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Fiji Islands
Reality Check

A study urges the Fiji Islands to exercise caution when developing its tourism potential

By Bart Édes (bedes@adb.org)
External Relations Specialist

NATURAL TREASURE The Fiji Islands is famous for soft coral reefs, which are rich habitats for thousands of species

The Fiji Islands is a magnet for tourists in search of white sand beaches, striking coral gardens, beautiful blue lagoons, and hospitable people.

Over 400,000 visitors arrive each year from Australia, New Zealand, North America, Western Europe, and elsewhere.

Tourism is the leading sector of the country’s economy, generating gross receipts of more than $200 million annually. Some 40,000 Fijians work in tourism-related sectors.

Yet such an influx of visitors also has a downside, particularly on the island state’s natural and social environment. Tourism is contributing to the damage of the Fiji Islands’ coral reefs and mangroves, consumption of precious freshwater, increased use of limited fertile land, and production of nonbiodegrable solid waste.

To improve understanding of these impacts and identify ways to mitigate them, ADB teamed up with the World Wide Fund for Nature-South Pacific Programme to prepare a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Fiji Islands’ Tourism Development Plan. The SEA represents a set of case studies designed to guide ADB on developing appropriate strategies for mainstreaming environmental dimensions into its economic and social development interventions in the Pacific.

The SEA assessed the environmental and sustainable development impacts of the country’s Tourism Development Plan, allowing the Ministry of Tourism and its partners to make future plans as sustainable as possible. It also served to test the concept of strategic environmental assessment as a tool for improving the sustainability of strategies and plans in Asia and the Pacific, and use it more widely in the region.

Among the SEA’s conclusions was that the Fiji Islands must adopt a precautionary approach for future tourism development. Attention must be given to maximizing the benefits and safeguarding the country’s advantages in light of actual resources and constraints.

The SEA also determined that full implementation of institutional and regulatory frameworks for environmental assessment and management—including capacity building and enforcement—is a prerequisite for expanding and sustaining tourism. Impact assessments must guide tourism development, and a fully effective system for enforcing their conclusions needs to be put into place.

Tourism has the potential to remain an engine of economic growth for the Fiji Islands. To maintain its positive net contribution to the nation’s well-being, careful management is critical for ensuring environmental sustainability. The SEA proposes developing the potential of tourism while protecting the country’s environment, which remains a powerful attraction for visitors and a valuable resource for the people of the Fiji Islands.

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