The International institute for sustainable development (IISD) in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society, J Hunter Pearls, the Pacific Community (SPC) in support of the Canadian government, held a workshop focusing on a project called Aqua Pearl at the Holiday Inn on Monday.
IISD senior policy adviser Veronica Lo said the project aimed to diversify aquaculture by scaling out products from marine resources like shellfish for local consumption and export, attributed to the decreasing fishing opportunities worldwide.
“There are different facets to this project, one is the implementation of community-led farms; we’re targeting two villages in Vanua Levu,” Ms Lo said.
“We’re hoping to bring together about 150 households per village, to develop a plan for their oyster harvesting business and sell them to help these communities via an alternative livelihood.”
She said they observed how local partners like J Hunter Pearls had actually acted as biodiversity aggregators.
“For the first time, they were quantifying the biodiversity in Vanua Levu, attracting all kinds of marine life and improving the marine environment,” she said
Ms Lo said the next steps of the workshop was implement projects across Fiji and the Pacific.
“We’re hoping to capture the lessons learned, do a policy analysis so that we can see where the opportunities are for main streaming nature-based approaches into aquaculture.
“Which will be for food, safety and biosecurity and climate adaptation and to replicate and upscale approaches already taken in other parts of Fiji and the region.”
