IT'S not rugby that gets former All Black captain Anton Oliver excited these days.
In fact, what is driving him now is the chance to spend some time in the north of Fiji researching links between conservation, communities and poverty.
The 184cm hooker who retired from international rugby after New Zealand's disappointing 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign is rather proud to call himself an environmentalist.
He is out to test his mettle against the best of them the best of the academics, that is at Oxford University in England where he will study for a Masters in Science majoring on Biodiversity, Conservation and Management.
That is why he is in Fiji for one month.
Anton is working with BirdLife International in the Ringgold Islands to the north of Taveuni.
It is there that he will start his Oxford research into the link between biosecurity and economic security.
"Undertaking my dissertation in Fiji is really exciting," said the former Otago Highlanders hooker and captain in the Super 14 franchise.
"I'm looking forward to working with such a well-established NGO as BirdLife International," Anton said.
The former All Black hooker is in the Ringgold Islands now working for nothing, having completed what was believed to be a $600,000-plus contract with French club Toulon in June.
In the pristine Ringgolds, he is helping Birdlife International affiliates work with islanders to help conserve important seabird nesting sites.
His research will centre around the links between poverty and conservation.
He's taken to his new element already, just this week mingling comfortably with some of the region's environmental bigwigs at a Nature Conservation Roundtable function in Suva.
Anton hopes that lessons he learns from working on the Ringgold Islands will be transferrable.
"My project is designed to look at conservation in the most basic of social and political settings from which I hope to develop some fundamental concepts which, in the future, I can adapt to more complex environments."
When he was asked by the New Zealand media what he would be doing in Fiji, his response was: "I'll be collecting data on the attitudes of a subsistence community to their tribal land, which happens to hold a high biodiversity and conservation value.
"In a modern society such as New Zealand, usually conservation is clouded with a lot of other issues such as economic and political imperatives that get in the way of core conservation values but in the Ringgolds it's stripped down to a very basic level."
How does poverty affect conservation and vice versa?
The long-term aim of the Birdlife program in the Ringgolds is to generate revenue through initiatives such as eco-tourism but in order to do that they must first help get rid of one of the biggest threats to endangered and endemic birds there Pacific rats or rattus exulans as the scientists call them.
Elenoa Seniloli, the BirdLife project assistant who works on the Seabirds Program with Anton, says: "The team includes not only BirdLife International staff and a technical expert but also representatives of the local landowning communities.
"It is in a truly collaborative operation with a lot of commitment and involvement of the local people."
A 16-member team is overseeing the operation including the former All Black great who is listed in the team simply as an Oxford University Masters student researching the benefits and opportunities of island restoration to Fijian village communities.
Island restoration means putting the island's ecosystem back to the natural balance that existed before the introduction of foreign animals and plants.
"We have been preparing the terrain for a rat-eradication program at the Ringgolds Islands for a couple of years now.
It does not just require a technical fix to make a program such as this work because it is not just removing the rats that creates a good environment for seabirds to recolonise.
"To make this work really stick we need to run these programs in partnership with the local people to ensure that once the rats are removed, they stay gone forever and that other threats do not grow in amplitude," says Steve Cranwell, the BirdLife Seabird Program manager in Fiji.
"Then we can all start to reap the rewards of an improved habitat for threatened seabirds.
"In particular, the Fiji Petrel is one we are hoping to establish a safe haven for.
"It is so rare we do not even know where it breeds at present."
The former All Black captain will spend a month in total working with Birdlife on the Ringgold Islands project before heading to Oxford University for a new type of rigorous coaching by internationally reknowned professors into a Masters of Science qualification.
The man who was once fiercely dedicated to rugby has shifted that focus now to helping the environment and societies in New Zealand and the Pacific.
Dr Susan Waugh, BirdLife's Global Seabird Program scientist based at Forest & Bird in New Zealand said: "It's very exciting to have someone as enthusiastic and energetic as Anton to work with on this program.
"He's a great ambassador for seabird conservation concerns for New Zealand and our wider neighbourhood."
The rugby star plans to continue his environmental involvement after his studies at Oxford, focusing on improving how people of New Zealand and neighbouring countries respond to key environmental issues.
