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  WWF 8 Jun 06
World Ocean Day: Save fisheries, reduce poverty

PlanetArk 8 Jun 06
Fiji War Chant Used to Spur Marine Conservation
Story by Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON - A Fijian war chant with a blood-thirsty message helped persuade South Pacific islanders to support an award-winning plan to protect the area's marine life, a regional chief said on Wednesday.

The chant means "Let's paint the day red" with blood and was historically used to unite allies in battle, Ratu Aisea Katonivere told reporters. Katonivere, the Tui Macuata (honorable chief) of Fiji's Macuata province on the island of Vanua Levu, was in Washington to receive an international award for the plan as part of events marking World Ocean Day on Thursday.

He said he used the war cry to encourage other chiefs and villagers to set up a 23 square mile (59 square km) protected aquatic zone in a traditional fishing area. "I became passionate about it because for us ... the sea is life," said Katonivere. "I went about digging through the roots to the old folks in the villages and trying to mobilize society by using an old war cry that I used to hear from my grandfather ..."

He said he had hoped that by using the ancient chant, he would tie the islands' traditions to conservation, which had been untried there. "Using this war cry, all the neighboring chiefs came over to the meeting that I called ... They came to realize that to create marine protected areas is the way forward, because you preserve the fish, not only for our generation but those who are yet to be born."

At first, Fijians resisted the plan, which barred fishing in some traditional areas, but they were convinced after the plan was put into effect and more fish started coming closer to the shore, Katonivere said.

In 2005, Fiji pledged to protect 30 percent of its marine areas by 2020, sparking similar pledges by the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific and by the Caribbean island nation of Grenada.

Katonivere and Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase received the Global Ocean Conservation Award from a coalition of conservation groups, including Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ocean Revolution, the World Conservation Union and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute.

WWF 8 Jun 06
World Ocean Day: Save fisheries, reduce poverty

Gland, Switzerland: The world's oceans are under greater pressure than ever before. More than three-quarters of the world's fish stocks are fished to their maximum capacity, recovering from collapse or over-fished.

Important habitats are being lost and damaged. If present rates of destruction continue, 60 per cent of the world's coral reefs will be destroyed within the next 30 years.

Less than one per cent of the world's oceans are designated as protected, compared to almost 13 per cent of our planet's land area. Of the small number of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that have been established, the vast majority are poorly managed, with many open to oil and gas exploration and 90 per cent open to fishing.

Well-designed networks of MPAs are vital for ensuring healthy, productive marine environments that can support well planned development. MPAs, such as marine reserves and locally managed marine areas, provide income and nutrition for local communities, direct and indirect revenue for national economies, and safe havens for fish and other marine life.

"In addition to providing a basis for natural resource management, MPAs are an essential sustainable development tool that benefit people, their cultures and their economies." said Dr Simon Cripps, Director of WWF's Global Marine Programme. "They can improve fish catches, resulting in increased food security and revenues."

World leaders have recognized that our oceans need urgent protection. At the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002, they agreed to create ecologically representative MPA networks by 2012.

"If governments are serious about establishing well-managed networks of MPAs, then there should have been a massive increase in the number of MPAs set up since 2002," added Dr Cripps. "Sadly, this has not yet happened. It's time to get moving."

This World Ocean Day, Fiji has been presented with the Global Ocean Conservation Award in recognition of its leadership in marine conservation. In 2005, the Fijian government, backed by WWF, committed to establishing a network of MPAs covering 30 per cent of its waters by 2020--one of the largest areas of protected ocean in the world.

This commitment was only possible through the partnership that the government formed with local communities and the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMA) Network.

The award will be presented on in Washington,DC, US, to the Paramount Chief of the Fiji Islands province of Macuata, Ratu Aisea Katonivere, and Fiji's Ambassador to the US, Jesoni Vitukawalu, who will receive it on behalf of Fiji's Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase.
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