BOSTON.COM - Restricting humans to protect a way of life
Added to website: 10 April 2005
The best thing about Fiji is Fiji, and efforts in sustainable development aim to keep it that way. Whether such attempts to preserve and to exploit simultaneously will succeed here, among islands bursting with sun and welcome, remains to be seen.
To some the term ”sustainable development” may be an oxymoron. But having your cake and eating it, too, is a force that is beginning to fuel Fiji’s tourism-dependent economy. I recently toured a crop of high-end boutique resorts in this Pacific archipelago where pampering guests thrives side-by-side with preserving indigenous traditions and natural resources. Each resort caps the number of guests at about 30. Your ocean-view room may come with room service to die for and a personal outdoor pool, but you are as likely to encounter a marine biologist on staff as you are a gourmet chef. The friendly Fijian welcome ”Bula!” is as ever present as the islands’ succulent passion fruits and silky, azure surf.
