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hese fees were deposited into a scholarship fund to assist tourists per year. Ample moorings, maintained by the community
through the management fund, prevent anchor damage from dive
T Kubulau’s children with education costs. Following a fact- boats and yachts. The first students supported by the scholarship
fund have graduated. Fish stocks are also recovering; biomass
finding trip to Bonaire Marine Park, sponsored by the Coral Reef and species diversity have begun to rebound inside the reserve.
Alliance, the community decided to upgrade the “goodwill fee” to The case of the Namena Reserve highlights the great potential for
a higher-priced user tag system in 2004. This has allowed the com- community action combined with management knowledge to sup-
munity to allocate half of the revenues to the scholarship fund and port the recovery of coastal ecosystems.
the remaining half to management of the marine reserve through
the Kubulau Resource Management Committee. This arrangement T he coral reefs of Fiji, while owned by the state, are divided
came through extensive consultations with Namena’s dive opera- and under the stewardship of assigned communities around
tors and community members, assuring all stakeholders’ support the coastline. This is referred to as an ‘iQoliqoli’ and is sub-divided
and securing transparency. into areas designated as ‘kanakana’ (to be eaten from). Located on
the second largest island of Fiji – Vanua Levu, lies a district named
A dditionally, with the support of the Wildlife Conservation Kubulau, in the heart of the province of Bua. Kubulau has been the
Society, local communities developed management strate- focus of much conservation activity over the past ten years due
gies for the fishing grounds by mapping fishing pressures, collect- to the foresight of community leaders in declaring part of their
ing data on target species abundance and size, and identifying iQoliqoli a ‘no-take zone’ – one of the first in Fiji. The wonders of
management objectives. As a result, the communities established the reefs surrounding the island of Namenalala were discovered
a protected area network in 2005 that included thirteen small, tra- long before scuba diving became the common recreational activ-
ditional closures within estuarine and reef areas; and three large, ity it is today. Pioneering divers hungry for adventure and discov-
district-wide no-take fisheries areas, all with defined boundaries ery were attracted to the Namena reefs with tales of their pristine
and management regulations. In 2009, the Kubulau chiefs en- untouched beauty.
dorsed Fiji’s first ecosystem-based management plan to regulate
activities within the protected areas, fishing grounds and adjacent
watersheds.Today, the Namena Marine Reserve sees around 1,700