The University of Fiji is pleased to announce a new project that will serve to forge an important collaboration involving all Schools and the Centre for iTaukei Studies of the University.
The main project –Transforming Universities for a Changing Climate Research Project- is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and involves a partnership between Unifiji, USP and FNU. Each university has proposed its own project and we will be working on our individual projects separately but we will collaborate on some important aspects. Fiji is just one of the countries involved in the global project; the other countries are Brazil, Kenya, Mozambique and the United Kingdom.
The second stage is Participatory Action Research. The Unifiji part of the project’s second stage was initiated by the Office of the Students Affairs Coordinator (SAC) which will lead it with assistance from senior administration and UFSA.
The Unifiji project is called:
Our Drua Voyage. Coastal Conservation Through Traditional Knowledge: The University of Fiji Attitude on the Environment.
The main elements of the Unifiji project are as follows:
(i) Using the (already available) Drua to sail to coastal villages around Saweni and some of the Mamanucas; at the same time learning how to build a Drua and sail it using traditional navigational methods (when finished the Drua will be showcased on Saweni campus as part of the University’s landscape programme);
(ii) Interviewing the coastal communities on traditional means of conservation and traditional medicinal plants and herbs;
(iii) Recording information on conserving the coastal environment and on traditional medicines, and drafting documents to legally protect such intellectual property;
(iv) Assisting communities with business plans and economic forecasts for income generation/re-generation through conservation projects;
(v) Recording traditional sources and methods of education and knowledge for future generations; and
(vi) Filming the Drua Voyage and submitting the documentary film to international film festivals/ TV and similar.
Those interested in being part of the Drua Voyage project should submit their names to the SAC.
