Volunteer - Fiji Marine Project
Added to website: 05 January 2005
Reef relief
Thousands of UK volunteers pay to work on conservation projects around the world every year. Is it worth it? A project in Fiji has recently shown just how effective this ‘free’ manpower can be. As they are called upon to help put remedial measures in to action, Bess Manley has high hopes.
The genuine smiles and friendliness for which the Fijian people are so renowned make every visitor here feel like royalty. But our skint and scruffy crew attracts a different sort of greeting as we wheel our dive tanks through the resort as we prepare to go out to work on the coral reefs.
Our welcome from the local people is invariably warm and noisy, but mixed with a distinct air of amusement and even bewilderment. All work stops as we pass under the idyllic palm canopy of Castaway Island. Gardeners lean on their spades, waiters wait, their dishes piled high with exotic fruits, and boatmen stop their noisy engines to give us a dazzling toothy grin and shout an enthusiastic ‘Bula Ravinake’ (Ravinake is the name of our camp on the other side of the Island and ‘Bula’ is Fiji’s famous friendly greeting used to mean just about anything you want it to). ‘Bula’ we all call back in our best Fijian accents.
What’s so funny?
In the early days I grew to expect and love this bemused, excitable reaction on my daily trips to the resort and took it for granted. But as time went by the clearer it became that this bewilderment was reserved solely for us - Coral Cay volunteers, aka ‘Ravinakians’. I became intrigued. What is it that makes us such a welcome, but amusing, spectacle to the Fijians?
At first I thought it must be the way we look. Living in basic conditions round at Ravinake, without the luxury of washing machines, hot showers or hairdryers, we are a grungy crew compared to the well-groomed Castaway Island Resort guests. But even on the odd Saturday night that we visit the resort, scrubbed up and seemingly blending in well with the background of well-groomed tourists, the staff spot us a mile off and treat us every time to the same bemused grin and greeting ‘Bula Ravinake!’
Noble madness
It isn’t (just) our appearance, then, that makes them smile, so what is it? It was only once I got to know some of the locals personally that I finally got a chance to ask some of the questions that had been bugging me and discover the root of all this humour.
To Fijians, Coral Cay volunteers are a total mystery. Almost like a circus has come to town: A bunch of people doing weird and wonderful things, which they respect and admire but are not really sure why they do it. The CCC circus has been on Castaway Island for almost two years now but still it fascinates the crowds. Looking at it from their point of view you can see why.
Working Break
Every year hundreds of like-minded people arrive on Castaway Island and are immediately whisked away from the resort, with its luxury thatched huts and huge banquets, heaving with fresh seafood and tropical delights, to a small basic house, which will become their home for many months.
Here we sleep in communal rooms on rickety bunk beds knocked together from old timber, shower as briefly as possible to conserve the limited water supply and fill out stomachs with meals we cook up from basic, unglamorous, ingredients. The only luxury coming in the form of a pot of chocolate spread every once in a while, when budgets permit.
Up at the crack of dawn every day, we lug our heavy dive gear and equipment onto our little boat, head off to work out on the reefs then return home to fill up on a meal of dahl and rice and to diligently write up our findings.
Hard labour
From the outside you might expect us to be well paid for all that. But no, in reality all these crazy hard-working people are paying out hundreds of pounds for the privilege.
It is obvious why people come to the resort, where they can unwind and be pampered, but why would so many come so far and pay so much to work so hard and live at a most basic level? You can see why the locals are baffled.
Robinson Crusoe
It’s easy to understand in Europe, where living on a tropical island with white sandy beaches and diving on coral reefs in the warm tropical waters, is a dream.
Another thing that induces us to pay to work in these seemingly uncomfortable conditions is the buzz those who don’t need to get out of group survival. Living closely together in basic communal conditions, where everybody is in exactly the same boat, brings people together in a way that rarely happens in Western society.
Regular everyday acts become a challenge. Cooking at Ravinake, for example, is unlike cooking anywhere else. You can’t just throw together a culinary delight using stuff from the store cupboard. Stores are limited and basic and it takes great imagination and collaboration between teams to come up with something tasty and new. Plain old porridge becomes apple and nutmeg porridge with an option of sliced banana. Normal bread became cinnamon toast (and even blue bread at one point!)
But there is even more to it than that. For us there is an extra, very important, factor that finds us living the dream over at Ravinake.
We are here to make a difference.
Reef relief
For us there is a basic desire to get our hands dirty and become involved at seabed level. We long to do our bit towards understanding and preserving the delicate coral reefs of the world that are under so much stress at the current time. For most Coral Cay volunteers, their expedition to Fiji is something they have been looking forward to for months or even years. Scrimping and saving to get the money together to make this dream a reality.
And this explains something of the warmth of our welcome in Fiji. Because the desire to save their reefs and marine environment is something we and the Fijians have in common.
Although many Fijians remain unaware of the devastation impacts that humans can have on the coral reefs, environment is skipping ever higher on the agenda and more and more people are discovering that this wonderful resource that they have in their backyards can no longer be taken for granted. There is a realization that these lively reefs, which have supported a lifestyle for centuries, might very soon become a memory. Workshops with resort staff proved that Fijians are not just willing but eager to learn and teach others about their coral reefs. I remember one worker in particular who, whenever he had time off work, would rush round to Ravinake to sit down with us and learn about the reef, his brow furrowed in extreme concentration.
Getting Results
For me Ravinake has been home and I have loved every minute spent there. Maybe I am mad as the Fijians think, but luckily there are many other people equally insane. I say luckily because, since Coral Cay Conservation was invited into the country by the Fijian government in 2001, we have made a genuinely important contribution to assuring a future for Fiji’s coral reefs.
Not surprisingly, Fiji with its hundreds of small idyllic islands, fabulous coral reefs, wonderful people and tropical climate is a major tourist destination. But, in 1997, extreme bleaching claimed massive tracts of reef (see Death of a Reef below) and made it clear that the reefs, the major tourist attraction, were struggling. The government did not need to be told to do something about it.
These are stressful times for environments across the globe and coral reefs are no exception. The decline is clear to any observer but the solutions are much more obscure. Data was required, but research costs money; money to pay scientists to conduct detailed analyses of the reefs, money that Fiji simply does not have.
Moving Forward
The alternative? Invite a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization in to do the work for free! That’s where Coral Cay came in. In the last two years the organisation has collected huge amounts of in-depth data on the status of the reefs in the Mamanuca Islands and been able to make recommendations, founded on sound science, for the best locations of future Marine Protected Areas. All this without costing the country a penny.
By systematically training keen volunteers until they can record their observations to the level of a marine biologist, Coral Cay Conservation has proved able to obtain vast quantities of highly reliable data and make it usefully available to government.
The recommendations are just that, suggestions that the government can choose to heed, or equally to ignore. However, recently with such a strong body of knowledge built up, the Fijian government has invited Coral Cay Conservation to assist them in the next stage. They plan to implement these Marine Protected Areas around Fiji.
A fighting chance
Fijians have got their priorities right and now, acting on sound science, will give their reefs the best chance to challenge the effects of climate change, uncontrolled development, tourism and fishing.
This approach goes from top down but also from the local villages and resorts up. Support on the ground is powerful and in Fiji it is strong and growing. Villagers close to Ravinake have taken it upon themselves to protect an area on their village reef; school children listen eagerly as they learn about their reefs….and Fijians are simply fantastic people to work with. They make us, as conservationists, feel extremely positive about the future. Fijians with their wonderful outlook on life, armed with solid scientific knowledge, are a formidable force and give us confidence that their precious and beautiful coral reefs will be given every chance to survive.
BESS MANLEY, Volunteer
