Village Gains from Resort’s Usage of Fishing Ground:

Interviews with village members and resort workers

Naivakarauniniu, Kadavu, Fiji

Papageno Resort sits on the shores of Naivakarauniniu Village’s waters.

Photo by Toni Parras

Introduction

The island of Kadavu in Fiji instills a narcotic tranquility induced by lazily swaying trees, a gentle breeze that carries the faint smell of the ocean not far-off, and the lack of all sounds non-natural.  In the near distance, lush mountains hint at a more rugged mystery within.  Off the shore, coral reefs bursting with color support a dazzling myriad of fish and other marine life. 

                   Lounge chairs at Papageno Resort.                                                                 Soft Corals off Naiva's shores.
                                         Photos by Toni Parras

Papageno Resort, located on the northern side of Kadavu, embodies the best of what the island possesses.  This international resort, owned by German-born Anneliese Schimmelpfennig, offers guest a chance to enjoy simple island pleasures.  Tourists can swim, snorkel, scuba dive, kayak, or simply lounge along the picture perfect beach, the waters of which belong to the adjacent village of Naivakarauniniu (or simply “Naiva” for short).

Why does the village allow this upscale resort to use its traditional marine area? How does it benefit?  The answer is – in many ways. 

The resort employs many of the villagers, trains them in various skills, assists in guarding the protected area, teaches them how to do organic gardening, and pays a usage fee for divers enjoying Naiva’s reefs.  In addition to helping police the MPA with the resort’s boats, Papageno has recently chipped in to purchase a boat for the community fish wardens to patrol their marine reserve.  The resort owner also donates books and other supplies to villages all over the island, not just Naiva.  It’s a win-win situation.

The organic farm at Papageno Resort. Photo by Toni Parras              Naiva’s marine reserve.  Photo by Isaac Ward

Read on to see what village members and resort workers have to say about the arrangement.

Interview with Lemeki Nabua
Naivakarauniniu Village spokesman

Lemeki Nabua.  Photo by Toni Parras

Interviewer:  Can you tell us little bit of history and about your tabu (protected) area in your village.

Lemeki:  We started, I think, early in 2000 when we were approached by the team from the University of the South Pacific.  I think there was a time when we came across the principles before, during the 1970s.  But it was difficult to explain the idea to the village elders and get them to respond and decide.  By 2000 when we were approach by the people from the university about this marine protected idea, they fully respected it and so we started.

Interviewer:  Have you started seeing the benefit from protected areas?

Lemeki:  Yeah…we really benefit from the protected area.

Interviewer:  About the animals, species being protected –  what’s the impact of the protected area on your marine resources?

Lemeki:  Well, I think at the moment we know that there are certain frequent changes so far from the protected area. There is plenty fish and some other marine products – especially in our mangrove area.  One interesting thing that is going on there is about the crab.  One of the main activities of the resort is for tourists who come is to watch the crab crawling everywhere. 

Interviewer:  What is one thing that has contributed most to the success of your tabu area?

Lemeki:  I think the most important thing that leads to the success is that we respect the advice from various organizations, starting from the groups that gave us this idea. The most important thing also is that we respect elders.

Interviewer:  What is the biggest challenge?

Lemeki:  I think the biggest challenge to us is to maintain and respect this project and also the advice given by every organization.

Interviewer:  And there is a resort nearby – is this village benefiting from the resort?

Lemeki:  Oh yes! Certainly they really give us a lot of help in this project and they help us in guarding the protected area. They are so willing in providing their boat and also they provided us with one boat for our fishing warden to look after our protected area.  They really help us a lot.

Interview with Isaac Ward
General Manager and Dive Instructor of Papageno Resort

 
             Isaac Ward on the dive boat.  Photos by Toni Parras

Interviewer:  As a resort manager, what do you think about the marine conservation work that the village is doing?

Isaac: I think the marine conservation projects that they’re doing is good for the area, it’s good for Kadavu and [it’s good] in the long run.  We have a healthier reef and that’s good because lots of fish are coming back.  The whole boundary in front of the resort is all a marine protected area, which is a really good idea, and it belongs to the village.  We have good interaction with the village so we can get a lot of help from them in regards to staff.

Interviewer:  In what way, if any, is the resort working with the village in helping with the management of the protected area?

Isaac:  At present we are helping the village by paying them money for using their qoliqoli (fishing ground) so they can look after their area.  Also a lot of our staff come from the village, so we train them to scuba dive so they know what their resources are.  We work together in training people so they can protect their qoliqoli.  And we have meetings occasionally on how things work with the marine reserve. 

Interviewer:  Is the community receiving any benefits from the resort or from the tourist activities that are going on?

Isaac:  Yeah, at Papageno we’re trying to promote reef awareness – we tell our guests that part of their diving fees are going toward helping the village with the marine reserve – it could be paying for fuel or whatever they need.  The resort pays $5 per person for any one of our guests that go scuba diving in the reserve.  And we may figure out other sorts of contracts with the village.  For example, we are just coming off a contract where they [allow] us to use the reserve and the owner of the resort bought them a boat so they can [patrol] the reserve, so it’s a two-way thing.  We just bought them a six thousand dollar boat and they’ve been paying it off for the last couple of years, so I guess that works out to $400 or $500 a month.

                       Sakaraia Vakacabeqoli (left) and Wame (right), both from                                     The endless blue of Kadavu.

                       both from Navakarauniniu Village, work at Papgeno Resort.                                      Photo by Manuel Mejia
                                                    Photo by Toni Parras                 

Anneliese Schimmelpfennig
Owner of Papageno Resort

My goal is that Papageno Resort is governed by the [Fijian] people - the managers are native people and all the people who work in the resort are from around the villages.  For four years we had managers coming in, and in the meantime we taught the people from around the villages to become managers.  They went to school to take bookkeeping and management classes in Suva.   So come January (2006) it will be totally in the hands of Fijians.  The villagers have employment at the resort since I don’t have people from outside.  We also have something a little bit new like profit sharing; when we have profit, I share it with the people who work for the resort, so it makes them a part of it.  They’re not just workers - they are a part of it. 

                             The beautiful flora around Papageno.                                                       Resort worker Joni Vakacabeqoli. 

                                       Photo by Manuel Mejia                                                                                  Photo by Toni Parras

Eviame Vakacabeqoli (a.k.a Epi)
Resort Manager in charge of Operations at Papageno Resort

Epi pointing to his village from the Papageno Resort. 

Photo by Toni Parras

I am the Resort Manager in charge of operations at Papageno.  I do payroll and stuff like that.  I’ve been here for seven years.  Everything so far is very good – our relationship between the village and the resort about the marine protected areas.  It was decided by the village community.  We sat down in a meeting and decided that this part of our fishing ground we will have as a protected area.  We still have a wide range of fishing area, especially right in front of the village, so we have a lot of area to fish.

Most of the time we are in charge of guarding the marine protected areas from other guys who come around and fish or go diving in the marine protected area without any permission from our village.  So we have to go out and tell them that’s not allowed.  I am the fish warden for my village; I have a certificate.  We use [the boat given by the resort] for patrolling the protected area and helping out in the village and transporting school children to the schools.  One third of the price of the boat was given by the resort to my village.  [The money was given] to the government and that’s how we got the boat (the resort paid for one third; the government for one third; and the village for one third). [The boat and the outboard motor cost around $18,000; split three ways, that’s $6,000 each.  The one-third ($6,000) contribution from the village was paid up front by the resort and the village is paying the resort back through fees earned by tourists.] 

Our villagers just feel great about it (the marine protected area).  The guests come back and even we go back to the village and tell them this is one of the good reasons we have this marine reserve – when we go fishing or diving - like, at most of our dive sites - things that we haven’t seen for the past few years, we’ve seen them this year.  Like a number of fishes and a lot of soft corals at some of our dive sites where we didn’t have soft coral before. 

Semi Vueti Vakacabeqoli
Chief of Naivakarauniniu Village

It is good news to hear from those villagers who go and dive in the reserve area that they really like to see the improvement that has revealed itself in the area.  We are now having a sustainable marine area and we are thankful for a boat, which is being provided for assistance.  The famous thing about this place is it has got a resort close to it and it has parrots and fish that are not seen in the other parts of the world.

                   The Crimson Shining Parrot is only found on Kadavu.                            Surgeon fish cruise Kadavu’s waters. 
                                              Photo by Toni Parras                                                                             Photo by Isaac Ward

Kids on the shore of Naivakarauniniu Village. Photo by Manuel Mejia