Biodiversity Prospecting in the Coral Reefs of Fiji

by University of the South Pacific

Partners:

University of the South Pacific (USP) The Rainforest Alliance SPACHEE

Success Stories

Participatory rural assessment methods have been used in communities in the Verata area in Fiji to help villages prioritize development needs. Exercises are conducted in which members of the community map their village, do transects, make time lines of important events and identify perceived problems and discuss how to solve them. Common problems identified are a lack of land for expanding villages and unreliable water supplies. A unique feature of the workshop was the videotaping of the exercises which were then edited and shared with the communities.

Challenges

The overwhelming challenge in the last year was to quickly find a replacement bioprospecting partner when Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceutical company suddenly closed down their natural products drug discovery division in June. Fortunately, project partner the Rainforest Alliance had set up as part of the project an international reference group of people interested in bioprospecting. An SOS letter was sent to these people who suggested many possibilities. Most prospects either do not pay sample fees or were committed to a work program for 1996-1997. Fortunately the Strathclyde Institute for Drug Research is expanding its activities of supplying extracts to drug companies and hopefully will satisfy the enterprise requirement of the project.

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