The district chief early on in the process had asked that the project include the entire district and not just Ucunivanua. After only one year of local monitoring and reporting at district meetings, the clear benefits of the LMMA strategy at Ucunivanua became apparent to other villages in the Verata district, and they began setting up tabu areas. Sawa villagers, for example, imposed a tabu on a mangrove island. By counting the “active” holes in the mangroves, they found that the numbers of the mangrove lobster Thalassina anomala increased by roughly 250 percent annually, with a spillover effect of roughly 120 percent outside the tabu area.
As these results were reported in the local media, villages throughout Fiji facing declines in their inshore fishery approached USP for help in setting up locally managed marine areas in their qoliqoli. In Nacamaki village on the island of Gau, one year after creating a tabu area the community harvested approximately eight tons of their food totem, the rabbitfish, in one week. This bounty was enough to provide a feast for the entire island—20 villages in three districts, totaling roughly 6,000 people.
While this catch coincided with the high season for rabbitfish, Nacamaki had not seen such abundance in a long time. A 68-year old woman recalled that the last time she saw so many rabbitfish was when she gave birth to her second son 47 years earlier. A testimonial from the Nacamaki village chief illustrates the enthusiasm for LMMA work that has spread throughout Fiji: “The LMMA work that these young guys from USP are doing has changed the attitude of my people to conserve and sustainably manage our resources for our kids. In recognizing this change, our ancestors have released the blessing to us by reviving this tradition.”
