Can New Research & Old Traditions Save Fiji From Ecological Collapse?

I look out the windshield of the taxi and see that the road through the tropical forest ends, but our journey does not. We continue on a rutted dirt road, then ford a small stream, and eventually emerge from the thick vegetation at the edge of a vast and empty beach. Here, we wait. A great deal of doing fieldwork in Fiji is waiting. This can sometimes feel at odds with the knowledge that passing time means the continued exhaustion of marine life in the coral reefs that ring these islands.

My fellow passengers—, a conservation biologist from Columbia University, and *, an anthropologist from Northern Kentucky University—look out across Natewa Bay toward the mountainous band of green that divides water and sky. On the opposite shore, at Jones’s dig, her students await the provisions in the taxi: sugar, eggs, gasoline. Jones and her students are excavating an ancient settlement of the . She is interested in long-term interactions between humans and the environment in Fiji and the tropical Pacific, particularly how Pacific Islanders have used and managed marine resources. Drew is visiting the site because he’s interested in what she’s found, particularly the shells her team has unearthed near ancient Lapita homes. We’re here to rifle through some 2,000-year-old trash, to see what clues it holds for conservation today.