Project news
Fiji: Lakeba becomes the third pilot site of the 4FJ programme
10 March 2026
© Kiwa Initiative
The village of b has become the third site to join the 4FJ Learning Site approach, an initiative designed to help communities better monitor the health of their fishing grounds and the marine species they depend on.
Representatives from the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs and the organisation cChange visited the district of Namuka, in Macuata Province, to present the approach. It is based on community discussions (talanoa), enabling fishers and residents to talk about the condition of their fishing areas and identify species that may be at risk.
The next steps will involve formalising community commitments, selecting local“champions” to lead fish catch data collection, and supporting them with resourcehealth reports and recommendations from fisheries experts on practical rules to help restore key species.
The initiative received very positive feedback from local fishers, who welcomed anapproach that allows communities to take the lead in managing their resources.Villages will soon organise small group discussions to decide which species tomonitor, select community champions and plan training in March to begin collecting data.
Theme
co-benefits
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Project nameUpscaling community-based Nature-based Solutions (NbS) using Innovative National Information Strategy (NIS) and Behavioural Change Approaches
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Project LeadcChange Pacific
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Project StartAugust 2025
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Estimated termMarch 2027
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Amount of funding€159,163
Project locations
Context
In Fiji, the loss of marine biodiversity and ecosystem health, driven by climate change, population growth and development, is increasingly threatening the health and well-being of communities. A critical solution to address these issues at the community level is to upscale Nature-based Solutions (NbS) through community-based natural resource management. But Fiji lacks a cost-effective model to scale up NbS in rural coastal communities. Historic models built on high-cost NGO-driven interventions have reached limited communities and have not produced sustained outcomes.
Underpinned by the Pacific Framework for Action on Scaling Up Community-based Fisheries Management: 2021–20251, the project invests in a National Information Strategy (NIS) that leverages behavioral change approaches, from media platforms, mobile phones, and champion trainings and discussion tools, that are cost-effective, gender-sensitive and inclusive to reach all communities. The NIS approach has shown successes in empowering communities to pursue self-facilitated, participatory dialogues, increasing engagement of marginalized groups such as youth and women, and creating tangible community-led local actions to improve resource health and resiliency.
The NIS approach has engaged more communities than NGO-historical approaches and has high probability of delivering sustainable commitments and outcomes for biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation and human health and wellbeing as communities are self-facilitating the processes. This project aims to fully implement a Fiji NIS and position the Fiji Government to effectively support all communities long-term to pursue NbS solutions with its limited resources and, ultimately, increase climate change resiliency, protect biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Project objectives
The project builds upon the “4FJ Fish Smart” campaign to strengthen community-based fisheries management, through:
- Objective 1: 50+ percent of communities have access to an NbS Talanoa Toolkit (Facilitation booklets, videos, podcasts, posters, etc) and have the agency to make effective community-based resource management rules.
- Objective 2: Using 4FJ Fisheries Management low-cost community action model, 6 communities have assessed the health of their species of concern and established/increased the effectiveness of a community marine protected area (total 6 MPAs) and/or passed 1 to 3 additional sustainable fishing rules (total 6 to 18 rules) to boost community-identified species of concern.
- Objective 3: Government ministries and provincial staff have communications capacity and internal tools to implement cost-effective national information strategy long term, including rolling out the 4FJ government-led, low-cost engagement model nationally.
Social inclusion and gender equity
Access to information is a key first step in empowering marginalised groups to participate in CBFM discussions and influence decision-making. The project is designed to provide access to information/engagement to all members of the community to participatory CBFM dialogues, reducing the risk of unfair impacts of local rule-making and more equitable sharing of benefits.
The project does so by providing a range of information pathways and products that are accessible to all groups, and providing inclusive, culturally-appropriate training opportunities, along with recommendations and activities to create small group discussions through existing community governance structures. The 4FJ Talanoa Toolkit is specifically designed to create productive opportunities for any group to reflect and review CBFM information that was historically limited to attendees at workshops, which often lack youth and women participation.
The project learning sites will also focus on piloting inclusive processes, with hands-on training, to demonstrate both the value and effectiveness of inclusive decision-making to compliance and enforcement of local rules and resource health. As part of the capacity-building approach, all learning sites must have existing, vibrant community groups, and all trainings must include representatives from all community groups.
