Statement for management : Fiji Park Service

Abstract

"The international acceptance of the National Park concept is evident from the fact that the latest United Nations list of National parks and equivalent reserves includes parks and reserves in 93 countries”. P. H. C Lucas, p.2. In Fiji, two Nature Reserves, set aside under the Forestry Ordinance (CAP. 128), though undeveloped for the purpose prescribed, were accepted as fitting the category of the parks concept. Nadarivatu Nature Reserve, on the island of Vitilevu, and Ravilevu Nature Reserve, on the island of Taveuni, were the two areas seen as fitting the United Nations lists of Parks and equivalent Reserves.

One hundred years after that memorable moment in Yellowstone, people of America and other developed nations have been experiencing the value of their established and developed wilderness areas as a relieving place from the stress and boredom of the day-to-day life in their utmost urbanised society. In 1972, as people of America were celebrating the first century of their Park movement, Fiji was just beginning to realise the importance, the need, and the relevancy of protecting her wilderness areas - as were the Americans one hundred years ago.

Fiji is a newly independent and developing nation consisting of a multiracial society living together in harmony, on an archipelago of 320 small islands, 115 of these islands are inhabited and can be seen as striving toward economic development on a comparatively limited natural resource base. The establishment of the Parks and equivalent Reserves movement in Fiji, as in other Pacific Islands of similar stature, can be seen as one of both problem and potential.