Page 28 - IB April 2022

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Fiji Kava and BSP Life executives. BSP Life recently announced it was investing FJD$2 million into Fiji Kava.

Continued from page 20 Environmental concerns
Given the perceived opportunities in kava, there are con-
tarius standards. This is a major progress to secure the future cerns over the impact of unchecked kava cultivation on Pacific
of kava. Kava is now considered internationally as a food environments.
product. Just like tea or coffee, and we have a regional system On the DevPolicy blog recently, Adjunct Associate Professor
to guarantee its quality. It is for the Pacific Island Countries to (Sustainable Development) at the University of the Sunshine
use these standards when they are involved in international Coast, Richard Markham, wrote that there is a “discouraging
trade to avoid what the German companies did in the late sense of having seen all this before” with other commodities
1990s when they were coming to the South Pacific to buy peel- (specifically ginger and taro/dalo) “as export of one commod-
ings, two-day kava and other kava by-products without any ity after another is encouraged by government intervention,
quality control. We know what the tragic consequences were,” booms briefly, and then declines in a welter of recrimination
Lebot added. over interlinked biosecurity and quality issues, and collapsing
prices”.
Regional action: Wan Ples, Wan Kava He writes that as farmers clear fertile land deeper into for-
The Pacific Islands Forum is currently developing a regional ests with chainsaws, sometimes burning the vegetation in their
kava strategy, and implementing those regional Codex stan- haste, the knock-on effects on the environment are “horrible”.
dards will be part of this work. “With the steep terrain and high rainfall, topsoil is rapidly
Speaking at the first regional Kava Working Group Meeting in washed away, taking with it the fertility of the soil, and caus-
January, Director Programs and Initiatives at the Pacific Islands ing excessive sedimentation and flooding in the lower reaches
Forum, Zarak Khan said, “with adequate policies and frame- of rivers where many communities are located and food crops
works, we will ensure that kava can change the economic grown on riverside alluvium. Washed out to sea, the soil is
landscape of the Pacific Island Countries”. then deposited as a lethal sediment load on the coral reefs –
He flagged issues of shared concern: including: “protection on which communities depend so heavily for food security and,
of kava, and in particular the Geographical Indications (GIs) in better times, for tourist dollars.”
for kava. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) The Pacific Community is working to address this issue by
has been supporting Pacific Island nations on GIs, Branding and promoting sustainable production, with Vanuatu Minister,
Trademark “to protect kava as a Blue Pacific green gold com- James Bule, telling last year’s regional kava meeting that
modity”. “the increase in production over the last few years has led to
The sector also suffers from a lack of data regarding supply corresponding increases in the area of land cultivated and the
and value chains. “Quality data is critical in order to have an clearing of previously untouched forests thus creating concern
accurate assessment of where the sector is at the moment, for the potential impacts this will have on our fragile ecosys-
where the gaps are, whether it’s in production, consumption, tems.”
trade or at the policy level,” Vanuatu’s Minister for Trade, Markham also cites potential social impacts of a kava boom,
James Bule told the Pacific Regional Conference on Kava. as growers spend more time at their plantations protecting
SPC economic statistics adviser, Nilima Lal, has written that their valuable crops from thieves.
the lack of data could be holding back investment and growth He says avoidance of a man-made disaster requires proper
prospects for the kava industry. land-use planning, and incentives for greater sustainability,

28 Islands Business, April 2022