Join Lara and her team on a journey to one of the world's most beautiful coral reefs. Learn how WWF is studying this environment and its role as an indicator of the effects of climate change.
Saturday, March 3rd
It is the end of our field work so we return to the village to thank them for allowing us to work in Takina Wai this week. Again we present them with a gift of kava root and we sit and talk to them in the ceremonial bure. Penina explained what we'd done during the week, expressed our thanks to the community, and asked for their blessing as we departed. One of the villagers received the yanquona and said a prayer over it.
Flying back from Fiji is as chronologically challenging as getting there. You leave at 10:30 at night on the 3rd and arrive at 1:30 in the afternoon on the 3rd the next day, thereby getting back half of the day you lost getting there.
There are many communities in Fiji that still depend on healthy marine ecosystems for their livelihood, and there are still many truly beautiful, healthy marine ecosystems in this nation of islands. But these ecosystems are threatened by a variety of forces, including climate change. It is gratifying to be doing what we can to help communities such as Takina Wai preserve their natural heritage in the face of this new challenge.
