The Shark Reef Marine Reserve: a marine tourism project in Fiji involving local communities

The Shark Reef Marine Reserve in Fiji is an ecotourism project designed to protect a small reef patch and its fauna while preserving the livelihood of local communities.

It involves the local communities by using a participatory business planning approach to Marine Protected Area management, generating income through diver user fees, distributed to the local villages that have exchanged their traditional fishing rights in the marine reserve for this new source of income.

The Shark Reef Marine Reserve is a self-sustaining and profitable project, and is an example of a privately initiated, bottom-up approach, which includes all relevant stakeholders in an area where marine rights are finely subdivided into small units.

Download here: https://sites.google.com/site/jbrunnschweiler/Brunnschweiler2010.pdf

Author: Juerg M Brunnschweiler
Publication date: 2010/1/1
Journal: Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Volume: 18
Issue: 1
Pages: 29-42
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Total citations: Cited by 77

The Shark Reef Marine Reserve: a marine tourism project in Fiji involving local communities

JM Brunnschweiler – Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2010

Cited by 77 Related articles All 13 versions

Throughout the months of April and November every year, you have the opportunity to help celebrate and record Fiji’s amazing coral reef biodiversity, show you care about our world’s delicate coral reef systems, and have fun, by taking part in the FIJI-WIDE SHARK COUNT!

Easy to do, this is suitable for visitors and locals alike, whether you like to fish, snorkel, or SCUBA dive. We hope that tourists, school children, scientists and all people with an interest in the marine environment will take to the reefs with us to search for the Sharks of Fiji!

The Great Fiji Shark Count will be held across Fiji every April and November every year.

You can do a single count, or take part as many times as you like during that month, so that you cover different reefs. All data will be gratefully accepted!

So, see your resort, watersports operator or travel agent, get your Shark identification materials and dive into the beautiful blue waters of Fiji, to be a part of history!