Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase Visits Solevu Village
Added to website: 24 May 2002
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, was recently guest of honour at a two-day fundraising event at Solevu, organised by the six villages on Malolo Island. Volunteers working for Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), a British non-profit conservation organisation, had the privilege of meeting the Prime Minister and talked about their work on the local reefs.
The Fiji Coral Reef Conservation Project (FCRCP) is collaboration between UK-based Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), the Government of Fiji, the Mamanuca Fiji Hoteliers Association (MFHA), local communities and agencies.
Coral Cay Conservation’s work in Fiji is supported by the Ministry of Tourism and the Mamanuca Fiji Hotelier’s Association (MFHA), CCC volunteers and staff were delighted to have the opportunity to meet the Prime Minister and other government officials at the fundraising event in Solevu village. CCC’s Project Scientist Diane Walker said, “The support for the Fiji Coral Reef Conservation Project, was felt by all currently working on site and the honour of taking part in the ceremonies in Solevu and meeting the Prime Minister was an added experience.”
During his visit Prime Minister Qarase stressed the importance of education and how education can improve the standard of living for people. Fiji’s reefs have traditionally served as an important source of livelihood for locals and are also considered a massive source of income to the country, in particular by tourism. CCC will be working by educating the younger generations about threats to their reefs, how to manage and look after their most precious resource in terms of income through tourism and harvesting.
Mr Qarase has also stated that tourism is the key to economic survival for Fiji, “It provides thousands of our people. It provides cash income that translates into the improvement of their homes, the improvement of education and village sanitation”.
Chief Ratu Sevanaia Vatunitu Nabola, invited Coral Cay to the Solevu village fundraising event to help raise funds and awareness of their work so far on surveying the coral reefs of the Mamanuca Islands. Solevu Village is raising the money to build a jetty over the reef into deeper water. Currently boats have to anchor on the reef and it is being walked over at low tide to reach the village. Building the jetty would allow boats to moor rather than anchor on the reef.
CCC’s project site is currently situated on Qalito Island, also home to Castaway Island Resort. Teams of survey divers have completed sectors of Malolo Island including the area in front of Solevu village, Qalito Island, Honey Moon Island and sectors of the inner barrier reef.
Future plans for the Fiji Coral Reef Conservation Project conducted by Coral Cay Conservation include further surveys and also to commence community education projects in the Mamanuca area. These Projects include education of the children in the Solevu village, environmental reef talks to all staff working in the resorts in the Mamanucas and Divemaster workshops. Local Fijians will also be invited to join the CCC project for 5-week periods where they will be taught Marine Conservation and Dive training.
