Community-Based Marine Conservation Workshop - Fiji

Community-Based Marine Conservation Workshop - Fiji

NEWS RELEASE

Fiji to Host Major Marine Conservation Meeting

Fiji will be the site of a major marine conservation meeting, "Views from Experience in Community - Based Marine Conservation", to be held from 24-29 June, 1999. Participants will include staff of the Biodiversity Conservation Network (BCN) from Washington, D.C., the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, and representatives from three marine conservation projects in Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Indonesia.

BCN is a 7-year program funded by the United States Agency for International Development that supported twenty community-based projects across Asia and the Pacific using enterprise as a tool to conserve biodiversity. This workshop is part of BCN's final efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of using an enterprise-based approach to conservation.

The Fiji project has been organised by the University of the South Pacific, the Fiji government, and SPACHEE, and takes place in Verata, Tailevu. This tikina has developed a marine bioprospecting enterprise and has established a trust fund to manage the proceeds. In addition, the participating communities have developed marine resource management plans which include a ban on turtle killing and coral harvest, a hiatus on issuing commercial fishing licenses and a declaration of tabu areas to encourage resource replenishment. Community members have also been trained to monitor the populations of indicator species to judge the success of their efforts. In eighteen months, the number of kaikoso in the tabu zone has increased sixfold and has doubled in adjacent areas.

The first four days of the workshop will take place in Ucunivanua, the chiefly village of Verata. Representatives of the three projects will share their experiences and identify what they have learned. From these discussions they will prepare presentations. On Tuesday, 29 June they will deliver these to an audience of key government and non-government personnel at the USP Science Lecture Theatre, SPAS, starting at 8.30 am. This will be followed by a general discussion.

BCN is part of the Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) which is managed by a Consortium of the World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy and World Resources Institute. BSP's mission is to promote conservation of the world's biological diversity and to maximise the impact of U.S. government resources directed toward international biodiversity conservation.

For further information : contact Bill Aalbersberg 212440

---

---

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION NETWORK
Experiences and Results: 1993 - 1999

Community-based marine conservation experiences
will be presented and discussed.
Please join us with several partners from our
projects in Asia and the Pacific.

Date: Tuesday, 29 June 1999 Time: 8:30 - 15:00
Place: University of South Pacific (USP) Campus
Science (SPAS) Building, Room N111
Science Lecture Theatre, Suva

For more information phone 313 900 x2416
Community-Based Marine Conservation Workshop - Fiji