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Research for this study was carried out under a two-year project to support the implementation of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) at two catchment-to-reef sites on Vanua Levu, Fiji. While the original scope of the study was to draw on lessons from community monitoring of infringements within their marine protected area (MPA) networks, efforts to assist communities to keep regular records of non-compliance met with numerous challenges. Because of the limited community monitoring data, the report has changed in scope to discuss some of the root causes of non-compliance with fisheries regulations within the traditional fishing grounds (qoliqoli) of Kubulau District and Macuata Province.

WCS has been conducting surveys of reef community assemblages inside and outside the marine protected areas (MPAs) within the Kubulau District traditional fishing ground (qoliqoli) since an MPA network was established in 2005. The purpose of this study was to collect data of small to medium scale movement of fish in this network of no-take MPAs, which can provide crucial information for the interpretation of demographic fish data from on-going monitoring programme and insight to MPA protection efficiency.

Research for this study was carried out under a four-year project to assist communities in Kubulau district of Vanua Levu in Fiji to establish networks of marine protected areas within their large, traditional fishing grounds (qoliqoli). In 2005 and 2009, socioeconomic household surveys were conducted in villages of the Kubulau district to examine coastal marine resource use and participation in the management process. Results from three of the villages (Navatu, Kiobo, Nakarovou) with traditional fishing rights within the three established district-wide, no-take MPAs (Namena, Namuri, Nasue, respectively) are compared with one village (Natokalau) without fishing rights in these areas but with high observed levels of community organization.

Research for this study was carried out under a two-year project to support the implementation of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) at two catchment-to-reef sites on Vanua Levu, Fiji, during which conservation planning approaches were trialled using EBM tools to evaluate options for re-designing marine protected area (MPA) networks. Current approaches in systematic conservation planning have focused on developing tools to maximize conservation benefits while minimizing socio-economic costs to users of a landscape or seascape area. In this study, we present a novel method for calculating the opportunity costs of conservation actions to multiple gear type users arising from fisher displacement due to the establishment of MPAs in Kubulau District, Vanua Levu, Fiji. The method builds upon those applied in land conservation in which the probability of land conversion to alternate functions is used to estimate opportunity costs to multiple stakeholders, which differs from previous approaches by providing information about costs of currently unused areas that may be of potential future benefit. We model opportunity costs of establishing a network of MPAs as a function of food fish abundance, probability of catch as function of gear type and market value of species. Count models (including Poisson, Negative Binomial and two zero-inflated models) were used to predict spatial distribution of abundance for preferred target fish species and validated against underwater visual census (UVC) surveys and biophysical predictor variables (reef type, reef exposure, depth, distance to shore, protection status). Spatial distributions of targeted fish within the three most frequently sighted food fish families (Acanthuridae, Lutjanidae, Scaridae) varied considerably: Lutjanidae had the highest abundance on barrier reefs; Acanthuridae on inshore fringing and patch reefs; and Scaridae on fringing reefs. Modeled opportunity cost, estimated as a function of abundance and probability of catch by gear type, indicated highest cost to fishers would arise from restricting access to the fringing reef between the villages of Navatu and Kiobo and the lowest cost would arise from restricting access to the Cakaunivuaka reef. The opportunity cost layer was added to Marxan models to identify optimum areas for protection to meet fisheries objectives in Kubulau’s traditional fisheries management area with: (a) the current MPA network locked in place; and (b) a clean-slate approach. The opportunity cost method presented here gives an unbiased estimate of opportunity costs to multiple gear types in a marine environment that can be applied to any region using existing species data.

Research for this study was carried out under a two-year project to support the implementation of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) at two catchment-to-reef sites on Vanua Levu, Fiji, during which period a pilot study was initiated to evaluate whether longlived coral records could be used to detect land-based disturbance to Fijian reefs. Trace element ratios of barium (Ba) to calcium (Ca) were measured at high (~weekly) resolution with laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in cores collected from inshore and offshore Porites colonies. The Ba/Ca records from the inshore colony collected approximately 5 km south-east of the Yanawai River mouth and 3 km due west of the Nasue marine protected area (MPA) indicate heavy Ba/Ca enrichment between 1996- 1998, which may be related to high levels of sediment delivery to the nearshore while the Mt. Kasi gold mine was operational. Ba/Ca values from the offshore coral collected near the Namena MPA show consistently low baseline values during the same period and over the entire record. Underwater visual census (UVC) surveys of fish biomass, abundance and species richness from 2007 show significantly lower values inside the Nasue MPA than at adjacent sites open to fishing, while the opposite patterns are generally true for the Namena MPA. By synthesizing interdisciplinary data from multiple sources, deductive logic can be used to decipher major drivers of differences in effectiveness of the two district MPAs. Benthic survey data from Nasue closed and open areas showed no significant differences in specific factors which may indicate recent disturbance (e.g. macroalgal cover, rubble) and/or play strong roles in structuring reef fish communities (e.g. live coral cover, presence of fast growing branching corals, reef complexity). Therefore, we conclude that the historical disturbance from the Yanawai River either had minimal effect on benthic communities in Nasue MPA in sites surveyed or they have subsequently recovered and should therefore be able to support healthy reef fish populations if not subject to other types of disturbance. Socioeconomic surveys indicate that Kubulau residents are occasionally witness to infringements of MPA rules and the majority offenders come from outside the district. However, at the same time, Kubulau residents themselves have indicated catch locations within the Nasue (but not Namena) district MPA, suggesting that accidental or deliberate poaching occurs regularly, likely due to lack of awareness of MPA rules and boundaries and inability to see the Nasue MPA from the shore. Recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the MPA are discussed.