Idea of offshore space protection welcomed

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IUCN GIS offi cer Filimoni Yaya, right, speaks to participants of the Lau Seascape Initiative consultation. Picture: LUKE NACEI

Villagers on Lau islands have welcomed the idea to have their offshore spaces protected.

This came about after it was made clear to them by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) project liaison officer (Fiji) Alisi Rabukawaqa about the role Government and other partners played in protecting these spaces.

During a recent consultation tour by the Lau Seascape Initiative, Ms Rabukawaqa stressed to these villagers Fiji’s oceans commitment.

“Because they are aware that a lot of fishing vessels pass through and for them their understanding is that if they are able to protect that space then it will be better to monitor these areas for them,” she said.

Ms Rabukawaqa said IUCN works primarily with the Ministry of Environment, Fisheries and also the Ministry of Economy.

She said the three ministries were helping Fiji with its oceans commitment and national ocean policy and the plans and processes in order for Fiji to achieve its international commitments to protect 30 per cent of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“The commitment was made back in 2005, but a lot of the reason works started off in 2014 with partners coming together to gather all the data and information to help identify our work we call an ecological representative network of marine protected areas.

“The two key things to explain is that our inshore qoliqoli space has customary user rights recognition and also because of its use for subsistence and artisanal living it’s not that we can directly consider to protect and also it just makes up just over two per cent of our EEZ and as work progressed it was clear that we needed to look into the offshore space outside of our boundary to identify the best places to protect to best achieve that 30 per cent commitment.

“Through our partnership with the Government we have been able to identify 15 blocks in our offshore space for protection and these are huge blocks of area. The Government had given the directive that we need two rounds of public consultations and to incorporate climate change into the process.

“Out of the 15 blocks, there are five that are sitting in Lau and half of the sixth block. It’s a huge area and accounts to eight per cent that Fiji is trying to contribute and because the Lau Seascape brings together all these partners with different expertise to share data we are fortunate enough that we have localised data for Lau.

“We are fortunate enough to have Conservation International invite us to be part of this process to explain to the people in Lau within their Lau Seascape proposed boundary on the areas that are being proposed to be protected.”

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