Samisoni Pareti

Additional marine protected areas and new fishing limitations should be implemented if the steep decline in fish stocks on the Fiji Great Sea Reef are to be arrested, a latest study on the world’s third largest barrier reef system has revealed. Conducted by a group of marine scientists at the international environmental organisation, WWF, the report  recommends that existing marine protected areas should be expanded, and new effective conservation measures implemented.

Dialogue is key to ensuring the durability and sustainability of marine conservation parks, was the consensus of a panel of experts at the second day of the Fiji Seascape Symposium. Providing space for civic actors to meet and talk with their partners in government has worked in the past, said Alifereti Tawake, head of the Pacific’s Locally Marine Management Areas (LMMA). This was important, he said, because managing seascapes “should be everyone’s business”.