The MAB Project in the eastern islands of Fiji, 1974-76

Abstract

The Fiji project was a ‘pilot project’ within UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere programme (MAB). The international MAB Programme began in 1971. It was to involve applied scientific research on the interaction between people (‘man’ in the language of the day) and their environment. The aim was to provide scientific knowledge on how to manage natural ecosystems effectively while also conserving them. The notion of sustainability did not surface fully for another twenty years, but its embryonic form was central to MAB and to our own work within it. Among the main project areas in the MAB design was ‘Ecology and Rational Use of Island Ecosystems’. Islands were considered to be appropriate sites for studying the complexities of people-environment relationships and – in some minds – for modelling interactions and their management in ways capable of upscaling, even all the way to global level. Show more