by In a river bend near the west coast of Fiji is the village of Yavusania. One day soon, if nothing is done to help, residents fear it will disappear. The most obvious threat is at the water’s edge, where a series of flash floods have surged up a river once sheltered by mangrove forests, chewing away meters of soil and sand so that only a handful of roots hold on to trees left behind.
Epeli Turuva, a 48-year-old community leader in Yavusania, stands next to the weathered concrete foundations of an old house, half of which appears to have fallen into the water below. It’s not the only house to do so: four other buildings have also collapsed during floods in the last few years, the most recent of which was struck in March.
Turuva is worried that his house will be next. “I don’t want to move,” he says. “Our land is rich, and our community is very close. It’s hard to imagine life without this village.”
Yavusania is on the outskirts of the town of Nadi in Fiji. In the past four decades, at least 54 floods have surged through Nadi, damaging homes, businesses and displacing thousands of people, according to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). At the same time, Fiji has allowed tourism developers to clear the nearby mangrove forests that once limited flood damage – leaving Javasania more vulnerable to environmental disaster.
People don’t realize that if you’re destroying mangroves, you’re making the climate issue worse
Cyprus Shah
The thick, curling roots of mangroves are not picturesque and block access to water, but they play a vital role in nature and for communities. Shipra Shah, assistant professor of forestry at Fiji National University, explains that mangroves are the “first line of defense” against flooding in Fiji, protecting residents from storm surges and dispersing flash floods as they flow through rivers.
“People don’t realize that if you’re destroying mangroves, you’re making the climate issue worse,” says Shah.
Construction of tourist paradise
In recent years, Fiji has seen tourism as a means of economic development. “The strategy is to present Fiji as a paradise in the Pacific Ocean to bring more tourists into the country,” says Andreas Neef, professor of development studies at the University of Auckland.
Related: The cost of paradise: Pacific islands changing the future of tourism
According to a UNDRR report, as part of that strategy, in the 1980s and 1990s Fiji began offering “an attractive package of incentives, including tax-free status for 20 years” to international hotel chains to invest in Denarau Island . several kilometers west of Nadi.
As hotels signed up for places within the resort, developers cleared hundreds of acres of land. Despite being a “very effective natural buffer” against storms and floods, the UNDRR report found that many of the mangroves were destroyed “because these plants interfered with tourist access to the sea and did not with the new vision of a highly decorated landscape. .”
Denarau Island has been transformed into a tourist hub with a collection of five-star hotels operated by brands including Marriott, Hilton and Wyndham, as well as an 18-hole golf course, shopping centers and a marina.
Neeraj Chadha, vice president of Marriott Pacific Islands, says the hotel chain is “as good as anyone could be in the sustainability space.” Chadha says Marriott, which also owns the Sheraton hotel brand, often participates in mangrove planting efforts and notes: “We’ve done a lot with the community, from employment to putting together a farm.” It also says that Marriott provided sheets, mattresses and financial assistance to the affected residents after recent flooding.
Hilton, Wyndham and Sofitel did not respond to questions.
‘Crucial’ to mitigating climate change
Government data shows that tourists to Fiji spend almost half their time in Denarau, Nadi and the nearby Mamanuca Islands, which have made the region an economic powerhouse. Tourism now contributes almost 40% to Fiji’s GDP.
Between 2000 and 2018, a study found that 120 hectares of mangroves were destroyed by tourism development in Ba province, where Nadi is located: a third of mangrove deforestation in the region.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Challenges, notes that mangroves “store disproportionate amounts of carbon … and protect coastal communities from the impacts of tropical cyclones.” It adds: “They are therefore crucial to mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2019 that “climate change is already affecting people in Nadi” and noted that both heavy rains and floods are becoming more frequent. recent years.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that of the 84 floods that have hit Nadi since 1870, at least 54 have occurred in the past four decades. Two of the most damaging floods to hit Nadi occurred in 2012, killing at least eight people and forcing the evacuation of 15,000.
The UNDRR report said that although the area around Danaru has always been at risk of flooding, in recent years “the frequency of major floods has increased dramatically”. The increasing frequency and impact of these floods “could be considered partly as a consequence of climate change”, the UNDRR report said, “but the development of Denarau can also be considered a major aggravating factor”.
Mangrove deforestation around Denarau “could be a contributing factor” to more damaging flooding, agrees Nezbitt Hazelman, general manager of Denarau Corporation, which manages the island. “That’s common sense.” However, Hazelman says the development has been a net positive given the economic activity it has generated. Many of the people of Nadi support the development, which has brought a significant number of jobs to the region.
In danger of disaster
In 2016, the Fijian government proposed a flood mitigation plan for Nadi, which included widening nearby rivers, improving drainage and building several levees. In 2022, Fiji began dredging some local rivers to try to tackle the issue, but Fiji’s former economy minister told the country’s parliament that the pandemic has significantly delayed the wider mitigation project, which is still in its infancy mostly planning. Fiji’s tourism minister and waterways minister did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, little has been done to protect the villages. In 2019, the ADB found the following: “Despite the high frequency and resulting damage caused by floods, only small-scale bank protection and small retention dams have been constructed. [and] a systematic flood management plan for the Nadagh River catchment has yet to be implemented.”
Without new defenses, Nadi will remain very vulnerable. A large part of the settlement is located six meters below sea level. During the floods in March, water flooded the central part of Nadi and entered buildings. At the time, the Chief Executive of Nadi town council said the flood waters forced 80% of businesses to close.
Meanwhile, from the river bank in Yavusania, Meresiana Ubitu, another resident, watches the water threatening her home.
“In the last five years, four families have lost their homes due to soil erosion, destroyed by the flood,” says Ubitu.
“We are wondering why this is happening. We never had this problem before, so why now?” And she asks: “Who will help us?”
