) environmental governance system. received grants from the David In recent years, Fiji has emerged That arrangement, which has its and Lucile Packard Foundation, a as a global conservation leader, roots in agreements and laws made California-based philanthropy. “But influencing its regional neighbors, before and during British colonial at the moment, they’re not aligned.” winning international acclaim, and- rule, balances local and national Fiji’s conservation system is not yet showing leadership on major issues government control of natural ready to meet the country’s mod- like climate change. But at home, it resources. It links decisions made ern challenges. Local communities, faces a mounting set of threats to its in , the island nation’s capital, whose conservation efforts have conservation goals. Communities with its 1,200 villages, led by Fijian been funded through philanthropi- have steadily increased their reliance chiefs like Wiliame. The national cally supported nonprofits, have on fish not only for food but as a government’s Fisheries and Justice struggled to protect dwindling cash source for daily needs like cloth- ministries are legally responsible for resources as the nation’s population ing, medical costs, and education. executing the country’s laws relating and economy have grown. The to fishing and conservation. Their national government has only A growing population’s appetite for police and fish wardens are spread recently emphasized protecting fish, an expanding tourist economy, out over the sprawling archipelago, empowered by national law to 1 Jenkins, A., H. Sykes, P. Skelton, M. Fiu and E. Lovell. “Fiji’s Great Sea Reef: the first marine biodiversity survey of Cakaulevu and associated coastal habitats.” 2005.

JUNE 2019 2 and natural resource exports to Asia all contribute to overfishing, while pollution and climate change put ad- ditional stress on reefs. “Sometimes I think what I’ve been doing the last couple [years] is actually futile,” says Kesaia Marama Tabunakawai, a longtime conservationist in Fiji who serves as Pacific Representative for WWF, a key Foundation partner there. She’s not ready to give up on the country’s rich biodiversity, she says, but the environmental threats Fiji faces can feel overwhelming. “I tend to still carry out the sense of plentiful, but I know that’s not the situation.”

The challenges that Wiliame Katoni- vere must confront are a microcosm of the larger issues at play in rapidly growing Fiji. So as the chief consid- ered his stance, all eyes among Fiji’s conservationists were on Macuata. Given the low income of his citizens, it’s understandable that Katonivere’s Photo: © Laniana Dibe courtesy of James Sloan early moves focused on improving the economy of his region, populated Fishers like Laniana Dibe can provide food and some income for their families by catching mud crabs. largely by subsistence fishers and farmers. “My first focus is develop- dynamic relationship that coastal with a metallic twang, a silvery bar- ment,” he said after taking over. That villages in Fiji have with the sea. The racuda is trapped, flopping around included jobs, building educational sunlight sparkles off the waves as we helplessly. Laniana Dibe, meanwhile, facilities, and, in the coastal realm, approach the reef, which lies a few enters the mangrove thicket and developing more facilities like ice miles from the coconut trees that begins climbing over one low branch plants that would encourage more line Macuata’s shore here. Wearing a after another until she spots a distur- fishing as opposed to less. “When snorkel and mask, Laitia Tamata Jr., bance in the wet sand. With a knife, he took the job he had a number with WWF, inspects the reef in a se- she extracts a bakera, or mud crab, of competing priorities,” says Sandy ries of dives. Lifeless white corals dot from the muck and binds the crab’s Thompson, whose organization, the seascape, evidence of a bleach- arms with bark peeled from a tree. the LEAD Centre for Not for Profit ing event probably caused by recent She stores it in her long red tradi- Leadership, has conducted leader- typhoons, which dump hot water on tional skirt, called a sulu, folded into ship training in Fiji, funded by the Fiji’s shores. Tamata grew up see- a basket. If she doesn’t feed them to Foundation. On conservation, in ing teeming, frenzied sea life in Fiji’s her family, the crabs will fetch about contrast to his brother, he was cir- coastal waters. Once topside, he $10 per kilogram. Locals and tourists cumspect, leading Fiji’s conservation shakes his head. “The reef is in trou- alike enjoy this species in spicy community to wonder whether they ble,” he says. Josateki Manatua, from curries in the closest city, . would have a partner in the new nearby Raviravi village, remembers The group gathers in a clearing within Tui Macuata. when big fish used to come right to the beach. But now, to find big ones, the mangrove forest for a lunch on the fishers must leave the coast, travel sandbar. The men roast the fish they miles away, and dive deep. caught over a bed of hot coals. The women lay out plates and side dishes Villages, fish, Nearby, a small mangrove forest of taro, tomato, fruit, and coconut and rights rises from a sandbar where a few on banana leaves. Soon, everyone is men walk along the shore with bam- laughing and eating, paying little mind A journey by fishing boat to boo spears. One lets fly, and after his to the poisonous sea snakes that dot Cakaulevu reveals the intimate, spear strikes the surface of the water the surrounding mangroves.

Fiji Profile 3 Wiliame Katonivere — known here by Local control, local The LMMA idea soon became a his chiefly title of Tui Macuata — con- movement that spread rapidly across trols these waters. The sea lies at the conservation the archipelago. When the Packard core of national identity in Fiji, a na- Foundation arrived in Fiji in 2000, In 1996, women in a village on Viti tion whose 1.3 million-square-mile aiming to protect the rich tropical Levu, Fiji’s largest island, were strug- territory is 98 percent ocean. The biodiversity found in its reefs, IAS was gling to find clams known as kaikoso two biggest ethnic groups that make one of the only organizations doing that the village had relied upon up the modern state — indigenous marine conservation there. Though for generations. The community, Fijians, known as the iTaukei, and the Foundation’s original intention called Ucunivanua, consulted with Indo-Fijians, whose ancestors were was essentially to preserve biodiver- researchers from the Institute of brought to the islands as indentured sity by helping to create protected Applied Science (IAS) at the Univer- laborers during British colonial rule marine areas, its staff quickly realized sity of South Pacific in Suva. Together, — rely on the ocean for food and, the appeal and potential power of the to some extent, for livelihood. LMMA approach, which emphasized Half the country engages in subsis- livelihoods as well. Soon, handfuls tence fishing, and about one in and then dozens of communities 20 Fijian jobs is related to the were interested in creating and main- seafood industry.2 taining LMMAs on their coastlines. “The LMMA concept started to spread But the two ethnic groups enjoy beyond anyone’s expectations,” wrote very different rights when they fish. Bernd Cordes, the Foundation’s pro- Among the iTaukei’s societal advan- gram officer when the early work was tages is the fact that their clans and funded. villages own 88 percent of Fiji’s land and essentially all of its nearshore Why did the movement take off with fishing rights. Indo-Fijians must pay such force? “The key element is that for the right to fish in areas where the communities are in control,” wrote iTaukei own fishing rights; they’re not Alifereti Tawake, one of the pioneers allowed to own coastal resources. of the movement, in a 2007 presenta- Not surprisingly, land tenure issues tion describing the first decade of the have fueled political instability project.3 The movement offered indi- between the two groups in the past. vidual villages not only the appealing prospect of local control of conserva- Fiji’s dual governance system tion management but also alignment balances traditional authority at the with deep Fijian traditions involving local level with Western-style democ- communities, fishing, and land rights. racy rooted, on the national level, Its structure aligned well with the in British common law. Complicat- Macuata’s 70,000 residents include Alisi Dauvere, seen here gleaning along the Macuata coast. governance structure within villages, ing matters are different ownership where chiefs governed qoliqolis but arrangements for inland and shore also worked to achieve consensus. areas. While iTaukei clans exercise they created a zone within their qoliqoli in which no harvesting was Unity was often solidified through control over most of the country’s customary practices. One was shar- landmass, the Fijian government allowed. Other such local collabora- tions to protect Fijian coastal fisher- ing kava, a popular drink made from owns all coastal areas, though the the mildly narcotic pepper root and iTaukei do control the fishing rights ies followed, and four years later, at a conference sponsored by the drunk in formal ceremonies before in most such areas. The arrangement negotiating important issues. “Every dates back to 1874, when Fijian ruler Packard and MacArthur Foundations, regional experts would dub such community member would come Cakobau signed a “deed of Cession” together, they would drink a cup of with the United Kingdom, handing projects “locally managed marine areas.” The term “LMMA,” as they kava, and they would say that they’ve over ownership of islands, waters, agreed,” Tawake says. “That is the [key] and reefs to the colonial power. When came to be called, refers to marine areas under local management, of enforcement because people will Fiji gained independence in 1970, the show respect, and their belief is that if new Fijian government assumed con- with the dual goals of improving livelihoods and protecting habitats. they break that agreement, something trol of the country, and subsequent bad will happen to them.” versions of the country’s constitution maintained national authority over 2 “Combined NZ-Fiji patrols inspect six vessels for illegal fishing.” Fiji Times. June 26, 2018. the coastal waters. 3 Tawake, Alifereti, and Hoffmaister, Juan (2009) Adaptation in Locally Managed Marine Areas in Fiji. In: 2009 State of the World: Into a Warming World. The Worldwatch Institute, pp. 90-91.

JUNE 2019 4 Suliana Soloi is among Fiji’s women fishers who access coastal fisheries by gleaning at low tide.

Management tools the LMMAs actually had outsiders that were really for “experimenting with new ideas” applied also had roots in iTaukei delving more than superficially into says Tawake. “[T]hey would provide practices. Declaring temporary their problems, that were in it for the support that no traditional donor fishing bans, for example, built on long term,” says fisheries expert Bob would provide.” And the Founda- the traditional iTaukei application Gillett, a Foundation grantee in Suva. tion went deep. Between 2002 and of the tabu (pronounced “tambu”), 2007, Foundation funding of roughly a halt or restriction on fishing an- Using those management plans, $100,000 per year supported 10 staff nounced by chiefs, typically lasting the communities and their partners at the university — individuals who 100 days. (They’re one type of “peri- enacted a variety of schemes. Closed met with villagers, created manage- odically harvested closure,” as they’re areas that could be harvested peri- ment plans, and coordinated growth known in the scientific and policy lit- odically were the most common, and communication within the erature.) Tabus were usually called by but other approaches included per- network. The Foundation’s support traditional leaders after consultation manently closed areas as well as bars expanded later with the creation of with their members, with the aim of on certain fishing gear or practices. the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area building up stocks of fish or seafood Stacy Jupiter, the Melanesia regional network, or FLMMA, a Fijian non- before harvests for upcoming director of WCS, says that the LMMA profit organization. Based in Suva, festivals or funerals. LMMAs also approach succeeded because it FLMMA offered coordination and served in some communities to was “non-prescriptive” and “adapt- support to the burgeoning network, protect sacred sites. able to a range of conditions” over including workshops, buoys, and time. Donors, conservationists, and monitoring equipment. The partners from outside the vil- government officials, meanwhile, lages that helped create LMMAs read approvingly in academic papers By 2009, more than 250 LMMAs had included major conservation groups, that citizens in remote Fijian villages been established, covering more like WWF and Wildlife Conservation could collect data, make collec- than a quarter of Fiji’s inshore area, Society (WCS), but also officials from tive decisions regarding protecting and the movement won interna- several government agencies. The resources, and sometimes, protect tional acclaim. From simple roots partners would conduct workshops fisheries or marine habitats. with IAS and a few dozen villages, in villages in which the community the movement had grown more members developed plans for The LMMA approach was striking complex, involving multiple inter- managing their marine resources. “It and unconventional, says Cordes. national nonprofits operating in Fiji. was the first time in which villagers The Foundation deserves credit The nonprofits established long-

Fiji Profile 5 term relationships in specific areas: Madagascar’s LMMA network, now department for catch data, suggest- WWF in Macuata, through a part- includes 150 communities com- ed Tabunakawai. But they both knew nership with Aisea Katonivere, for prising 64 associations managing the department’s numbers were example, and WCS in Kubulau on the coastal areas. suspect at best. island of . The Founda- tion’s decision to provide funding The government’s poor data on year after year in Fiji, without stated coastal fisheries was indicative of end-dates to its support for marine Limits to local a larger problem: limited engage- conservation, allowed staff to make ment of Fijian national authorities in long-term commitments and plans The LMMA movement made history coastal fisheries management. Over with communities. “If you knew that in the global conservation commu- the years, the government has not you’re only having two or three years nity and was a runaway success in assumed a prominent role in LMMA of funding, then all your plans and Fiji, but its story shows the limits of governance, much less taken on thinking beyond that you can’t talk community management. LMMAs the larger job of real coastal fishery about,” says Tabunakawai. put nongovernmental organizations management. At the beginning of (NGOs), funded by the Foundation the movement in the early 2000s, The movement nurtured well- and other external donors, in a posi- says Tabunakawai-Vakalalabure, the trained, well-connected leaders. tion to provide services that gov- idea was that communities and the “Other benefits of the LMMA move- ernments traditionally provide, like NGOs were actually going to “work ment may not have been as quantifi- creating conservation and resource together with the government” to able as the total area of protected management programs,supporting manage fisheries. Fijian politicians shoreline,” says Thompson. She village enforcement efforts, and touted LMMAs internationally as a values the movement’s network of collecting data. Under the LMMA point of pride, and government connected communities. “I saw the arrangement, “NGOs had the man- officials participated in the network’s learning network working,” she re- power, they had the funding to meetings, but protecting coastal calls. In training sessions she led, she complement what little work the fisheries resources wasn’t an impor- says, “I saw people sharing with one Ministry of Fisheries was doing at the tant priority of the government. another. I’m not sure what you could time,” says Margaret Tabunakawai- Then national politics poisoned the have done to quantify that as an out- Vakalalabure, Tabunakawai’s daugh- come.” Another impact is the growth relationship between the government ter and the current coordinator of and the conservation community. of a cadre of strong Fijian individuals the FLMMA network. in the civil sector. “In Fiji, some of the In 2005 a proposed “Qoliqoli Bill” in most effective [civic] leaders have Parliament contributed to tensions been in the conservation sector,” between the iTaukei and other ethnic Thompson says. Communities and their NGO groups in Fiji who lack indigenous rights, including Indo-Fijians. The The pioneering work on LMMAs in- partners lack many of the legislation would have transferred spired similar efforts across the Pacific resources and powers that legal ownership of customary fish- and beyond. In 2005, building on the ing grounds from the Fijian state to growth of the network, Fiji’s govern- government agencies have. iTaukei chiefs, and it was opposed by ment made a pledge to protect 30 tourism operators, many of whom percent of its nearshore marine But communities and their NGO were Indo-Fijian. But it received environment by 2020. (The govern- partners lack many of the resources public support from some of Fiji’s ment now interprets that pledge to and powers that government agen- conservation leaders. Among them include its full Exclusive Economic cies have. Within the villages, says was Tawake, who says it would have Zone, defined as areas within 230 Tabunakawai-Vakalalabure, a partic- empowered “communities to be able miles of Fijian coasts.) That was the ular weakness was lack of consistent to take the responsibility in managing first such promise by a Pacific Island focus on monitoring, governance, their fisheries” for future generations. nation, and it spurred other regional and enforcement with clear rules. In The furor over the bill added to an initiatives, like the Micronesia 2005, for example, WWF’s Tabunak- already tense situation, contributing Challenge, in which five other Pacific awai received an odd request from to a conflict that led to a subsequent Island nations pledged similar Aisea Katonivere, then Tui Macuata. military-backed coup in 2006, the protections. The movement has Conservation efforts in a series of country’s fourth in 20 years. The reverberated even further. Commu- LMMA sites were underway in the unsteady political situation led to nity members and conservationists province, but the chief didn’t know “distrust on both sides,” says Tawake, in Madagascar visited Fiji’s LMMA how many fishing licenses he should opening a period in which conser- sites and left inspired: MIHARI, give out that year. Ask the fisheries vationists, including Foundation

JUNE 2019 6 officials, and the government largely steered clear of one another.

For all of their popularity, LMMAs ended up facing serious limitations once established, and they required considerable support. LMMAs are “living functional systems that need maintenance,” says Stuart Green, regional advisor for the Foundation. Yet the network of sites was provided little such support. Reliant on NGOs for assistance and in some cases funding, many communities gave up on conservation plans after a few years or had little wherewithal to en- force them. Researchers studying an LMMA in the village of Navakavu near Suva, for example, noted that disci- district near Suva created their LMMA movement, but they weren’t plining villagers who fished within in 2002 after they noticed their fish enough. By building on traditional restricted areas “is a bone of conten- stocks had declined. Since 2007 the Fijian practices, the movement had tion between the wardens in favor community has maintained several significant cultural resonance, but of punishment and the rest of the closed areas as well as bans on coral those practices were historically community, concerned with keep- extraction and on the use of poison more socially and culturally moti- ing good social relations.”4 Poachers and other destructive fishing practices. vated and not necessarily designed from outside the community who “We’ve gotten our coral cover back,” to manage resources sustainably.7 were caught could not be legally dis- says Kiniviliame Ravonoloa, who “The LMMA approach had proven ciplined, the study noted, since the works for FLMMA as a district rep- insufficient by itself to deal with closed area was not officially recog- resentative. Clam and mangrove modern conservation threats,” says nized by the national government. restoration projects have also seen John Claussen, Program Officer of Those limitations are among the rea- results, he says. the Foundation’s Western Pacific sons that the approach has mostly program.“LMMAs alone are not a con- But a 2017 assessment of eight failed to protect coastal fisheries and servation panacea.” Given the large periodic closures within LMMAs the ecosystems on which they rely. scale of the problem and mounting found that only three “were mod- Fiji has failed to achieve the goal of threats, managing at a hyper-local erately successful” in sustaining the 30 percent protection by 2020 — a level is “unlikely to adequately sustain biomass of fished species, while “one goal that LMMAs were supposed to fish populations and fisheries and provided biodiversity benefits” for help reach. Of Fiji’s 410 qoliqolis and achieve conservation goals,” WCS the ecosystem as a whole. Although 8 roughly 150 active LMMAs, there are and 50 Reefs wrote in a 2017 report. periodic closure sites “may afford only four marine protected areas that Local management should be supple- short-term protection to heavily tar- are closed to fishing and are recog- mented with focused investments in geted species,” concluded the study, nized by Fiji’s national government. addressing fishing threats through which was funded by the Packard Those areas comprise just 8 percent management opportunities.” This Foundation, the approach “should of Fiji’s coastal waters, a tiny per- pointed to the need to complement not be used as a broad-scale strategy centage of the total area within Fiji’s bottom-up approaches at the LMMA for biodiversity conservation in Fiji.”6 EEZ. While in Madagascar and other level with greater engagement from the government and science-based places the LMMA movement led to In sum, LMMAs were an important management practices. more substantive protections, says foundation for the conservation Cordes, “In Fiji, it stalled.”

4 Hubert, Antonin. “Use of Fishermen Perception in Participative Resources Management: Case study in More importantly, there’s also little Navakavu (Fiji).” CRISP. 2007. evidence that LMMAs lead to lasting, 5 Jupiter, Stacy D. et al. “Locally-managed marine areas: multiple objectives and diverse strategies.” Pacific sustainable improvements in fisher- Conservation Biology 20.2 (2014). 5 6 Jupiter, Stacy D. et al. “A social-ecological systems approach to assessing conservation and fisheries ies. Some of the projects, surely, outcomes in Fijian locally managed marine areas.” Society & Natural Resources 30.9 (2017): 1096-1111. have yielded conservation benefits: 7 Foale, S., P. Cohen, S. Januchowski-Hartley, A. Wenger, and M. Macintyre. “Tenure and taboos: origins and four villages in the Korolevu-i-wai implications for fisheries in the Pacific.” Fish and Fisheries 12 (2011):357-369.

Fiji Profile 7 With these limitations of the LMMA Ministering to But historically, the Fijian national approach in mind, the conserva- government hasn’t heavily focused tion community came together for the fish on protecting coastal fisheries re- a 2014 meeting that the Founda- sources, so change requires political But that’s proven hard. On paper, tion hosted in Suva. There Claussen, and policy reform. A stroll along the this new approach would entail who two years before had replaced busy and somewhat grimy docks in engaging the national government in Cordes as program officer, ad- Suva on a Friday morning makes sustainable management of natural dressed the group. He pushed clear the antiquated state of Fiji’s resources. But on the ground along grantees who had focused on coastal fishing rules and their lax Fiji’s shores, it would mean regulat- LMMAs for more than a decade to enforcement. A strong aquatic odor ing the flow of millions of tons of provide “concrete examples of how indicates the fish market is open. fish each year. And that would need fisheries management is better not There, on ice, sit dozens of varieties to happen not just along the coasts just in your community but in Fiji as of colorful reef fish, as well as larger where the fish are caught but also in a whole,” recalls James Sloan, the open ocean species. Men in small the markets where they are pur- attorney. There were few responses, boats pass colorful bundles of their chased. It would mean collecting and considerable resentment, in catch up to vendors working the the room. “It was a sense of reality stalls. check,” says Sloan.

It’s one thing for communities to look after their own resources, but as external forces pile up — poachers, Asian buyers, climate change, pol- lution — a more cohesive approach that included top-down manage- ment by the national government was needed. “We had realized that we had to pivot the focus of our funding strategy,” recalls Claussen.

The new focus was to be on co-management, a popular theory of natural resource management implemented in communities around the world. Central to the concept is the premise that local communities, governments, and third parties — often NGOs — can together manage natural resources better than any one party operating on its own. That’s important for Fiji given the overlapping national and local authorities that wield power over coastal waters. The Foundation and its partners decided to target A growing population’s appetite for fish, expanding tourism, and exports to Asia are each contributing to Macuata — and the Northern overfishing in Fiji. Division in which it sits — given its outsized role in commercial fishing data from fisheries locally, informing As the fishing grounds close to Suva and existing work there by non- regulations written by bureaucrats have become fished out over the last profits. But efforts by policymakers in Suva, and expanding nonprofits’ five years, says Margaret Tabunak- in Suva would be just as important. work from supporting communities awai-Vakalalabure, fishers are using “Communities can’t do it by them- to also informing policymaking. It more powerful boats to gather fish selves,” says Claussen, “so it is would position the government as from further out. important that government work overseer — overseeing, as it were, with them.” the threatened supply of reef fish as A former fisheries officer within the well as the rising demand. Ministry, she serves as a guide to the

8 Wildlife Conservation Society and 50 Reefs. “Coral Reef Conservation Solution-Scape White Paper” 2017.

JUNE 2019 8 fish on offer, most of which were means catching them has, over time, “He is coming in at the right time,” caught underwater the night before depleted the population. The second says the senior bureaucrat. by spear and flashlight. A green- problem is that the current fines — ish fish called Ulavi (parrotfish) is a about US$20 for selling undersized popular choice, as is a barbed variety fish — are too small to affect behavior. called Ta (unicorn fish). Both go for A fish with black spots on its tail, called Kabatia, which is popular for big weekend family meals, sits in the stall, no more than 30 cm long. “[It’s] very much below reproductive age,” she says of the species, also known as thumbprint emperor. “But it is a delicacy at this size compared to when it gets bigger.” Ta, the unicorn fish on sale here, are also danger- ously undersized, she says.

The 1941 Fisheries Act has set the Fiji’s government has recently turned its attention to regulating its coastal fisheries and ecosystems. status quo for decades. What’s unusual, though, is that the Minister The last two years have seen steady of Fisheries is now trying to change progress: creation of the Fisheries the rules. Until recently, in fact, there Ministry, Koroilavesau’s appointment, wasn’t a stand-alone Minister of Fish- and his relatively aggressive policies eries at all. The Ministry was formed since becoming Minister. He’s made only three years ago, breaking free the biggest impact, arguably, with from its previous incarnation as a new restrictions and management half of Fiji’s Ministry of Fisheries and plans he’s put into motion. One Forests. Since taking the job, Minister target has been bottom-dwelling Semi Koroilavesau has been visit- creatures called sea cucumbers. ing coastal communities, listening Communities want to manage their resources Known in processed form as beche to nonprofit groups, consulting with sustainably, says Margaret Tabunakawai-Vaka- de mer, the animals are highly lalabure, coordinator of the Fiji Locally Managed scientists, and, crucially, tightening sought after in Asia, driving an export Marine Area Network. environmental regulations, leading market in Fiji that has decimated to conflict with industry. He’s been populations of most species. It’s approximately US$4 per pound, aided by Foundation support to an economically important fishery while US$1 will buy about three local groups to conduct legal analy- for Fiji’s coastal settlements, where heads of giant tuna, caught by line sis and provide technical assistance hundreds of thousands of Fijians rely and used in soups. By the sidewalk, to officials in the government and on it for income. But it’s also a deadly groups of women sell crustaceans other institutions, including advice on one. To find the species, Fijians some- like crab and clams by the heap. monitoring, rules, and enforcement. times use an underwater breathing In her previous job as a senior officer As a developing country, Fiji is still apparatus, which in repeated, well- at the Fisheries Ministry, Tabunak- establishing its basic environmen- publicized cases has led to casualties awai-Vakalalabure explains, she tal regulations. An important step due to the bends. A 2016 survey by regularly helped inspect the market, was 2005’s landmark Environment WCS found that as many as 40 fishers overseeing checks for licenses and Management Act, which created a have been injured or killed during 9 whether the species and sizes of fish modern framework for regulating sea cucumber harvests. being sold were legal under the law. the environmental impact of devel- Local communities have failed to That law is the 1941 Fisheries Act, opment and industry. But rules are regulate the sea cucumber harvest which experts and the Ministry say is meaningless if the regulators don’t to make it sustainable or safe. So outdated in a number of ways. The enforce them. And with overfishing in 2016, soon after taking the job, minimum sizes are too small, for rampant, there’s plenty for Koroil- Koroilavesau announced a ban on starters, say scientists. “We are not al- avesau to regulate, says the Ministry’s the breathing apparatus used in the lowing them to grow to their mature Director of Fisheries, Aisake Batibasa- harvest. When, the following year, size, to the reproductive stage,” says ga, who reports to Koroilavesau. Tabunakawai-Vakalalabure. That the ban had failed to revive the 9 “Mangubhai, Sangeeta et al. “Value chain analysis of the wild caught sea cucumber fishery in Fiji.” 2016.

Fiji Profile 9 species’ numbers — or to keep villag- kids play in the grass, darting be- New data, new rules ers safe — he announced a tempo- tween low-slung wooden structures rary ban on the sale and export of with corrugated metal roofs and a Since the Ministry has poor infor- the sea cucumber itself. Now the few satellite dishes. The village head- mation about coastal fisheries, Ministry is developing a national plan man, a spokesperson for the village Foundation staff have hoped that to manage that fishery, which is Fiji’s chief, greets our party in a colorful co-management can promote direct second largest in value behind tuna. patterned shirt, common in Fiji, and a links to local communities and fishers Such a plan would be the first-ever black sulu skirt down to his ankles. to help close the data gap, giving nationwide management docu- bureaucrats numbers they can use ment to cover a specific species. The While sea cucumber are dangerous to make policy. In 2012, villagers told Ministry staff finalizing it has received to collect, the economic benefits of Laitia Tamata Jr., the representative timely input from WCS, says country the fishery are real. Josateki Manat- of WWF, that despite a series of site director Sangeeta Mangubhai. The ua, a fish warden in the village, says closures across Macuata over the group was aided by the Founda- the beche de mer ban is a good idea, previous five years, fish were still -be tion’s “flexibility,” which allowed the since it will save lives. “Two boys coming more scarce. The Foundation nonprofit to “quickly move funds from the village died at a diving spot funded Jeremy Prince, an Australian towards” that priority, publishing an not far from here,” he says gravely. biologist, to study the problem. academic study of the fishery last They succumbed to the bends after year. And the Ministry has initiated collecting the valuable organism. Beginning in 2014, with the bless- action on the ground: a police raid But the village now finds itself in a ing of the new chief, Prince trained in Labasa in early 2018, for example, financial hole, says villager Alanieta local fishers on sampling techniques, yielded hundreds of pounds of dried Raravitu. Funds from the fishery had and together they chose 20 species sea cucumber and several arrests. helped finance construction projects on which to focus. Over the next 18 “Our officials have been monitoring and shore up village savings. months, a team of fishers sampled this illegal activity for some time and 33 reefs from villages across the wanted to conduct a raid to provide qoliqoli, measuring 5,226 fish in all. proof, concrete evidence,” Koroil- The research included releasing fish avesau told a Fijian paper. if they were immature and dissecting some to determine whether they had A visit to a Macuata village shows reached sexual maturity and there- how the ban is impacting communi- fore could reproduce. (Tamata recalls ties. Peeking out from the palm trees how unusual it was for villagers to along the Macuata coast lies Raviravi village, where roosters call out while Sea cucumbers are Fiji’s second largest fishery in value behind tuna.

The village of Raviravi in Macuata relies on nearby fisheries for food and income.

JUNE 2019 10 fish were either declining or gone. The hope is that the ban, which falls during the breeding season, will al- low many of the species to recover. The Ministry also extended a 10-year ban on the capture of sea turtles for another decade after it expired in late 2018.

When the Minister announced the ban on scuba gear for collecting sea cucumbers, he relied in part on a WCS report on the topic. “We are able to arm the Minister with the science," says Mangubhai.

Sangeeta Mangubhai, of WCS, says the Minister routinely engages with Reports by the Wildlife Conservation Society, led by country director Sangeeta Mangubhai, have the expertise of Fiji’s conservation influenced Fijian policy on fisheries ranging from mud crabs to sea cucumbers. NGOs. “He's very interactive,” she says, noting that he retweets her ever release fish they’d just caught. village of Raviravi examined fish tweets, and, more importantly, calls “The first one to release the fish, during the study, he was “really on her group for input on important he actually kissed the fish,” he says, surprised” to see with his own eyes issues. When the Minister announced laughing. “He said you only see this that the fish they were catching were the ban on scuba gear for collect- on [overseas] TV series.”) immature. In the past he’d been wor- ing sea cucumbers, he relied in part ried about commercial fishing ves- on a WCS report on the topic. “We The data the team collected de- sels depleting the reef, he says. But are able to arm the Minister with the picted a fishery in decline. Prince the experience made clear that local science,” she says. Her work is filling focused on a metric called spawn- fishing had a substantial impact too. a tangible gap: of 280 staff at the ing potential ratio, which measures Ministry of Fisheries, only a handful how severely fishing has affected a Back in Suva, the work on fish sizes work on inshore fisheries; 57 work population’s ability to reproduce. A is informing the Minister’s team as it on offshore fisheries, whose main potential ratio of 0 percent indicates reviews the basic rules that govern commercial value to Fiji is in the that fishing has obliterated a species’ Fijian fishing licenses, permits, and export market. ability to create a new generation; catch rules, including minimum size fisheries managers say populations limits. In June 2018, the government To change the culture at the Minis- require a ratio of 20 percent to sim- announced perhaps its boldest step try has required not only different ply replace themselves, and ideally on coastal conservation. Building on officials with different attitudes but above 30 percent to maintain healthy a public awareness campaign called also a change to the structure of the numbers. But the team in Macuata 4FJ, led by cChange, a nonprofit in organization. A report coauthored by found that Kasala, or camouflage Fiji supported by the Foundation, Gillett in 2014 analyzing the fisheries grouper, had a potential of only 3 the Fisheries Ministry enacted a ban department called for a “new ap- percent. Other key species, like ta on the fishing, sale, and export of proach” to coastal fisheries man- and ulavi, had potentials of 7 percent 27 species of coral grouper, known agement. Gillett’s analysis informed and 24 percent, respectively. Fishers as kawakawa, and red coral sea subsequent workshops that the were catching fish before they had trout, called donu, during the peak Foundation supported and that con- a chance to reach reproductive age, four summer months of spawning. nected Fisheries officials with outside Prince concluded. When fish warden Studies had shown that the major- experts to brainstorm what that Josateki Manatua from the Macuata ity of the spawning sites for the two approach might be. That process led

Fiji Profile 11 to support for a new Inshore Fisher- poachers. In 2016, near Mali island who called the support “an incredibly ies Management Division within the in Macuata, poachers entered a strong foundation for a successful Ministry. In 2017, with the Prime Min- zone the community had closed to conservation program.” ister’s support, Minister Koroilavesau fishing. After the wardens displayed created and secured initial funding their ID cards, they say, they tied the for the division. “This is something poachers’ boat to theirs with rope we’ve been pushing for 20 years,” and were towing them back to the says Tabunakawai-Vakalalabure. village when another boat, allied with the poachers, arrived. The new arrivals threatened the wardens with a speargun and cut the rope to allow A new focus on the bandits to escape. The case was inshore fisheries reported to police but remains await- ing a magistrate’s ruling; a Ministry of On a hot April afternoon, in a dusty Fisheries official says there may not office space on the west side of be enough evidence to prosecute. Suva, 35-year-old Richard Veeran sits “Luckily, no one was injured,” says working on his laptop with a single Seru Moce, an elder in Mali. colleague, a friendly consultant funded by the New Zealand govern- The Ministry’s resources for fighting ment. The two of them constitute poaching in Macuata? In his office, the government’s new Inshore Joji Vuakaca, a senior Ministry of Photo: © cChange Fisheries Management Division. Fisheries officer in the region, says his three patrol boats are tasked with Veeran has an aggressive agenda “We need to have conservation entrenched for his first year: set up systems to covering a region several times larger into the society,” says Macuata Paramount collect and analyze fisheries data, than Macuata, and two are slower Chief Wiliame Katonivere, known as Tui Macuata. create a research program, and than the poachers’ boats. “We’re develop a strategy for increasing doing our best,” he says, gazing compliance with fisheries rules. warily at a map of the vast territory Officials hope that public sentiment under his jurisdiction. can aid their efforts. Koroilavesau He has been aided by the country’s hails cChange, the nonprofit in Fiji nonprofit sector. His office boasts Fijian policymakers elsewhere in that designed and led the “4FJ” little furniture other than a bookshelf the government are trying to pro- public campaign beginning in full of reports from WCS and other tect coastal resources. In 2014, the 2014 to discourage the eating of conservation NGOs. “I'm not here to Foundation’s partners worked to kawakawa or donu from June to please everyone,” Veeran says firmly, create “Conservation Officer” posi- September, the peak of the spe- though with a smile. As of May 2019, tions focused on protecting natural cies’ spawning period. By enlisting the division boasts 24 staff, including resources within the Fijian Ministry of religious figures, celebrities, and a dozen officers tasked with collecting iTaukei Affairs, which serves iTaukei the public on traditional and social fisheries data. communities across the archipelago. media, cChange created a national “The iTaukei communal governing effort to encourage people to avoid That will help add enforcement heft structure goes from family to village the fish during the campaign. Fijians to the evolving regulatory regime. to tribe to province,” says Brooke posted selfies — some used the #4FJ But regulating Fiji’s inshore fisheries Langston, a former U.S. Peace Corps hashtag — athletes posed with their will also require active coopera- Response Volunteer who helped pledges written on cardboard fish, tion from far flung fisheries. Qoliqoli create the program. “The theory was and 15,000 people publicly signed fish wardens, who are recognized that people would support conserva- on to the campaign. #4FJ laid the by the Fisheries Ministry but armed tion if you could plug into that struc- groundwork for the government’s with little more than ID cards, are ture.” The country’s 14 provinces announcement in 2017 that it would instructed to respond to poaching by now have 14 conservation officers, ban the fishing and sale of the fish gathering evidence and contacting helping with projects ranging from in 2018. (A 2017 poll conducted by the police. “But we have no phone properly locating pigsties to manag- cChange showed that 93 percent to call the police, no camera to take ing the Vatu-i-Ra Seascape, a marine of the public supported the coming clear evidence,” says Josateki Ma- protected area that spans the ocean ban.) Fewer sightings of the endan- natua, a warden in Raviravi village. between Fiji’s two biggest islands. gered fish in fish markets suggest That leaves wardens ill-prepared Packard’s support was “well-timed that shifting opinions sparked to counter often better-equipped and well-executed,” says Langston, behavioral changes as well.

JUNE 2019 12 Photo: © Getty Images

The 4FJ public campaign discourages the eating of kawakawa (grouper) or donu (coral trout) from June to September, the peak of the species’ spawning period.

“It is a huge impact in our effort to qoliqolis; fisheries data collected to tial” to improve the health of the try to regenerate these two species,” inform policy; nonprofits supporting global ocean. But in Fiji, Macuata is says Koroilavesau. “If there’s no mar- both local community conservation the place where all the pieces of the ket, then we won’t have this illegal and government policymakers; and Foundation’s strategy are coming harvest,” adds Veeran. regulations on fishing on the books, together. with Fiji’s Ministry of Fisheries re- Still, despite the public support — sponsible for enforcement. Making local traditional leadership and the fact that the banned fish an important partner in conservation makes up only 10 percent of the Institutions and systems matter, means relying on local traditional annual Fijian catch — the response but the leaders who make up those leaders — like Katonivere. In the last to the ban has shown how top-down systems are also important. Which two years, say NGOs, Katonivere has regulation can conflict with the is why, when his brother died and embraced the mantle of conserva- economic needs of local communi- Wiliame Katonivere assumed the title tion his brother carried before him. ties. When Prime Minister Voreqe of Tui Macuata, his views on conser- “Tui Macuata has got a hold of the Bainimarama toured the Bua region a vation were so important. The chief vision and has come around,” says few weeks after the ban was imple- sits in his office in Labasa, on a major Tamata of WWF. mented, a group of fishers com- island in northern Fiji, his muscular plained to him about the ban. “We frame hunkered behind a wide desk. The co-management experiment is have our boats to pay, hire-purchase The office is less official in appear- off to a good start. Before the Fijian payments to take care of, bills to pay ance than it is functional: maps, re- government created a seasonal ban for, and the ban on the 27 species ceipts, business cards. Here he meets on grouper, representatives of will affect our business now,” one with any outsider hoping to do busi- villages in the qoliqoli that Katonivere fisher told him. ness in the nearly 800-square-mile controls endorsed their own one- province, from miners to fish buyers year ban on the catching of Kasala, to scientists. Katonivere’s previous later expanded to include Ta. (Now identity was as a businessman in a the ban has been reduced to the Macuata: an royal family; now he’s responsible for four-month summer breeding Macuata’s economic wellbeing. season, in line with the national experiment and summer ban, though the two are a legacy He welcomes a delegation from the not formally linked.) Katonivere Foundation, who huddle around the supported the national ban in the The co-management experiment table. The visit has amounted to a press, if not enthusiastically. “I know is well underway along the rich farewell tour, as the Foundation had a lot of people are having Kasala,” green shores of Macuata, where the announced in 2016 that it would be he acknowledged. “The onus is on framework’s connected elements ending its funding in the Western the Department of Fisheries as the are in place: local management of Pacific as it focused on countries paramount player in ensuring that coasts through iTaukei authority over “that together offer greater poten- requirements are adhered to.” Fiji Profile 13 Labasa, has the right to fish in the qoliqoli that Katonivere controls. But After Packard: after becoming chief, Katonivere Foundation grantees look ahead found that fishers exercising such rights, usually to sell, often poached in closed areas or used banned equipment. So Katonivere ruled that such fishers had to obtain a commer- cial license, which tends to be more costly, and had to agree to conditions he specified. “Because these owner- ship rights are shared, it’s incredibly important to involve both parties in the management of those resources,” says Sloan, the attorney.

The Foundation and the nonprofits • cChange is preparing a campaign • Siwatibau and Sloan continues to it has funded have been an impor- called Set Size, which builds on work to increase Pacific Islanders’ tant presence for two decades, says the #4FJ campaign by expanding involvement in decision making Katonivere. But he knows “everything to include minimum sizes of for good oceans governance. has to come to an end.” Philanthro- all fish. • WCS is working to reduce runoff pists come and go, he adds, but “gov- • FLMMA’s new "100% Solution” of sediments and pollution to ernment is there to stay. I’m thankful seeks to improve village conser- tackle water-related diseases in that the government is coming in. It’s vation efforts by better linking the Vatu-i-Ra Seascape. like they’re setting up the apparatus coastal and inland areas as well for the community to use once the as connecting management • WWF is creating a $115 million funder goes,” he says. “It’s like WWF at the village, district and project to protect the or Packard can go and sit there and provincial levels. Great Sea Reef. look back and say, ‘There, that’s our footprint.’”

Elsewhere in Fiji, two decades of Katonivere is also partnering with or equipment for fish wardens who work by conservationists and their WWF to develop rules within the have until now worked as volunteers. local partners have created an entire province to limit the size of fish, In the future, Katonivere wants to movement where before there was framing the new rules in the business create rules modeled on schemes none. “A whole community of indi- terms he thinks his fishers will ap- he’s seen in the United States, viduals and organizations now wake preciate. “If you want value for your wherein licensed fishers must leave up thinking about the health of Fiji’s money, you should catch big fish,” he and return to the same dock to allow oceans that didn’t before,” says Bernd tells them. Meanwhile, he says, out- accurate inspection of their catch. Cordes. That movement has created reach efforts by WWF through work- He’s also created new restrictions strong awareness in coastal commu- shops and consultations have had “a on issuing business licenses for the nities for the need for conservation, quite huge impact,” he says, chang- selling of fish in local markets, which, first through the LMMA framework ing “the way people talk and the way along with the Fisheries Ministry, he and increasingly through links to people think.” Data on the decline of oversees. Those restrictions have government, NGOs, and scientists. the kawakawa “has made us realize, given fishers priority so they can sell oh yes, what you’re saying is true.” their catch directly instead of selling Up until now, says Kesaia Tabunak- At district or village meetings, for to middlemen who give them lower awai, environmental NGOs in Fiji example, residents have suggested prices. have offered services the govern- limiting the number of fishing licenses ment wasn’t providing, as they largely “We have the traditional leadership,” issued, a step that Katonivere says did during the height of the LMMA says Katonivere, “and we have the would have been unheard of before. movement. And they’ve guided modern leadership — these rights, In early 2019, Katonivere asked repre- government policymakers by offer- this law . . . . When you put these two sentatives from within the qoliqoli to ing expertise in science and policy, together, this is where the challenges use the income from license fees to as they are currently doing. In the come.” Katonivere has sought to draw support coastal conservation, for ex- future, she says, she hopes groups clear lines. By Fijian law, for example, ample for cash allowances, training, will assume a third role outside of a resident of Macuata’s biggest city,

JUNE 2019 14 the halls of power: “Play the bad guy.” That would mean serving as the kind of adversarial environmental groups usually found in Western democra- cies and “jumping down on the things that they’re not doing.”

“Government and the communities aren’t that far apart. They both want the same thing: they want sustainable fisheries, they want to be able to catch fish, they want fisheries for subsistence.”

The vibrant NGO sector is being joined now by a steadily maturing corps of policymakers in national, regional, and local government. For James Sloan, policy decisions by Minister Korilavesau reveal a healthy willingness to listen to experts in the NGO community that the Foundation has helped support. “We’re not there yet, but great steps have been taken, great decisions have been taken,” he says. But in a relatively young democ- racy whose citizens have experienced Two decades of progress in conservation in Fiji have created an impressive legacy, though formidable challenges remain. repeated military coups, it is crucial for the decision-making process to “They are doing it for the future gen- future will require not just leaders remain inclusive, he says. “Govern- eration . . . . It is a lot of collaboration, and nonprofit organizations who ment and the communities aren’t that co-management being the key word protect fisheries and reefs but also far apart. They both want the same in communities, government, and citizens who embrace the effort in thing: they want sustainable fisher- NGOs all working together.” Her their daily lives. ies, they want to be able to catch fish, mother, Tabunakawai, is somewhat they want fisheries for subsistence.” less optimistic. “Everybody’s talk- ing about conservation, wanting to For all the progress that Fiji has made Eli Kintisch Eli Kintisch is a writer do things about conservation. At in conservation, the risks in the future and producer in Washington, the same time, they’re fishing more are substantial. Foreign investment, D.C. He was supported in writing than ever.” But the response can’t be particularly from China, is steadily this article through a grant by the despair, she says. “We have to keep increasing, bringing new sources Packard Foundation to California moving forward, doing the best of pollution, runoff and, poten- Environmental Associates. we can.” tially, overfishing. Ocean warming, This article was reported and acidification, and the global trade in Nurturing a conservation mindset finalized in May 2019, and reef fish continue to pose risks. But among young Fijians is the best way published in July 2019. communities want to manage their to ensure that progress, says Katoni- resources in a sustainable way as they vere. “We need to have conservation gain economic power, says FLMMA’s entrenched into the society,” he says. Tabunakawai-Vakalalabure. Protecting Fiji’s environmental

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