UU 204: PACIFIC WORLDS

CRITICAL REFLECTIVE WRITING PAPER

THEME:
Sustainable Development
CASE STUDY:
Sustainability of Fisheries at Yavusa Navakavu
(Rewa Province), Fiji Islands
 Sustainability of Fisheries at Yavusa Navakavu (Rewa Province), Fiji Islands
Fiji predominantly has been undertaking this crucial task of engaging into achieving the seventeen sustainable
development goals implemented by the United Nation for a couple of years now. Development has been an
ongoing thing for centuries and will continue tremendously through time. Resources are utilised in developing
nations, for comparative advantage in trade, which provides sources of wealth, and it is essential for survival. It
becomes the responsibility of the humankind to use these resources efficiently so that these resources remain in
existence for the next generation. Sustainable development by definition is the “ability to make development
sustainable—to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs”, (WCED, 1987). Coastal ecosystems are a vital contributor to necessities of
life especially in Fiji where a proportion of the population live near or depend on the coast. For decades, fisheries
industry is the third largest resource based sector, where around 180 marine protected areas are allocated
customary fishing grounds to ensure conservation and preservation of biodiversity (Ministry Of Economy, 2017).
However, in the ongoing years, the subsistence of Fiji’s provincial fishing villages have progressively under gone
threat. This is because the delicate parity of this framework has been altered by human pressures from excessive
fishing, lack of control and the adopting unsuccessful ways to deal with resource management, has brought about
diminishing availability of the marine resources. Thus, this paper centres around the subject “sustainable
development”, in view of a contextual analysis on Yavusa Navakavu in Fiji Islands. It will elaborate the
underlying issues faced by the members of the public and the fisheries industry holistically and provide
explanation on the methods, polices and strategies adopted by community and relevant regulatory body to address
this challenges. Discussion will be based on the conventional systems of fishing that are employed to sustain the
biodiversity and o dwelling on the opportunities provided by fisheries sector.
Yavusa Navakavu is one of the marine protected area (MPA) located in Viti Levu, Fiji Islands. In year 2002,
Navakavu was founded by the support Locally Managed Marine Areas Network (LMMA) and Institute of Applied
Science of University of South Pacific (Beukering et al.,2007). The fishing area of Navakavu is situated near
Muaivuso Peninsula in the Rewa province and four villages named, Muaivuso, Nabaka, Waiqanake and Namakala
form a “yavusa” (traditionally linked clan). Around 600 people inhabit this land and depend on the inshore and
coastal fisheries area of 18.5 km2 for livelihood, (MACBIO, 2017). The local villagers solely have the customary
rights to fish in this coastal water known as “iqoliqoli”, (O’Garra, 2011). The figure 1 below demonstrates the
map of the Navakavu. The yellow line depicts demarcation of traditional fishing areas, red solid lines refer to
marine protected areas where fishing and extractive actives are banned, corals reef are pale blue area and
mangroves are referred by green.
Figure 1: Yavusa Navakavu Map

(Source: O’Garra, 2011)

Traditional system is way of providing knowledge to enhance the skills of sustaining the marine ecosystem. The
inhabitants of Navakavu have fishing traditions and empirical knowledge that have been passed on for
generations. Traditional male fishers(gonedau) are highly regarded, as are women skilled in reef gleaning and
fishing for smaller fish and invertebrates on the intertidal flats and nearshore subtidal areas. Elders believe that
catching certain type of fish can be an indicator for natural disaster, as it is believed that animals and plants have
that instinct of sensing danger beforehand and their strange behavior pattern hints on possible threat (Gucake,
2015). For instance, an oral traditional narrated by a lady ;
“It was my grandmother; I was able to be with her just for a while before she passed away. She always
said that if someone goes out fishing and catches a fish called Na Ki and brings it to the village without
noticing that they have caught them, it is a sign that there will be a tsunami or there will be flooding”
(Female, 69 yrs, Viti Island).
Unsustainable practices set up by the Yasuvu Navakavu community members, fishermen, poachers and
businesses has compelled the central division of fisheries agency to confront some broad issues. These are; firstly,
excessive fishing and poaching threat. According to Fiji Sun Online, the community at large faces the major issue
of overfishing and illegal poaching that has led to consequence of decline in fish stock especially fish species
named “Kaikai, Kawake”, “kabatia”, “kanace” and “qitawa”,other invertebrate and seaweed species (Nischal,
2011). There is significant contribution of fish to the Nabukalou fish market and Suva Municipal market via
unlawful poaching within the Navakavu traditional fishing ground. The community members are complaining
that ‘poachers come to fish in their customary fishing zone nearly every night’ and when culprits are caught the
police releases them without taking any serious measure to curb this issue. The poachers use fast boats and
SCUBA to poach , which makes it difficult to keep a control and watch over them (Thaman el at., 2008).
Unregulated and destructive fishing practices like dynamite fishing, seawater exposed to harmful chemical, and
using poison from “derris” root (donu) as dynamite not only affects the lives of the species and loss of their habitat
but also causes destruction and bleaching to the coral reefs (Hubert, 2007). Mangroves are important fish
spawning ground and degradation of mangrove actually disturbs the fish and the sediment fauna. Furthermore,
over the time, the customary learning and practices decreased that formally linked the people and marine
environment; there was inadequate awareness on sustainable development issues, (Thaman at el., 2017).
According to Ministry of Economy (2017), the sluggish growth in aquaculture for contribution to domestic food
supply also tend to pose challenge for the community and climate change contributes to the negative effects on
the marine life which results from increase in sea surface temperature, ocean acidification, rising sea levels and
higher rainfall.

Figure 2: Pictures of depleting fish species

(Source: Ministry of Fisheries)

In light to the address of challenges, the regulatory bodies, Offshore Fisheries Management Regulations 2014 and
Offshore Fisheries Decree 2014 are controlling the advancement and sustainable management of fisheries sector.
Constant monitoring by the fisheries sector are fortified to limit unlawful, unreported and unregulated fishing
(Ministry Of Economy, 2017). The Ministry of Fisheries also placed ban from June to September on 27 species
of grouper Kawakawa and coral trout (donu) which is their breeding period to avoid it being depleted. Some of
the strategies adopted by the Navakavu community to ease this challenge of unsuitability were, firstly, an ideal
tabu location was selected. A customary marine tenure system is one of olden practices of sustainability in Fiji
and many other pacific island countries. It is an informal right of ownership in Fiji where a tabu is placed on
sacred fishing ground, which supports livelihoods of fishers as well as some commercial interest. For example,
the old practice initiated by the elder to have a portion of a fishing ground kept closed to cater for death of chief.
In year 2003, tabu area was situated south of iqoliqoli but continuous poaching by outsiders using reef channel to
fish and tabu area was quite large which created less space for fishers to fish and glean resulted in the tabu area
being shifted to westward away from the channel. Since year 2010, this area remains the ideal tabu area, as this
place is not easy accessible by the poacher and it does not interfere directly with sea traffic, gleaners or fishers
(MACBIO, 2017). An interviewee from the village responded that when she got married ‘the Veata (sea hare)
‘started to decline but now due to the tabu imposed, it started to come in numbers. (Namila, 2018).
In year 2001, with aid of the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area (FLMMA) and Institute of Applied Science (IAS)
of USP a Qoliqoli Management Committee was established. The tasked involved raising awareness and
implementing strategies for sustainable use of sea resources on traditional fishing ground. Setting up various tabu
areas, demarcating, and enforcing rules set to protect the iqoliqoli were influential. Community members are
made guardian of the sea. Even though the village has four certified fish warden, several village members take
the initiative to help in work of the fish warden and keep a watch when warden are not around or unaware of the
fisherman within tabu area. In 2016, March the Qoliqoli Management Committee set out boundaries of their tabu.
Mangrove sticks of 2m length were use as pegs as it has durability of 2-3 years (MACBIO, 2017). When further
investigation was undertaken, one of the interviewee claimed that demarcation of tabu was a good idea, as they
now understood exactly where the border was and can identify if someone is within or outside tabu area.
As discussed earlier, the use of dynamite and fish poisons such as the duva (derris root), were previously a
common fishing practice within the Navakavu qoliqoli and restriction on access of dynamite was less but duva
was commonly used in shoreline of Navakavu. Therefore, a complete ban was placed on use of dynamite and
duva. Several mataqali (clans) have continued to build traditional reed fish traps which are by some considered
more sustainable as opposed to modern fishing gear. Many villagers of Navakavu believe that traditional methods
are more environmentally friendly than modern commercial methods, however many point out that such
traditional fishing techniques are being forgotten. In a personal conversation, one of the elder lady said that her
father’s generation used traditional fishing methods which was healthy method where only big fish are caught
whereas her husband and son use modern gear which is good for money but not for Qoliqoli as all small and big
is caught. In the traditional vocabulary, primarily the names of fish in the local dialect is being forgotten (Titimo,
2018). As a result, the village elders together with the Qoliqoli Management Committee, aim to conduct regular
activities with village children to educate them on the various traditional fishing methods and fish names.

Figure 3: MACBIO and Qoliqoli Management Committee set out boundaries of their tabu area

(Source: MACBIO, 2017)

 Figure 4: Banned fish species for breeding period from to June to September

(Source: Ministry of Fisheries)

The Qoliqoli has provided the Yavusa Navakavu with some of the great opportunities. This include income
generation opportunity from establishment of Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA), which has allured some
research group. These groups associated with USP and other organization tend to contribute toward communities
development for example schools and church. The money earned by individuals from the fishing contributes not
only towards their consumption but also towards paying bills, financing children’s education and fulfilling village
social obligation. Recent infrastructure has had massive influence on the lives of the people residing in the
Navakavu as now women can easily go to the market and sell their harvest of marine resource, which has increased
easy access to cash .It also provides the younger generation a planform to learn more about traditional fishing
through awareness and enhance their knowledge. Holistically, the fisheries sector contribute approximately 2.8
percentage towards the country’s GDP through export and domestic supply and it allows greater linkages to the
expanding tourism industry (Fuata, 2015).
In the nutshell, sustainable development is the most desirable outcome that members of community and nation at
large attempts to achieve in order to have accessibility to resources. Regulatory bodies and other organization
work collaboratively at community level to bring about sustainable practices to save resources from being
depleted and from unsustainable acts such as overfishing, illegal poaching in Qoliqoli and use of toxic substance.
The traditional sustainable approaches like having ideal tabu location, community members acting as guardian of
sea and banning use of dynamite poison usage were implemented by the community to minimise the issues. The
personal interviews, communication, and oral tradition has provided a better insight on the challenge and how
address them. Thus, from my personal perspective and experience, we as individuals must work hand in hand to
sustain the resources provided by the Mother Nature so our upcoming generation have some left for themselves.
It would be of great privilege to enhance our skills through conventional system, which will also keep people
connected to ancestors and have an earth friendly living. The Navakavu community livelihood relies on the
marine ecosystem and it is the most precious gift of nature to the people that needs to be taken good care of
forever.
Word count :( 2082 words)
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