Ten Years After Winston, Five Fijian Villages Are Bringing a Bay Back to Life
80,000 seedlings potted. Nine hectares restored. Five villages, one shared fishing ground.
APRIL | RA PROVINCE, FIJI
More than 80,000 mangrove seedlings have been potted and over nine hectares restored in Navitilevu Bay, as communities in Ra Province rebuild coastal protection and livelihoods through the Kiwa RESTORE Project.
Ten years after Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston tore through Fiji and devastated the mangroves that coastal communities in Ra Province depended on, five villages in Navitilevu Bay are restoring what was lost.
Working through community-managed in-situ nurseries, villagers are replanting degraded coastal areas across their shared qoliqoli cokovata (community-managed customary fishing area), with a restoration target of 20 hectares across the wider bay. The work is led under the Kiwa RESTORE Project in Fiji with nine ha restoration supported by co-financing from Australia’s DFAT Blue Carbon Project.
For the families who fish these waters, the restoration is not only about ecology. It is about food security, coastal protection, and the future of a shared fishing ground that has supported generations.
When Cyclone Winston made landfall in February 2016, it brought winds of up to 306 km/h, causing widespread destruction across Fiji. In Navitilevu Bay, communities saw not only damage to homes and crops, but to the mangrove ecosystems that sheltered marine life and supported local livelihoods.
Barotu Village headman, Meciusela Tulewa, said the community’s attitude toward fishing had changed since the disaster.
“Our fisherfolks knew that the marine life existing in the mangroves was in abundance. We would fish to catch as many as we can, rather than ‘just enough’. We treated our marine eco-system as a bottomless pit that would never dry up,” he said.
Government post-disaster assessments and community observations in the years that followed pointed to the loss of mangrove habitat and the knock-on effects on coastal fisheries. For communities in Navitilevu Bay, the damage was felt directly in reduced catches and growing pressure on household livelihoods.
Fisher Meri Vuda, who has spent more than 40 years harvesting crabs from Barotu’s mangrove forests, says the change is tangible.
“Before Winston I didn’t have to go any further into the mangroves for a decent catch,” she said.
“It was just there. Walking into the mangroves always guaranteed enough catch for my family’s needs - both for sustenance and an income,” she said.
She said after the cyclone, there was a lull in her crab-catching activity. However, with mangrove restoration beginning with DFAT Blue Carbon Project in 2023, Vuda has noticed gradual return of large mud crabs and other mangrove marine species.
But this recovery did not begin from the outside. It began in the villages. By the communities themselves.
Today, five communities, Nanukuloa, Naiserelagi, Barotu, Matawailevu, and Navuniivi, are working together to restore the bay’s mangrove systems under the Kiwa RESTORE Project in Fiji, led by Conservation International Fiji and funded through the Kiwa Initiative.
Together, the five communities share the bay’s coastal fishing ground, the qoliqoli cokovata, and they are sharing the work of rebuilding it. The two mangrove species at the centre of the effort, Rhizophora (tiri) and Bruguiera (dogo), are among the dominant species in the bay, and restoring them requires patient, hands-on work shaped by tides, weather, and season.
The project is built on a simple principle: restoration lasts when communities have both the means and the incentive to protect what they rebuild.
According to Mere Lakeba, Interim Vice President of Conservation International’s Pacific Program, RESTORE is designed not only to replant mangroves but to rebuild resilience. “Restoration is not only improving the environment — it is strengthening resilience. Alongside mangrove planting, the project supports sustainable livelihoods linked to ecosystem health.”
Alongside the mangrove planting, the project has supported livelihood activities linked to the health of the surrounding environment. In Nanukuloa Village, community members now manage apiaries. In Matawailevu, women are producing honeycomb coconut cream and honey for sale. These activities are designed to strengthen household resilience while reinforcing long-term stewardship of the bay’s natural resources.
And the signs of recovery from the bay itself are starting to show.
“The mangroves are returning now, and so are the crabs. We can see it. That’s why I’m happy this project is focusing on mangroves. It brings back life -- for us and for the sea.,” said Setaita Biu, Fish Warden, Barotu Village
Maciusela Tulewa added: “The restoration work also improved our knowledge of why we need mangroves. Being involved in the mangrove restoration activities and seeing the impacts it is having on our community has been a great turning point for most of us, who took the existence of mangroves for granted before TC Winston.”
Marking the Launch
The work in Navitilevu Bay is also drawing wider regional attention.
Recently, representatives from international funding bodies and partner organisations visited the restoration sites in Ra Province recently, marking the official launch of mangrove restoration under the Kiwa RESTORE Project. Following a formal sevusevu at the Nanukuloa Community Hall — where community representatives from all five villages shared their experiences directly — the delegation travelled by boat from Barotu Village at low tide, walking through nursery sites and newly recovering coastal zones. To mark the launch, delegation members joined community members in planting 200 mangrove seedlings. The seedlings potted by communities across the bay will now move to the next phase — transplanted into the coastal areas where restoration is underway.
The delegation included representatives from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Kiwa Initiative Secretariat, Australia’s DFAT, the European Union and SPREP.
What they found was not a project in progress. It was one visibly, measurably delivering -- and a direct challenge to the assumption that nature-based restoration in the Pacific needs to be driven from the outside.
“The RESTORE project is supported by the Kiwa Initiative with €3.3 million (around FJD 8.4 million) in funding from France, the European Union, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. As donors, what we saw today in Navitilevu Bay demonstrates how this collective public investment is helping communities restore their ecosystems and deliver tangible results on the ground. Through the support and capacity building provided by Conservation International, local communities are leading the way in strengthening climate resilience. Meeting the women and men driving this work has been truly inspiring. We are deeply grateful for the warm welcome received today.” says Mr. Thomas ZARATIEGUI, Head of Programs, AFD Pacific regional office (based in Noumea, New Caledonia).
For communities in Navitilevu Bay, the significance of the work is already clear.
They know that stronger storms, rising seas, and climate pressures will continue to shape the future of Fiji’s coastlines.
Their restoration effort is not based on the assumption that the next disaster can be avoided. It is based on the belief that communities can be better prepared for it.
Ten years after Winston, the message from Navitilevu Bay is both practical and powerful: when communities lead restoration, coastlines can recover, livelihoods can strengthen, and resilience can take root.
