Marine area protection - Fiji Times Online

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THIRTEEN of the 14 provinces in the country have come to realise the importance of marine life to the human food chain.

Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMA) network secretariat Margaret Vakalalabure said the marine protected areas initiative was a success and todate, all provinces except Naitasiri have joined in to protect our marine ecosystem.

"The initiative is being taken by various communities in the country with the help of FLMMA."

They are the ones who came up with the idea because it has to start from that level in order to be effective. There have been a lot of interest shown by the communities and the only province that is yet to join the FLMMA network is Naitasiri," she said.

Ms Vakalalabure said some MPA's have been permanently banned from all forms of fishing while other areas were just temporary.

At present, the Network consists of representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries, Department of Environment, Department of Indigenous Affairs, Ministry of Tourism, WorldWide Fund for Nature, Wildlife Conservation Society, Institute of Applied Science, Resort Support, Mamanuca Environment Society, Seaweb and Partners in Community Development Fiji and three community representatives one each from from the confederacy of Kubuna, Burebasaga and Tovata.

Ms Vakalalabure said that there are about 217 sites in all divisions which have been managed and monitored by the communities themselves.

"We have a data centre at USP (University of the South Pacific) but we cannot easily release them to anyone because it belongs to the communities where it was gathered. But, in general, what we have found is that there has been an increase in the numbered of fish stock in most MPA's," Ms Vakalalabure said when asked of statistics on the impact of MPA's on our marine life.

Ms Vakalalabure said that when the footstock increases, there will be a healthy marine ecosystem which is expected to improve our income and our standard of living.


Marine area protection - Fiji Times Online

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