Awareness session, a boost for seagrass conservation

04 March 2024 - More than thirty youth volunteers of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pacific participated in a seagrass restoration training program last Friday.

The seagrass restoration training facilitated by the MACBLUE Project and the Fiji National University (FNU), was aimed at creating awareness and promoting seagrass ecosystems to the young marine and environment professionals as well as transferring skills for further restoration exercises.

The training conducted by FNU’s Dr Shalini Singh also involved an artivism exercise where the volunteers draw up key messages on the importance of seagrass conservation and management in the Pacific.

For Amelia Nadau, the training was an eye-opener to the immense benefits that seagrass provides to our marine ecosystems.

“Not only does seagrass act as a powerful carbon sink with its ability to sequester carbon at a higher rate than that of trees, but it also plays a crucial role in lessening wave breaks and protecting our coastlines,” the Agricultural Studies graduate shared.

“It was alarming to realise how undervalued seagrass is in Fiji compared to other marine resources and the urgent need to prioritise its conservation and protection,”

WWF Pacific Volunteers Program President Tokase Hawea acknowledged the opportunity to be part of the World Seagrass Day commemoration and shared it was a rewarding experience.

“The collaboration reaffirmed the importance of collective action in safeguarding our marine ecosystems for future generations,” she said.

However, despite its crucial role in climate change mitigation, FNU’s Dr Singh shared most seagrass data available globally are from developing countries.

“We don’t have much of this research (seagrass) so we don’t know how much of carbon is stored in a small plant that we have in the Pacific,” she shared.

Globally, March 1 is celebrated as World Seagrass Day raising awareness on the importance of seagrass as a core component of marine biodiversity and the threats they face.