Over the next month, villagers from the districts of Nacula in the Yasawa chain of islands and Nailaga in Ba will be up-skilled in sennit and coir log weaving to help protect their eroding riverbank and coastlines.

Coir logs are tube shaped erosion control structures woven from sennits(magimagi) derived from coconut fiber which will be embedded along the river bank with a mixture of vetiver grass and native tree, all targeted towards stabilization and rehabilitation of river banks, waterways and coastlines.

This climate change adaptation project, a first of its kind for this area in Fiji is part of the Great Sea Reef initiative, one of WWF-Pacific’s key programmes.

“The PACAM project is a USAID funded project and we are looking at ecosystem services where we will be working on rehabilitating the coastline of Nacula and planting some of the vegetation that used to be there before. We are preparing for what we are going to implement in Nacula, as this coir log rehabilitation is fairly new and innovative natural solution for Fiji,” said WWF-Pacific climate change officer, Rusila Savou.

The workshops will be carried out by specialist and traditional craftsmen Filipe Raturaga from Ono-i-Lau and Epeli Draunidalo from Cicia.

The two skilled art artisans will prepare the weavers of the districts in Yasawa and Ba to effectively protect their eroding coastlines and riverbanks through the utilization of natural resources.

Source: WWF-Pacific