Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
2014
Yasawa
Hub
Background
Matacawalevu
is
a
small
village
community
with
a
population
of
around
200
people
based
on
the
eastern
coast
of
Matacawalevu
Island
in
the
Yasawa
group
of
islands.
The
coastal
ar-
ea
in
question
is
home
to
a
diverse
mix
of
rare
invertebrates
and
fish
species
and
plays
an
important
role
in
local
fishing
habits.
The
GVI
marine
program
has
been
concentrating
sur-
vey
efforts
around
this
communitys
tabu
area
(traditional
no-fish
zone)
to
assist
the
com-
munity
with
management
planning
and
to
help
decision
makers
better
understand
existing
marine
resources
through
a
program
of
awareness
workshops
and
the
accessible
communi-
cation
of
survey
findings.
With
the
data
collected
and
analyzed,
GVI
will
be
able
to
assist
in
the
process
of
selecting
areas
to
protect
and
help
inform
the
general
management
plan
for
the
area
with
the
hopes
of
empowering
this
community
to
sustainably
manage
the
re-
sources
they
rely
upon.
Throughout
Southeast
Asia
and
the
Pacific,
coastal
communities
are
experiencing
decreasing
fish
abundance,
Coral
damage,
and
a
general
decline
in
biodiversity.
Over
the
last
10
years
it
has
been
generally
recognized
that
conventional,
top
down
costal
protection
and
management
strategies
do
not
meet
the
needs
of
island
communities
across
Southeast
Asia
and
the
Pacific.
The
Locally
Man-
aged
Marine
Area
network
(LMMA)
was
formed
to
help
coastal
communities
to
take
ownership
over
the
management
of
their
marine
resources
with
the
general
goals
being
to
increase
fishing
stocks,
improve
habitat
quality,
improve
the
local
capacity
to
manage
resources,
improve
community
co-
hesion
and
increase
income
from
marine
resources.
Learn more about the LMMA network here: http://www.lmmanetwork.org/
As
a
participatory
member
of
FLMMA
(The
Fiji
Locally
Marine
Managed
Area
Network)
GVI
Fiji
has
focused
on
carrying
out
FLMMA
objectives
within
the
Yasawa
group
of
islands.
Over
the
last
six
months
GVIs
Marine
Research
and
Conservation
volunteers
have
been
concentrating
survey
efforts
around
the
traditional
fishing
grounds
associated
with
the
community
of
Matacawalevu
village,
sur-
veying
a
3.5
mile
stretch
of
coastline
Survey
Results
The
GVI
research
team
has
surveyed
outside
the
southern
limits
of
the
current
tabu
area
at
site
M-Rf
001
(see
image
above)
through
to
sites
west
of
and
beyond
the
northern
extreme
of
the
Tabu
at
site
M-Rf
018.
The
team
surveyed
18
sites
and
conducted
over
215
survey
transects
focusing
on
benthic
life
forms,
commercially
important
invertebrate
species
abundance,
and
commercially
im-
portant
fish
species
abundance.
The
benthic
surveys
GVI
volunteers
conducted
measured
the
per-
centage
cover
of
key
benthic
lifeforms
such
as
hard
coral,
soft
coral,
algaes
&
other
crucial
life
forms.
With
this
data
the
team
has
compared
the
percentage
of
coverage
at
specific
sites
located
both
in-
side
and
outside
of
the
current
Tabu
area.
Sites
of
particular
interest
were
those
that
showed
high
hard
&
soft
coral
coverage
with
low
algal
coverage.
Figure 2 Comparison of Mean Percentage of Benthic Cover between sites within and outside of current Tabu area
The
above
graph
compares
the
amount
of
key
benthic
life
form
coverage
between
the
sites
within
the
current
village
Tabu
areas
and
outside
the
no-take
zone.
Both
hard
coral
&
soft
coral
cover
were
found
to
be
greater
outside
of
the
tabu
area,
while
sand
&
macro
algae
cover
was
found
to
be
great-
er
inside
the
tabu
area.
3
Figure 3 Comparison of Targeted Fish Species Abundance Categories between sites within Tabu area and outside of Tabu Area
The
above
graph
shows
the
abundance
levels
of
a
selection
of
commercially
targeted
fish
species
And
compares
the
abundance
between
the
sites
found
inside
the
Tabu
area
and
the
sites
that
lie
outside
of
the
tabu
area.
The
abundance
categories
translate
to
the
average
number
of
fish
found
over
the
reefs,
the
higher
the
abundance
category,
the
higher
number
of
fish.
It
is
clear
from
the
survey
data
that
within
the
tabu
area
abundance
categories
for
the
majority
of
this
selection
of
tar-
geted
fish
species
are
higher
though
some
of
the
abundance
levels
within
the
Tabu
area
may
be
ac-
credited
more
to
the
oceanography
itself,
and
the
overall
level
of
abundance
in
some
fish
categories
is
higher
outside
of
the
Tabu
and
in
others
equal
to
that
of
the
Tabu
area
sites,
the
general
finding
is
that
the
Tabu
area
is
in
areas
successful
in
protecting
targeting
marine
assets.
With
the
data
compiled
&
results
analyzed,
GVIs
next
step
is
to
assist
Matacawalevu
Village
in
creat-
ing
their
own
LMMA
and
management
plant.
The
basic
findings
above
will
be
presented
to
the
community
and
this
data
will
be
used
to
help
inform
the
direction
a
structured
management
plan
which
will
help
the
community
to
implement
and
successfully
monitor
their
own
LMMA.
This
set
of
survey
data
for
this
area
can
now
be
used
as
comparative
baseline
for
future
surveys
and
help
to
track
the
progress
of
management
activities
while
also
providing
a
comparative
data
set
in
relation
to
other
LMMAs
in
the
area.
4
This
important
step
towards
effective
marine
resource
management
for
the
Matacawalevu
commu-
nity
would
not
be
possible
without
the
support
and
funding
from
our
volunteers,
valuable
consulta-
tion
from
GVIs
partners
and
the
ongoing
support
of
the
communities
of
the
central
Yasawa
Islands.
GVI
Fiji
@GVIFIJI