Jesoni Kuruyawa is a native Kadavu islander. Kadavu is a 411 km2 island, the fourth largest of the isalnds in the Fiji group. Its main centre is Vunisea, 88 kilometers south of Suva, Fiji's capital. The population of Kadavu is estimated at about 10,167 people and governed as one of Fiji's fourteen provinces. It also belongs to the Burebasaga Confederacy.
You can say Kadavu is a remote and relatively isolated island in the Pacific Ocean. Yet Jesoni is quick to point out that “Kadavu has 75% of its original rainforest cover and a rich bird diversity, and offshore it hosts one of the world’s greatest and most pristine coral reefs, the Great Astrolabe Reef.” With tourism and subsistence farming as its main economy, Kadavu benefits from abundant sunshine and up until recently, abundant water supplies. “Surrounded by so much ocean, our island relies on natural supplies of freshwater for survival. But we have started to notice changes in weather patterns and water levels.”
Some of the main watershed threats identified in Kadavu are the unregulated use of forest and land resources in catchment areas, as well as wastage through degraded water reticulation systems, explains Jesoni. Changes in riparian vegetation and pollution upset the natural ecosystem equilibrium, aggravated by the effects of climate change through altered rainfall regimes. “These are problems we have to deal with, both at the policy level and at the local level”, says Jesoni. Together with the University of the South Pacific (USP) and IUCN’s Water and Nature Initiative (WANI), the Kadavu project aims to achieve sustainable solutions for healthy watersheds through community-based consultation and participation.
The USP’s Institute of Applied Science (IAS) an IUCN member, benefits from a long-term experience in environmental community-based approaches through its FLMMA network (Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network). This network membership comprises Fiji’s main international conservation NGOs and government departments (Fijian Affairs, Fisheries, Environment and Tourism). Representatives of these groups and community members work together on projects and regularly meet to discuss results. FLMMA is part of the regional Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) network. Jesoni adds that “therefore there are good opportunities to extend across the region lessons learned from the Kadavu community-based watershed project.”
Jesoni muses that this approach extends from writing reports and policy recommendations for the national government, to sitting in at kava ceremonies and weaving activities with villagers within the demonstration project sites. Together with his team, Jesoni conducts workshops and awareness raising activities to make community members more familiar with the ecological, economic, and socio-cultural services provided by healthy watersheds.
In the long-term, Jesoni foresees a positive change at the local scale towards better health of freshwater and marine ecosystems, as well as the health of local people through reduced water borne diseases and better livelihoods thanks to improved fishing grounds. “At the national and regional scales,” adds Jesoni “we anticipate improvements to national water governance, including the adoption of community-based natural resources management as well as the ridge-to-reef concept in national policies and laws.”
Jesoni Kuruyawa, Senior Assistant, Roko, Kadavu Provincial Office, Vunisea, Kadavu.