Broadening Environmental Management in Fiji

Abstract

There is a pressing need for a social dimension to be built into environmental planning and management programmes in the Pacific, due to the fact that conservation occurs within the context of a social and cultural world, and that many environmental management failures are underwritten by social problems. The political strength of the environment sector in Fiji will determine the degree of central government support for environmental dimensions of national planning. Such strengthening can be facilitated through improving the social context of the practice of environmental management and planning. A social dimension is built into an environmental planning model which incorporates social as well as biological criteria for the selection of ecologically sensitive areas in need of environmental protection.