Fiji Inland

THAT FIJI COURT and.

FLAT RATES

Sigatoka Valley for some fantastic vistas of Fiji's renowned..... Ride the Sigatoka River and enjoy the refreshing and refreshing wind..... Starting from the traditional ceremonial in the town to the walk to the waterfalls, the days..... In Sautabu town, explore the Fiji indigenous civilization and take a boat.....

Let the Fijian culture touch you....Visit with us a Fijian village (near Sigatoka).....

Rafting & Nature Conservation

Seeing the thick, verdant treetops that cover them transports the viewer into a mythic South Pacific forest scenery, where incessant rains swell up the streams and creeks. Though the attractiveness of the coastline with its relaxed atmosphere and abundance of resort facilities is what attracts the most to Fiji, the centre of Viti Levu is in the high mountain region.

This is no exeption, and an interesting dive site that resulted in the expulsion of the first naval reserve in the land has brought us there in the first place. But when we got there, we looked inland at the high hills and asked ourselves what was up there.

The local people are beginning to realise that there is an economical and conservational capacity to create paths and bring walkers to the hills where the municipalities have mainly turned to felling to earn a livings. It was, however, a river cruise that paved the way for Fiji's first country- and community-based nature protection projects. At the Pacific Harbour head office we meet Kasi Taukeinikoro, Managing Director of Rivers Fiji.

It is unbelievable that we have ever been to a place in the whole wide globe where the natives are friendlier and warmer than in Fiji, and the Pacific Harbour offices were no exceptions. Kazi had consented to join us and tell us more about his company's nature protection work before we would descend the Upper Navua River the next mornings.

It began with the history of Nate and Kelly Bricker, the creators of Rivers Fiji, who came from the USA in the 1990s to take a journey down the riverbank and evaluate its ability for canoeing. On their first explorations, they soon realised that a large part of Fiji's jungle was being substituted by a number of plantation areas of cornica and that the high, verdant shores of the Navua where they wanted to organise paddling excursions would finally be fringed with cornica plants, mainly from South America.

Its rugged splendour would be changed forever, and the integrality of the terrestrial eco-system would impair the flow itself. Therefore, the creation of a protected area for indigenous endemic breeds on the bank of the riverbank became a key concern. It was also an occasion for Rivers Fiji to find ways to give something back to our community while doing pioneer work in nature protection.

Kasi explains that the Fiji approach to the use of landholdings was not well known. Taboo areas, temporarily restricted areas in the ocean around the island, had a long history here, but no areas of use. Historical Fiji estate is built on a pattern of clan families known as Mataeqalis, whose decisions about what happens to the lands they own determine the destiny of the forestry ecosystems.

Lumberjackers have long worked with the Mataqali to obtain the right to substitute forests with natural forests and at the same time provide them with shelter. When Rivers Fiji wanted to rescue part of the indigenous wood along the riverbank, it did so through a twinning with locals named Mapalis.

The first Fiji public-private treaty to establish the Upper Navua Conservation Area (UNCA), 615 ha/1500 acre, was signed in 2000, and a piece of virgin rainforest along the Upper Navua River was protected. Co-operation with a privately owned lumberjack and a Fiji country trusts was also included.

Rivers Fiji then worked to designate the UNCA as a RAMSAR area or Wetland of International Importance in 2007, Fiji's only such name. "As we went to the landowners, they saw it as an excuse to make more cash. However, their primary revenue stream was felling, as they have a large woodland up there and trade with lumberjacks.

They were more cautious when it came to our nature protection leasing contract because we couldn't provide them as much as the lumberjack firms who could buy them with 4WDs. We knew that we had to work from the inside to show the local people what they could possibly know about this protected area.

So we went to all the local colleges where we knew that the landowners sent their children. We' re going there to talk about nature protection. It is always good to go to the village gatherings now, because many of them are speaking our languages.

They' re talking about nature protection. I' ve gone to all the landowners in the last few sabbaths. We have begun to take local people from the towns down the riverbank to show them its beaut. Rivers Fiji's 24 employees and leaders come from the nine towns of the Mataqali who have given them the right to conserve their lands.

It also provides family members with reimbursement for every visitor who goes down the upper Navua Valley and provides physicians for periodic examinations and biological scientists from organisations that are better able to evaluate the biological diversity of the rivers and the surrounding forrest. "The majority of the bird and reptile species we see there are native to Fiji, some in the area itself.

We can see that the reserve is working well, somehow the fauna knows it is secure for them to gather," says Kasi with a grin. A new type of pelagic bottom has been found in the water since the name was introduced in 2000: the scallopless blue-grey. To preserve this savage heritage, the organization has a powerful Leave No Trace ethics when you're on the water, where nothing is changed or abandoned, and where leaders take upon themselves the duty to minimise our effects as a visitor.

As we drove down the stream, we were fortunate enough to have Moses Batirua as our leader. One of the first professional instructors to receive instruction from the firm, his proud of what he called his" office" is inspirational. He now says that he will never be sorry to accept the practice and become a white water slide as he can enjoy the beauties of his house on the upper Navua Riviera with visitors from all over the underworld.

Whilst the rapid can be quite strong during heavy rains, it is usually Grade II and III but its rapid sequence makes it an interesting cruise even for those who are not new to canoeing. It is a really nice full-length excursion, the added advantage of which is that it helps to preserve a piece of indigenous wood that is full of adrenaline.

It is an exciting combination of nature protection, nature protection, community and bio-diversity.