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Fiji: Land degradation and soil erosion from unsustainable agriculture and forestry

Traditional Pacific Island agricultural systems are highly sustainable even when they involved planting on steep slopes. In Vanuatu it was found that, except on Aneityum, that man's agricultural activities have contributed little to soil erosion and degradation, despite the significant areas of steep land cultivated on islands such as Pentecost and Ambae. This is explained by the generally discontinuous nature of cultivation, the limited population relative to arable land, the small size of gardens, and the minimum tillage practices adopted. The bush surrounding clear practices acts as a windbreak, reducing the evapo-transpiration from the soil and lessening soil loss from cyclones. Crops were grown in rotation with long fallow and without chemicals. Forest areas were an integral part of the food security system of the village and provided protection against cyclones and drought. In most places domestic pigs were an important part of the system - but social controls meant that these were always fenced.

However overall traditional systems and controls have been breaking down which has major implications for sustainable food security and the island community's ability to deal with disasters. This breakdown is manifest in a number of causes and consequences of environmental degradation. The situation found in the Fiji case study was quite disturbing. Despite greater environmental awareness Fiji has experienced serious and increasing land degradation. Widespread and indiscriminate burning, interrelated to soil erosion, in itself constitutes a disaster for Fiji. No effective legal sanctions have replaced traditional and colonial controls. For a number of villages in western Viti Levu this has meant the loss of food gardens within reasonable proximity to villages. On some smaller islands fire in combination with over grazing of goats is proving a devastating combination. Farming on excessive slopes continues to cause serious soil erosion problems in traditional ginger/root crop areas, and on marginal sugar lands. These lands are now far more vulnerable to the impact of cyclones and drought than in the past. As a consequence increasing areas of Fiji's land is becoming obsolete in agriculture.

The problems of land degradation are not new to Fiji. The eminent geographer Professor Oscar Spate writing in 1959 in a report to the Legislative Council noted: "I have seen some classical areas of erosion in India, Australia, and New Caledonia but I do not think I have seen sheet erosion of such intensity as in parts of the hinterland of Nadi and Lautoka". Drysdale (1994) in a paper presented to the Land Conservation Board entitled "Soil Conservation the Hidden Disaster" reported that that 15,000 ha of cane land on Viti Levu are officially identified as needing urgent soil conservation work, of which some 6,500 ha now obsolete for cane and any other arable agriculture (p, 3). A recent estimated of the cost of this land degradation in terms of lost sugar production and increased fertiliser input is conservatively estimated at $F16 million per annum (Nisha 1997 p, 15).

All the case studies identified increasing incidences of unsustainable cropping practices, which have increased vulnerability to disasters. In Fiji larger new plantings of kava have usually involved the clear felling of forest reducing the habitat for yams and other wild food "bank" crops. Trees are cut down with chain saws (traditionally they are girdled and allowed to decay slowly) which leads to a much higher rate of soil loss and erosion. In Samoa prior to the arrival taro blight 2,400 ha of forest were being cleared a year for the planting of taro. Vanuatu was found to retain a viable resource base of wild yams, which play a critical food security role in times of natural disaster.

In the outer islands of Fiji and Tonga pigs, particularly in combination with burning, should be seen as an ecological disaster for which mitigation measures need to be urgently taken. In some the activities of pigs, both wild and domestic, are a greater threat to food security than cyclones.