Rusiate Misikivosa, the conservation officer for the province of Lau, identifies himself as “the son of a fisherman”.
He proudly attests to the fact that through a fisherman’s hard work, he is where he is today.
Rusiate hails from the village of Yadrana, Lakeba in Lau and is the conservation officer for his home province.
It’s his dream job and he wouldn’t change it for the world.
Rusiate remembers how he would look after injured birds and turtles as a seven-year-old.
“I would bring the kasaqa (frigate) and look after them. I had a place that was fenced like a sanctuary where I had the turtles who I named Papu (Papua), Samoa, Late Fiji and Late Tonga.
“These turtles were named after places where my father had either been fishing or travelled while playing Cricket for Fiji National Team,” said Rusiate.
In those years, villagers practised free diving when they went out to other islands around Lau to fetch a good catch.
He attended Uluiqalau Primary School in Lakeba before moving on to Queen Victoria School. For tertiary studies, he pursued his education dream in the field of environmental science at the Fiji Institute of Technology (now Fiji National University).
He did his diploma but did not finish because he did not pass a few of his units, so he left school and went to Taveuni to farm.
There he juggled farming and studying for three years, before he completed his remaining units and left the Garden island for Suva to attend his graduation.
But what he saw at the graduation offended him.
“I saw that we were only wearing gowns while there were other graduates who had caps on,” he said.
“I felt angry so I turned to the one beside me and asked why. He told me those with the caps did their bachelor’s degree,” Rusiate said with a smile, recalling his indignation that day.
He said that incident motivated him to do his bachelor’s degree.
In 2014, Rusiate graduated with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science.
But due to the scarcity of jobs, he could not find work in his field, so he took the next available job and did carpentry work.
Then he did attachment for the Ra Rural Local Authority (RRLA) in the building and subdividing department.
There, he supported household surveys for AUSAID.
People noticed his hard work, and from there he joined the Rakiraki Town Council as an attaché to the enforcement section then to the rural and development ministry in project monitoring.
That led him to apply for the position of assistant Roko at the Lau Provincial Office which was later given to him.
With all those experiences he still felt he had something to contribute to his province and people.
So, while still doing his duties as Assistant Roko Tui Lau he was also advising his people on the management of their resources.
To his delight the post for a conservation officer for Lau came up in 2016, and he was offered the post.
He has been working in Lau for eight years now and has thought of furthering his study in order to gain more knowledge to assist the Lau community.
In 2021, he was posted to work in the Tailevu Province for two years.
He was given the opportunity to attend school again after a lapse of nine years and upscale his knowledge.
After completing his studies, he was posted again to Lau and today, Rusiate is trying to get all the 72 villages in Lau to make sound decisions regarding the utilisation of their natural resources, both terrestrial and marine.
He said islands with airports and jetties were well advanced, closer to markets and while their resources were formerly just for subsistence, they were now being sold to the point of exploitation to help meet islanders’ needs.
While this source of livelihood assists them by satisfying their needs and wants, it also takes a toll on their resources through the overharvesting of fish, sea cucumbers and other commercial marine species.
On the other hand, those islands without well developed infrastructure and markets are not severely affected by overharvesting.
Rusiate is trying to educate villagers about the relationship between exploitation of marine resources and availability of markets and livelihood sources.
He realises the important role he plays in allowing communities access to more information and ideas so that they could better manage their resources and challenges. After all, fishing helped pay for his education, and his heart is always anchored in the village.
So, through the 4FJ Fish Smart campaign, he teams up with Ministry of Fisheries officers stationed at Yasayasa Moala, Lakeba and Vakataukata, Vanuabalavu and Cicia to have talanoa sessions on how to manage and revive the health of their marine resources.
He sits with community groups using the 4FJ talanoa toolkit to reflect on changes, and local Fish Smart management solutions.
That means establishing and respecting tabu, avoiding harmful fishing practices, avoiding undersize fish and protecting spawning seasons and spawning sites.
Rusiate said the strength of the 4FJ Fish Smart campaign is that it presents information in simple ways and encourages lots of discussion, talanoa-style.
The result is communities are increasingly respecting their tabu areas, but also taking news actions, like looking at the species of fish caught and sizes.
Vatoa is where he started his first 4FJ Fish Smart talanoa and has received the most support and action there. He said that every time villagers go out fishing, they monitored their catches.
Although two of their fishers supply fish to Suva, they ensure they have the right sizes and adhere to the national ban.
“When we first approached them we were bombarded with questions on how we know all these information about fish sizes and how they differed for different species. But they are now converted when we told them this was based on scientific evidence,” he said.
“So, the fisheries officer is there assisting them to take ownership of managing their resources, instead of getting someone from outside to do it for them.”
“They are checking on all fish caught by women and men alike. They now also understand that different fish have different sizes when they are matured or be able to reproduce so they need to be given the chance to reproduce. They also have a yaubula committee and most of them are fishers.”
Rusiate wants to see all villages in Lau following this path, and all the villages in Fiji.
Rusiate believes it will take time to change people’s behaviour but the 4FJ campaign is enlightening our people and should continue for the benefit of the nation.
To get involved with the 4FJ campaign, visit www.4fjmovemnet.org.
- ALUMECI NAKEKE is the communications officer at Change. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.
