Important Bird Areas in Fiji project
 Guy Dutson/BirdLife
Local Fijian communities involved in BirdLife survey work
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Darwin Initiative project ref: 162/11/022
Fiji’s birds are wonderful! 27 species are found nowhere else in the world, such as the resplendent Orange and Golden Doves (Bune or Bunako), three species of Shining-Parrots (Kaka), and the widespread Collared Lory (Kula) which is even found in town centres. These birds are great flagships for conservation as they are so well-known to Fijians, especially to the rural communities who own Fiji’s forests. They are also good indicators of general biodiversity conservation, meaning that the actions to conserve these birds will also conserve most of Fiji’s other animals and plants. Seabird nesting islands are also very important for turtles but otherwise birds are not good indicators of coastal and marine environments – separate strategies are used by marine conservationists.
The UK government’s Darwin Initiative has funded a 3-year BirdLife International project to research Fiji’s Important Bird Areas. This project has five main objectives:
- Researching Fiji’s birds and most important forests
- Identifying and promoting Important Bird Areas (IBAs)
- Building the technical capacity of Fijian conservationists
- Raising awareness of conservation and sustainable development
- Raising resources for conservation of IBAs in Fiji and the Pacific islands
 BirdLife
Altogether nine pairs of Long-legged Warblers were found in 2003
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The project is having considerable success with all its objectives. Highlights include:
- Fieldwork trips with research reports from 34 sites (to end of 2004)
- First Long-legged Warblers seen on Viti Levu since 1893
- IBAs identified across all of Fiji (final identification awaits a national workshop in 2005)
- Fijians are now surveying and identifying Fiji’s forest birds to the highest international standards
- Extensive awareness work includes TV, radio, newspapers and magazines in English and Fijian
- Conclusions and lessons passed on to the 4-year EC-funded Pacific IBAs project
Fiji is blessed with large areas of natural forest. These are, however, being extensively logged, and this project hopes that designating the most important sites as IBAs will reduce the likelihood of these being logged. The biggest problem with logging is that it enables “Alien Invasive Species” such as mongoose, rats, mynahs and African Tulip Trees to invade the forests along logging roads and clearings.
One of Fiji’s endemic bird species, the Bar-winged Rail, is presumed extinct from predation by mongooose. BirdLife fears that the next species to be lost may be the Red-throated Lorikeet which has not been seen for several years despite specific survey efforts. There appears to be plenty of forest for this species so it is hypothesised that introduced rats may be driving it extinct.
However, much of the project’s new data on Fiji’s threatened birds is good news. Many threatened species remain widespread despite being overlooked by previous short-term studies. The Pink-billed Parrotfinch, hardly ever seen in the years preceding this project, was classified as Endangered, but now appears to be widespread, albeit in small numbers, across its range. The project hopes that many more Fijians, in this and future generations, can enjoy such amazing birds as this parrotfinch with its huge bright pink bill!
Contacts
For more details, please contact the project staff at: 11 Ma’afu Street, Suva on (679) 3313492 or
Don Stewart, Regional Programme Manager, don@birdlifepacific.org.fj
Vilikesa Masibalavu, National Project Cordinator, vilikesa@birdlifepacific.org.fj
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