The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has just finished a report on the "Contribution of Marine Conservation Agreements to Biodiversity Protection, Fisheries Management and Sustainable Financing in Fiji."The report documents the degree and scale to which Marine Conservation Agreements (MCAs) are being used in coastal waters in Fiji. The study focuses on partnerships involving local communities and the tourism sector. The study documented tourism-related MCAs included an estimated 266.25 km2 (26,625 ha) of MPAs, of which 210 km2 (21,000 ha) comprised deep water and offshore reefs within two large no-take reserves (Namena Marine Reserve and Vatu-i-Ra Conservation Park), and the remaining 56.25 km2 (5,625 ha) comprised mostly shallow fringing reefs and slopes. The report highlights there are many more MPAs out there (especially informal ones), that are probably not being recognized or included in our national accounting and reporting. This report is timely given the upcoming meeting for the Convention on Biological Diversity, and we hope Fiji will start to recognize these additional MPAs in their reporting.
