NatureFiji-MareqetiViti extends its Environment Education program from Kadavu to Ra and Natewa
NFMVs Environment Education project began in 2011 and will work in schools associated with Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and aims to raise the awareness of the students of the significance of the site at a National and International level.
Recently, NFMV project manager Mere Valu initiated the project at two schools, Navitilevu Primary School, Ra and Wailevu Primary School, Natewa (Vanua Levu with Natewa and Vusasivo Primary Schools also attending).
The activities in the project program included bird watching, with the provision of a child-friendly pocket guide book of Fiji’s birds in Fijian, as well as comic books relating to subjects identifiable in the respective IBAs. Other activities included Bat Identification, as Fiji has 6 native bat species, 4 of which are threatened.
Gardening is being encouraged and the project provided gardening tools, vegetable seeds, native plantings and green house materials to assist the schools in promoting awareness of the natural environment.
Mere Valu, while working with the BirdLife Fiji Program, initiated the schools’ environmental education project at Nabukelevu-r-ra Primary School, Kadavu. While the NFMV initiative at Navitilevu Primary School, Ra and Wailevu Primary School, Natewa extends the program so that it is now associated with three Important Bird Areas – Vatu-i-ra, Natewa and Nabukelevu-i-ra.
Fiji’s network of 14 IBAs supports all the known populations of the most threatened bird species and >40% of the populations of other threatened and endemic species.