Search the SPREP Catalogue

The BioRap survey was conducted by NatureFiji-MareqetiViti (NFMV), under the SPREP-led By-catch and Integrated Ecosystem Management (BIEM) Initiative of the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership Programme funded by the European-Union and the Government of Sweden. The BioRap aims to enhance ecosystem resilience and conservation efforts in Fiji. Focused on the Navua catchment and Beqa lagoon, the survey collected baseline data on flora and fauna through rapid biodiversity assessments. The Navua catchment, Fiji's third-largest river system, encompasses five sub catchments and holds vital importance for ecosystem health.

Coral reefs are under threat from a wide range of anthropogenic disturbances, including overfishing, habitat degradation and climate change. Beqa lagoon, Fiji, is a coral ecosystem that is currently facing a range of significant threats that will impact the structure and functioning of these coral reef communities. Changes to the catchment, river and lagoon have significantly altered the environment and resilience to further disturbance. Furthermore, decades of land degradation in the Navua Catchment results in excess sediment delivery to the river, which is impacting the coral reefs in the lagoon. Here we assessed fish community structure across inshore and offshore reefs and mangrove forests of Beqa lagoon. We used remote underwater video stations (RUVS) to sample fish communities at 40 sites throughout Beqa lagoon.

The rapid expansion of kava farms, and the increase in market value for the plant, has resulted in an increased clearing of native forests in key growing zones. Cleared cultivation areas are now penetrating some of the most well preserved native forests of the Pacific region. To what extent this is currently impacting on biodiversity and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) is not yet fully known, especially in Fiji and Vanuatu.

Globally and locally, conservationists and scientists work to inform policy makers to help recovery of endangered sea turtle populations. In Fiji, in the South Pacific, sea turtles are protected by the national legislation because of their conservation status, and are also a customary iTaukei resource. Centered on our interview based study at Qoma and Denimanu villages, parallel management systems coexist, where both the (written) national legislation and the (unwritten) customary iTaukei rules determine the time and the quantity of sea turtle harvest.

Fiji lies between 177° E and 178° W Longitude and 12° to 22° S Latitude with a land area of 18,333 km2. It covers about 1.3 million square kilometers of the South Pacific Ocean. It includes 320 islands of which about a third are inhabited. The majority of the land is on continental-like volcanic islands that rise to well over 1,000 metres in elevation. Over 87% of the land is concentrated in the islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.

Most legislation governing natural resources in Fiji is very old and outdated, and very little attention is given to environmental issues in these statutes. The absence of a legislative environmental policy results in an absence of statutes with an express or implied environmental mandate, while laws governing resource development fail to recognise the environmental basis of natural resources. As a result, legislation provides little in the way of capacity to protect the environment from the impacts of development activities. There is certainly no mandate or legislative capacity to pursue the goal of sustainable development.