Tavarua

Back in July 2010 the Fiji government passed a "decree" that liberalized all surf spots in the country including those controlled by the Tavarua Resort. Mnay including Kevin Naughton from Surfline believe that this was a huge mistake but the conversation still continues today.

Tetsuhiko Endo as well as Surfer Magazine are speaking out about this decision by the Fiji government with opinions and new interviews of local Figi surfers. Endo interviews the head of the Fijian Surfing Association (FSA) who speaks about the creation of jobs caused by this "decree" and the many benefits it will give the people of Fiji. Endo agrees that Fiji should have control of the surf spot becuase foreigners usually don't know what is best for the countries that they try to influence but is unsure of  all the benefits that the advocates of the "decree" preach, such as inflow of money and job creation. he also comments about Naughton's article and believes that his view point is one that is of a wealthy tourist and is forgetting what's best for Fiji.

I completely agree with the liberation of the surf spot. What these bloggers are not talking about or very little is how this "liberation" of Tavarua went about. It seems somewhat chaotic how this process was done. What's done is done and I find it very hard that this ruling will be reverse because the owners of Tavarua were already giving a lot of money back to the community and government. Naughton as well as the owners of Tavarua suggest that there should be a limit of surfers surfing Cloudbreak and Restaurants at a time. They claim that its to protect the environment but I believe that it is to increase their own profits and protect the "surfing Nirvana" as Naughton says for themselves. Obviously it is impossible and wrong to regulate the number of people that are able to surf at a time. What would you think if you weren't allowed to surf at the beach down the street because it was full. This already happens during contests, which inconveniences many people, but occurs for only a couple days at most. 

What should now be undertaken by the Fijian government is a reform on policies supporting the environment such as environmental protection projects and measures to protect the local population to offset the increased level of tourism that the FSA now predicts will come. This is to address the concern that an increased inflow of foreigners/ tourists will have negative effects on the environment and surrounding area proposed by Naughton.