Permanent Secretary for Environment Dr Sivendra Michael has urged that traditional science — the customary knowledge embedded in the relationship between communities and their land — be formally recognised and recorded in all development planning, saying Fiji’s future depends on decisions that protect the vanua for coming generations. Dr Michael made the remarks while addressing participants at a National Resource Owners Committee workshop in Nadi, emphasising that customary understanding of land use carries obligations as well as benefits.
“For generations our ancestors understood that land and natural resources carried responsibilities as well as benefits,” Dr Michael told the workshop. “The vanua was never used simply as a commodity; it was understood as the foundation of supplying itself, sustaining communities through food, water, culture and identity.” He called for that body of knowledge to be “upheld, respected, and fully documented and acknowledged in any form of development planning.”
Dr Michael warned that the pace of development in Fiji is accelerating and urged caution when communities are presented with projects promising immediate economic gain. “These opportunities must be carefully considered because the long‑term consequences of environmental degradation are often far greater than the short‑term gains that may appear attractive at first,” he said, framing the message as a call to balance economic opportunity with stewardship of natural resources.
The National Resource Owners Committee workshop in Nadi provided the platform Dr Michael described, bringing together resource owners, government officials, technical experts and development partners to discuss policies, regulations and environmental considerations affecting customary land. Organisers said the sessions aimed to equip communities to ask the right questions and strengthen their capacity to make informed decisions about proposals affecting their land and resources.
The comments come amid a broader national push to align development with long‑term goals such as Vision 2050 and the 2025–2029 National Development Plan, which government ministries have advanced through strategy workshops and international consultations. While ministers and agencies outline infrastructure, water and economic plans designed to drive growth and resilience, Dr Michael’s intervention highlights an insistence from the environment ministry that customary knowledge and intergenerational responsibility be factored into those plans.
By stressing documentation and formal acknowledgement of traditional science, the permanent secretary signalled a shift from ad hoc consultation toward integrating indigenous environmental understandings into statutory and technical planning processes. The workshop organisers said the committee’s continued work is intended to ensure communities are not sidelined by rapid development and that regulatory frameworks reflect both scientific and customary safeguards.
The National Resource Owners Committee’s meetings in Nadi are the latest step in ongoing engagement between landowners and government as Fiji negotiates competing pressures for development, investment and environmental protection. Dr Michael’s address underlined the ministry’s message that sustainable development must preserve the vanua’s capacity to sustain future generations.
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