Mangrove planting exercise boosts coastal rehab project

Volunteers including Fiji U12 and U15 baseball teams, WOWS Kids Fiji and representatives from the World Wildlife Fund for Nature participated in the mangrove planting and beach clean-up project organised by youth environmentalist, AnnMary Raduva last Saturday. Picture: HARRISON SELMEN/WANSOLWARA

By HARRISON SELMEN

As many as 2000 mangrove seedlings were planted along the foreshore at My Suva Picnic Park last Saturday as part of coastal rehabilitation initiatives to combat climate change and plastic pollution.

Spearheaded by youth environmental activist AnnMary Raduva, the mangrove planting and beach clean-up event complemented efforts at the national level to plant 500,000 trees under the coastal rehabilitation programme and one million trees per year inland.

Ms Raduva, a high school student at Adi Cakobau School, said it was encouraging to see the community support towards reducing litter and plastic pollution in the country.

Her passion and commitment to save the environment kicked in a few years ago after she saw a video on YouTube of the negative impact of plastics pollution.

“There was a video on YouTube where a turtle had swallowed plastic and died instantly. I told my mum that we should give this initiative a go in Fiji because I was worried about the impact of litter and plastic pollution on our mangroves and fishes,” said the 15-year-old, whose family also played a role in organizing the event.

“I am still knocking on Government’s door, urging our leaders to relook at existing laws on litter in Fiji, particularly the Fiji Litter Act 2008, and classify balloon releasing as littering.”

Opposition Member of Parliament Lenora Qereqeretabua called on all Fijians to take action and responsibility for their environment as she joined more than 60 children, youths and parents at the event.

“I just hope that a lot of young people will catch on to the fact that planting mangroves can make that little change, no matter how tiny, you are making a change,” she said.

“It’s horrible when you’re driving behind a bus and you see someone throwing out plastic bags.

“My plea to Fijians is to think. Whatever you do, think about the consequences of your action. Please have some pride in our country.”

Ministry of Forests rehabilitation of degraded forests project manager Maleli Nakasava said mangrove planting was an ongoing activity over the past three years.

“We have seen a lot of positive outcomes with seedlings growing well and healthy. When leaves are growing out of the seedlings, it’s a good indicator that whatever we have done in the past has been a success,” he said.

“One of the major challenges of planting mangroves is the high tide, which can sometimes wash away mangrove seedlings that are not planted properly in the field.”

He said behind the planting was another factor affecting Pacific Island countries – climate change.

“We cannot fight climate change but we can adapt to climate change. It’s how we rehabilitate our coastal areas,” Mr Nakasava said.

He said communities in other parts of Fiji were also planting mangroves with one aim to reach the 500,000-tree quota.

He said these planting activities were co-ordinated by the turaga ni koro of different villages.

• Harrison Selmen (Vanuatu) is a final-year journalism student at The University of the South Pacific. He is also the regional editor for Wansolwara, USP Journalism’s student training newspaper and online publications.
• This student reporting exercise is in preparation for USP Journalism’s environmental reporting project in the Solomon Islands as part of the Internews/Earth Journalism Network’s Asia-Pacific Media Grant 2019.