MES continues with its community engagement through the Turtle Conservation Project. The turtle project consultation phase, is now complete for the two remaining communities of Solevu and Yaro villages. The two other communities, Yanuya and Tavua were consulted a few months ago.
The Mamanuca turtle project community consultation at the two neighbouring villages of Solevu and Yaro was scheduled for three and two days respectively. The consultation at Solevu village was held from the 30th of June to the 2nd of July and at Yaro village from 4th to the 5th of August. The consultation process normally begins on the first evening the team is in the village.
The school program was conducted on the first evening the team spent at Solevu and Yaro. Held in one of the school classroom and village hall respectively, the team shared turtle information with the students using a power point presentation and showing a documentary on sea turtles. The students were then engaged in activities that were designed to suit each age group from classes 1 to 8. The activities ranged from colouring, joining the dots, comprehension and role plays. The role play was then presented to the whole school by the Year 8 students.
On the second day the team conducted household surveys. Visiting each house and conducting interviews with key informants from each household, such as the Elders and Fishermen. In the evening, the team held consultations for the whole village at the village hall. The consultations provided the platform to present on the outcomes of the first phase of the Turtle Project, to re-emphasize on the current Turtle Moratorium and to conduct a resource mapping exercise to re-confirm nesting and foraging sites identified in the first phase of the turtle project. The third day at Solevu was spent re-visiting house holds that were not interviewed on the previous day for the main reason, that they were not home during the time of interview.
The consultations at the two villages would not have been completed successfully without the help of the volunteers that assisted in the household surveys.
