编织社区渔场保护网

在浩淼的南太平洋上，零星散落着许多名扬世界的岛国。在这里，不仅有美丽的沙滩、荡漾的碧波、暖暖的微风，还有繁荣的渔业。其中，在风景迤逦的斐济岛上，阿利费蒂・塔瓦基至今还记得，祖父只用2个小时就能捕捞到足够养活他11个孩子的鱼量。

然而，这已是很久以前的事情了。在过去的几年中，塔瓦基亲眼目睹了捕鱼的艰难：为了捕捞到足够的鱼养活家人，祖父花在捕鱼上的时间越来越长。最后，75岁高龄的祖父不幸地死在了他的渔船里。祖父死后，塔瓦基决定要做点什么。“那时，我就想行动起来。家人日子一直过得那么艰难，我想要改变贫穷的根源，”这位2004年度“惠特利人与环境奖”得主回忆道。

20世纪90年代，斐济的居民逐渐发觉社区渔场里的海洋生物不断减少。与许多岛屿社区一样，当地人也“靠水吃水”。因此，渔场海洋生物的减少对全靠周围自然资源为生的他们来说是毁灭性的打击。

对于鱼类资源锐减的处境，塔瓦基大受触动。再三思量后，他打算用斐济的文化传统和自己学到的海洋生物学方面的知识寻找对策。在斐济，盛行一种习俗，即某村庄的酋长死后，就要把该社区渔场的某一部分辟为禁渔区，以示对酋长的尊重；该活动通常要持续100天。于是，塔瓦基决定游说村民，争取把活动的时间延长到1-2年。令他欣喜的是，这一努力获得了有关社区的支持。从1997年开始，他在瑙苏里以北20公里处的维拉塔社区的8个村进行了试点，效果出人意料的好。如今，这些社区渔场里蛤的数量增加了24倍。

论及塔瓦基这一方法的独特之处，在于它自上而下由社区发起的开展生物养护工作。在他的动员下，当地社区居民都积极参与到保护禁渔区的行动中，并对禁渔进展情况进行了监督。塔瓦基说，“关键是在选择禁渔区时要慎重。当地社区参与了规划过程，这正是改革取得成效的原因所在。”塔瓦基的下一个目标是在斐济的所有岛屿都设立当地社区管理的海洋资源保护区。目前，在斐济的187个地区中，其中36个已经设立了这类保护区。与此同时，塔瓦基还得到了一些资助。此外，斐济政府正采取措施，将该国410个传统渔场的管理权下放给当地社区，让社区自行管理海洋资源保护区。

可以说，塔瓦基的工作直接促成了斐济地方管理海域网络的建立。该网络负责对斐济各岛现有禁渔区的管理工作进行协调。斐济的这个网络隶属于规模更大的地方管理海域网络，后者负责在亚洲和太平洋地区实施生物保护项目。迄今，塔瓦基模式已在其他岛国得到推广。借鉴斐济成功的经验和做法，一些岛国也实施了类似的生物保护项目。这些国家包括巴布亚新几内亚、所罗门群岛、菲律宾、夏威夷、印度尼西亚的帕代多群岛、密克罗尼西亚联邦的庞佩岛和帕劳。

The vast South Pacifist Ocean is dotted with many world famous island countries with beautiful beaches， rippling waves， warm breeze and prosperous fishery. On the picturesque Fiji Islands， Elifeidi Tawaji still remembers that his grandfather only spent 2 hours in catching the fishes enough for 11 children’s food.

However， that was a story of a long time ago. In the past few years， Tawaji witnessed the difficulty in catching fish. In order to catch fishes enough for the whole family， his grandfather spent much longer time in fishing. At last， his 75 year-old grandfather died in his fishing boat. After the death of his grandfather， Tawaji decided to make some difference. “At that time， I wanted to make some difference. Our family was always living in poverty. I wanted to change the source of poverty.” Tawaji， the winner of “2004 Whitley Award for Human and Environment”recalled.

In the 1990s， the residents of Fiji Islands found that marine creatures were gradually declining. Similar to many other island communities， the local people also lived on water. Thus the decline of marine creatures was disastrous for them.

The situation of sharp decrease of fish resources touched Tawaji quite deeply. After thinking twice， he tried to find out a solution with the traditional culture of Fiji and his knowledge of marine biology. In Fiji， there is a prevailing tradition that after the death of a village chief， certain part of the community fishery will be kept as closed fishing areas to show respect to the chief. Usually， the closure will last for 100 days. Taking advantage of this opportunity， Tawaji decided to persuade the villagers to prolong the closure time to one or two years. To his delight， his efforts won the support of relevant communities. Since the beginning of 1997， pilot work has been conducted in 8 villages of Vilata community， 20 kilometers away from the north of Nausori and the effects are surprisingly good. Up to now， the number of clams in community fisheries has increased by 24 times.

The uniqueness of Tawaji’s method lies in the biological maintenance work initiated by community from top to bottom. Under his mobilization， local community residents take an active part in protecting closed fishing areas and supervise the conditions of closed fishing. Tawaji said that the key is the prudence in choosing closed fishing areas. The local community is involved in the planning process， which is the reason why the reform has made such a success.” Tawaji’s next object is that marine resources reserves managed by local community can be set up in all Fiji islands. Currently， among the 187 districts of Fiji， such reserves have been set up in 36 districts. At the same time， Tawaji also got some help. In addition to that， the Fiji government is trying to empower the management rights of 410 traditional fisheries to local communities and thus local communities can manage the marine resources reserves by themselves.

It can be said that Tawaji’s work directly led to the setting up of the local ocean management network of Fiji. This network is responsible for coordinating the management work of the existing closed fishing areas of Fiji Islands and affiliated to the local marine network of larger scale which organizes creature protection projects in Asia and the Pacific. Up to now， the Tawaji mode has been popularized in other island countries. Drawing on the successful experiences of Fiji， some other island countries including Papua New Guinea， the Solomon Islands， the Philippines， Hawaii， Indonesia， Pompe Island of Federated States of Micronesia and Palau also carried out similar creature protection projects.