Can Rugby Reduce Fish Poaching?

I'm banking on it. Check out these handsome athletes from one of the villages in our reef conservation project sites in Fiji.

We're 3 years into our work of building a marine conservation corridor in the Kubulau District of Vanua Levu in Fiji. The Kubulau District villagers are the traditional resource owners of the Namena Marine Reserve--the MPA we are working to strengthen. We heard reports recently that fish poaching was occurring in the no-take MPAs that abut the local villages. Trainings to institutionalize a cadre of local fish wardens and set up patrols takes funding. Aside from funding, another part of the problem was that some of the young men of the villages--who could play an important role as local fish wardens--were not feeling a close enough connection to the MPAs and as a result not particularly motivated to proactively patrol and enforce against poaching.

Since rugby is such a popular sport in Fiji, one of our project partners, WWF, succeeded in organizing the Great Sea Reef Tournament as a way of generating additional funds to conduct fish warden trainings. Rugby is certainly played in the villages where we work and some of the local teams are quite good. But our Fiji field staff reported that some of the Kubulau teams were playing in torn shirts. Some didn't even have shoes.

Thanks to a CORAL microgrant, the Kubulau District rugby teams are now proudly outfitted in spanking new rugby shirts, shorts, socks, and shoes. The shirts bear the logos of the Kubulau District Management Resource Committee, and the Namena Marine Reserve. Oh, and a small Coral Reef Alliance logo too (Hey, it works for NASCAR.) Our hope is to instill a sense of community pride in the young men from the village and connect that pride to community-based conservation taking place in the MPA.

The rugby shirts are gaudy but look great! We have an order on the way for our SF staff and plan to sell them on our website. Let me know if you would like to show some Fijian rugby (and coral reef conservation) pride on your own back too.

Scrum For Coral

Would you mess with these coral conservationists? Hells no!

Thought I'd post a few snaps of Rich, Anja, and Bryan from our San Francisco Program team sporting the colors of Fiji's Kubulau District rugby team. We just received a box with both shirts and duffle bags that were part of a Coral Reef Alliance microgrant to the district. We're hoping that the new shirts, emblazoned with both the marine protected area and CORAL logos, will help raise the profile of the MPA, create a sense of pride and identity for some of the young men of the 11 Kubulau villages, and perhaps provide some leverage to help stem reports of fish poaching by villagers who feel the MPA--and partnering in conservation efforts--has not yet demonstrated enough tangible benefits.

We already have reports of renewed buy-in from village leaders, and the team played a prestigious Fiji-wide match in their new uniforms. I think they look great and it demonstrates some of the many different avenues we could explore in community-based conservation.