Page 18 - Islands Business May-June 2022

Oceans Oceans

IS LAU THE NEXT GALAPAGOS?

GROUPS WORK TO PRESERVE LAND AND OCEAN

By Samisoni Pareti of Lau, one of Fiji’s 14 provinces that make up the country’s
eastern sea borders.
A huge conservation effort that could be the South Pacific’s A Conservation International Rapid Assessment Program
answer to the wildlife park-island of Galapagos is gaining report in 2017 stated, “Global analyses of marine biodiversity
momentum in Fiji. consistently place the Lau archipelago among the highest
Under the Lau Seascape initiative, nearly 336,000 square priorities for conservation, as a hotspot for species richness.”
kilometres of land and ocean will be reserved as a protected Citing an earlier study, it continues, “Tittensor’s examina-
ecological zone. tion of global patterns and predictors of marine species rich-
It accounts for 26% of Fiji’s Exclusive Economic Zone, ness across 13 major species groups, ranging from zooplank-
encompassing the whole 60 islands and islets of the province ton to marine mammals, indicates that the Western Pacific

18 Islands Business, May-June 2022