Dale Galvin, Rare’s Chief Operating Officer, blogs about his trip to Fiji where he joined a hard-working Rare team to host a social marketing workshop for potential Pride campaign partners in the region.  Follow Dale’s adventures as he and his team witness local conservation efforts to protect marine species, introduce regional conservation experts to Rare’s methodology and share how the Pride campaign model can support lasting conservation impact in their communities.

After traveling for 24 hours, I finally landed in Suva, Fiji to attend a three day workshop to introduce potential partners to Rare’s Pride program and social marketing concepts. Participants came from Fiji, Western Samoa, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea and represented organizations such as SeaWeb, Coral Reef Alliance, Fiji National Trust and the University of South Pacific.   Participants learned more about what Rare does and were given a sample of the topics that Rare covers in its university training program (learn more) to equip local leaders with a comprehensive toolkit for achieving lasting conservation results.

Introduction and greetings from Sunia Waqainabete, Chairman of FLMMA and Senior Research Office of the Fijian Fisheries Department.

Pride campaign manager applicant, Fremden Yanhambath of Live and Learn Environmental Education, speaks to the participants about the top threats at his site in Vanuatu.

There was a lot of healthy interaction, learning, and feedback between Rare Staff, Pride campaign applicants and conservation experts.  Many of the participants seemed to enjoy learning more about social marketing and Rare’s methodology.  Conversations produced solid progress in our efforts to develop a suite of Pride campaigns focused on a common conservation threat and solution for the Pride English Program, including looking at some creative ways of maximizing impact. During one threat ranking exercise it became clear that many of the threats to the LMMAs in Fiji are common in other Pacific sites as well. Some of these threats include:

• Poaching by people from outside the management area
• Poaching by people from inside the management area
• Overfishing after opening of no-take (tabu) areas for community fundraising or celebration events
• Destructive fishing methods such as the use of poison, dynamite or fine mesh nets (such as mosquito nets)

Group working together during a break-out session.

Our challenge then was to identify the specific conservation outcome that a cohort of Pride campaigns might support.  There are a lot of options, including:One challenge – identifying the specific conservation outcome that a cohort of Pride campaigns might support.  There are a lot of options, including:One challenge – identifying the specific conservation outcome that a cohort of Pride campaigns might support.  There are a lot of options, including:One challenge – identifying the specific conservation outcome that a cohort of Pride campaigns might support.  There are a lot of options, including:

• Developing new Managed Protected Areas and/ or No-Take Zones.
• Creating well-functioning reserves from those that are “paper parks”
• Strengthening already decently functioning fishing reserves by increasing enforcement, solidifying legislation, etc.
• Focusing on destructive fishing, “outsiders,” and other threats

Another cause of debate – the size of No-Take-Zones, and the method of determining what is deemed “successful.”  In the Coral Triangle, our assumption is that a minimum No-Take Zone size should be 1000 hectares.  The Fiji Locally-Managed Marine Area (FLMMA) scientists think much smaller reserves can and do work.  The reason may be different habitat, levels of productivity in the reef, or just a difference in opinion.   There is also a challenge of increasing No-Take Zones referred to as “tabu” size when the perception is that the current size is working, and expansion would be hard to accommodate.

One participant used an interesting analogy:

“…Asking a community to self-impose a No-Take-Zone, which is a significant portion of the overall fishing grounds of the community, for the promise (but not guarantee!) of some future benefit is akin to asking the residents of Washington, DC, to vote themselves a 30% additional tax, in the hopes that some future social benefit will accrue.”

Not an easy sale!

Dale Galvin, Rare’s Chief Operating Officer, blogs about his trip to Fiji where he joined a hard-working Rare team to host a social marketing workshop for potential Pride campaign partners in the region.  Follow Dale’s adventures as he and his team witness local conservation efforts to protect marine species, introduce regional conservation experts to Rare’s methodology and share how the Pride campaign model can support lasting conservation impact in their communities.

I had been feeling great this whole trip; those who know me at Rare know I am a magnet for various tropical ailments but so far so good.  Well that all ended when I woke up on Saturday morning, preparing to go see the Votua community with the Rare staff and some other partners as well.   Suffice is to say that I thought I had the swine flu, and couldn’t swallow even a spoonful of yogurt.  Meanwhile, the first step to going to see the community was to put on the appropriate attire – a bula shirt and a sulu (skirt-like thingy).  The night before, after our workshop and before the shops closed (the shops conveniently close a few minutes before everyone gets off work), we rushed out to buy this local clothing and the only store still open sold only the fanciest versions of bulas and sulus, so that later others remarked that we all looked like we were “going to church.”

Adam, Dale, and Sean in traditional bulas and sulus.

On arrival to the village, we presented our gift of kava root (looks like a bundle of sticks) to the village representatives, and sat down on a straw mat for the kava ceremony.  The ceremony consisted of a number of rhythmic chants and blessings, handing the kava from one person to the next.  In return for the kava, the community members welcomed us to their village, and began preparing the kava.  Doing that entails putting the ground kava into a porous bag, and dumping water into it so that it drains out through the bottom of the bag.  Then the preparer mashes the bag, wringing out the kava-infused water with their bare hands into a bowl called a tanoa.  As the highest ranking Rare “Chief” in attendance, I had to drink often from the bowl.   I will share only that from what I was told the next day in that it had been a very “memorable experience”.  I trust them.

Serving kava at the ceremony.

Dale holding the kava in a coconut shell bowl. Looks good!

A little more about the Votua community:  This community is a good but also unusual example of other communities in Fiji.  It is a Fijian Locally-Managed Marine Area (LMMA) success story. By working with the Fijian arm of LMMA (FLMMA, pronounced “flamma”), they created a managed marine area within their community-owned fishing area.  Within that, they created a tabu (pronounced “tambu”) area which is a relatively permanent No-Take-Zone.  I say “relatively” because they are sometimes opened to large one-off fishing extravaganzas when there is for example,  a financial need or a wedding.

Votua rugby player.

All the community members agree that the tabu area has been successful, and they have some monitoring data to back that up, even though the area is close to shore and quite small in global terms (300 x 800 meters).  Potentially because of this success and willingness to participate in new projects, they have been recipients of a lot of international aid, resulting in things like a fairly substantial grey and black water recycling system, homestay training for hosting visiting students and tourists, and  coral plantings in the tabu area.

All and all, despite my tropical flu and a kava overdose, it was a great day. The community is exemplary in their willingness to protect their marine resources, and serves as a great example for our campaign to market to other communities who may be ready to adopt similar programs.

Coral plantings.

The Giant clam, one of several species of clam under threat in Fiji and other Pacific islands.

Votua Locally Managed Marine Protected Area.

Local conservation efforts have attracted additional international aid opportunities such as this black water recycling system (aka sewage treatment plant).

Dale Galvin, Rare’s Chief Operating Officer, blogs about his trip to Fiji where he joined a hard-working Rare team to host a social marketing workshop for potential Pride campaign partners in the region.  Follow Dale’s adventures as he and his team witness local conservation efforts to protect marine species, introduce regional conservation experts to Rare’s methodology and share how the Pride campaign model can support lasting conservation impact in their communities.

Still recovering from my Fijian flu and an overdose of kava, I was actually considering bailing on the Sunday dive trip to the Beqa (pronounced Benga) Lagoon, another locally managed protected area; I’m glad I didn’t.

There, a local dive operator, Beqa Adventure Divers, runs a special “shark dive,” wherein they chum the waters to attract sharks.  It’s not unusual for the dive to attract many species of shark, including the two most dangerous after great whites, bull and tiger sharks.  In addition, grey reef, white tip, silver tip, and lemon sharks are common.

We did not arrange to do the shark dive, but instead planned on a standard coral reef visit.  I have mixed emotions about a shark feed.  On the one hand, the positives are that awareness is raised about sharks and their habitat (and the fact that they are not as dangerous as the media portrays), and in this case, significant funds from each dive (FJD$20 per diver) goes back to the community in return for the protection.  The safety record, at least here in Fiji, is spotless.

However, there are downsides.  Safety is one of them.  Last year, a diver was killed in a shark feed in the Bahamas, when a shark mistook his leg for food.  Also, the feeding habituates the sharks to feeding, disrupting their natural instincts. Sometimes sharks get disoriented and wander off from their usual habitats, following boat noise, looking for food handouts, etc.  Confused sharks can threaten fishermen and local populations.  Lastly, a shark feed is a contrived setting, in which you are not actually seeing the behavior of an animal in the wild.  It’s more like going to the zoo.

So all that said, I was happy to do a plain old coral reef dive, but even happier when I found out we were going near the same sites they did the shark feeding, so sharks were likely to be hanging around. Conditions were perfect – flat seas, 70 feet of visibility, and 74 degree water.

White Tip shark.

Being first off the boat, I looked down through my goggles and saw huge schools of fish – giant trevally, other jacks, and groupers swarming at 30 feet  I descended to 100 feet when I saw my first glimpse of a grey reef shark in the distance.  I swam towards it.   Soon, an enormous bull shark circled around, followed by another, then another.  Sharks were everywhere, including one eight-foot pregnant bull shark.

Pregnant Bull shark.

They stayed at a cautious distance, clearly wondering if there was going to be a feeding, and not interested in getting too close to the divers otherwise.  After chasing them around for a while snapping photos, I looked back for my group and couldn’t see them.  I realized I had been at 120 ft for a little too long and was sucking down air like coca cola, so I headed back and ultimately found the group.  We all hung out there for a little bit, watching more shark activity, and then ascended up the coral reef.  Close to the surface, I saw a few white-tip reef sharks nosing around.

Giant Trevally.

Clownfish in the reef.

School of Longfin Bannerfish.

Struggling to stay down as long as possible, but with my computer telling me I was both out of air and bordering on nitrogen overload, I headed to the boat.  It was a fantastic dive!  One of the best dives of my life, though it was not without casualties. The first was my rare colleague Adam, who surfaced looking the same shade of green as the bumphead parrotfish.  He spent the remaining 3 hours of the trip huddled seasick over the side of the boat (he wasn’t the only one, however, a number of other passengers were sick, despite a lack of waves).  Two other passengers removed their gear and had blood streaming down their faces – not a shark bite however but just some imploded sinuses.  They were so happy about the dive they didn’t seem bothered. Adam was valiant and an hour after the dive was eating goat curry, happy as a giant clam.
Despite a few physical calamities, it was a great dive and a great day (the second was more mellow and shallow – I did see a few sharks and a turtle, and the biodiversity of the fish was really impressive).   The best part (other than the bull sharks), was seeing how productive a protected reef can be, and how benefits can accrue to the local community.

According to Dale there’s a turtle on the sea bottom. Do you see it?

After nearly canceling the event several weeks earlier due to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus (swine flu) in Mexico, Rare staff and Pride campaign alumni persevered to launch the Latin America Pride Alumni Network in Guadalajara, Mexico, on July 12th.  After three days of workshops, training updates and networking, the 43 conservation leaders in attendance established a solid framework for supporting each other’s on-going work and by doing so, strengthened local conservation across Latin America.

The scene at the front desk of our hotel in Guadalajara on July 12th was like a red carpet for conservation. 43 Pride campaign managers from 14 countries across Latin America were arriving to the first-ever Rare alumni gathering.   Some of them knew each other, and some were meeting for the first time.

The theme of this first-ever Latin American Alumni Meeting was “Planting the Seeds of Conservation”.

View photo highlights of the Latin America Alumni Meeting!

A Critical Piece of Conservation Success
Alumni represent the true potential for the long-term success of Rare’s work.   Although Alumni campaign managers don’t work for Rare, 75% of Latin America alumni have sustained their campaigns after their formal partnership with Rare has ended, 45% have run second or new campaigns, and nearly 100% are still involved in conservation.

Click here to read a video blog from Rare’s CEO Brett Jenks who attended the Latin American Alumni Meeting.

Launching the Network
The two main objectives of this event were to design and officially launch the Latin America Pride Alumni Network and to build capacity in new Rare tools and other conservation methods.  Both objectives were met during the three rigorous days of workshops, speaker panels, “World Café” roundtable discussions, small group work, free time for side meetings, and of course, like any proper Latin America gathering — dancing, mariachis, and tequila. Daily themes progressed from “Increasing Conservation Impact” to “Building Our Capacity” to “Launching the Network.”

By the end of the meeting, participants had designed a vision for their own Latin America network:To be recognized internationally for the action, generation and interchange of knowledge to achieve conservation impact, through a participatory space and for the benefit of the community and other organizations.

From this unifying vision, campaign managers created five key objectives to reach this vision, organized by five committees that produced specific action items and work plans:

• Create a space for exchange of communication and information.
• Generate and provide follow up support to campaigns.
• Promote teaching, learning and capacity-building.
• Take action to influence environmental policy.
• Develop a strategy for strengthening and sustaining for the network.

Rare Alumni Manager Sharon Price explained the implications of the objectives set in Guadalajara. “What this means for the alumni program is that we’ve set a precedent that all the work we do with our campaign managers is co-owned, co-developed and based on their direct needs. We asked alumni  what they needed to maintain conservation impact in their current work and how forming an alumni network can help them to achieve these goals.  Now that they’ve told us and drafted an action plan, we have a lot of work to do together to see the vision materialized.”

Click here to watch an interview with Paul Butler, Rare’s Senior VP and founder of Rare Pride Campaigns.