Of fish and faith and Fiji

Friday, November 28th, 2014

To link church leaders with stewardship, the Locally Managed Marine Area Network in Fiji (FLMMA) has gone to the source: working directly with colleges that train Methodist pastors.

This strategy started about five years ago with the largest Methodist seminary in Fiji.

Theology colleagues there have begun to integrate resource management into their curriculum.

Priests and Pastors can play an important role in preserving the fish stock in Fiji says Fijian marine scientist Akuila Cakacaka.

They can preach the idea that God has made the human race stewards of creation to nurture and care for it.

Or they can encourage the people to believe that God will always provide and creation exists to serve human needs.

Fijians belong to one of the 410 demarcated and nationally recognized areas of the reef where they have the rights to fish.

These fishing grounds are known as qoliqoli, and within each are often small, protected areas called tabus, which villagers can close for a short period of time.

Historically they served a symbolic purpose, but today, tabus are one strategy to help protect areas of the reef and maintain viable fisheries, in the hopes that communities can balance short-term with long-term needs.

If a pastor blesses a marine protected areas or tabu, a god-fearing society will likely respect its boundaries.

But fundraisers for the church and the need for quick cash can often lead to opening a marine protected area to fishing, making it harder to close again.

Cakacaka says the church is rarely included when NGOs or other development groups come to the village.

Religious leaders may be asked to bless the project, or pray for the work to be done.

But the groups don’t directly involve the church in asking their perspective on conservation.

Akuila says if people think God will provide—even as the fish vanish— Fijians may continue fishing the way they are now.

Current fishing practices in Fiji are not only occasionally destructive, but also unsustainable he says.

Cakacaka, now based in Germany, is working towards a PhD that will address the influence of religion in harvesting marine resources from tabus, that are opened periodically in Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea.

However, he is also an authority on religious sermons; he gives some very passionate ones as a pastor himself.

Source