ECO-FRIENDLY

Fijian resorts lead the South Pacific’s efforts to embrace sustainability, from replacing traditional energy forms, sourcing local, organic produce and preserving customs through to the conservation of the coral reefs that make Fiji’s islands so special in the first place.

+ Must-do

Build a fish house at the Shangri-La Yanuca Island’s marine centre. To date, guests have built hundreds of fish houses which are then placed in the lagoon creating a mini reef system, which is home to fish, clams and baby cowrie shells. You can even track the progress of your fish house using GPS co-ordinates. Wrench yourself away from the pool and wheelbarrow concrete, lay building blocks, paint, sandpaper or spend time in the classroom as part of Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort’s community project at Conua District School. The Coral Coast resort also has one of the South Pacific’s best coral gardening programs. Young corals are grown in a protected nursery till adulthood, then replanted.

Fiji Airways meanwhile has launched the new Our Ocean, Our Life Mangrove and Turtle Eco Tour, which allows travellers to plant mangrove trees and explore a turtle-breeding sanctuary. A portion of the proceeds goes to local village partners.

+ Stay

Long before sustainability and carbonneutral were a part of our vocabulary, the five-star Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort was underpinned by a steadfast commitment to the environment.

Adjoining a protected marine reserve on Fiji’s second-largest island, Vanua Levu, conservation and cultural connection are key to the eco-resort’s ethos. It employs a full-time marine biologist, runs projects aimed at reef protection and giant-clam breeding, utilises flow-through ventilation rather than air-conditioning in its 25 bures, and used sustainable timber and traditional thatching in the bures’ construction. The restaurant serves produce grown in the organic garden, eco-friendly Pure Fiji amenities are used in the rooms and in the spa, while water is recycled.

South of Viti Levu, the five-star, adults-only Royal Davui Island Resort is more than a luxurious and romantic place to stay. It was the first Fijian resort to ban all single-serve plastic items. Locally grown produce is on the menu, while its treatment plant converts wastewater into usable garden water.

Vomo Island resort in the Mamanucas used border closures to build its own freshwater bottling plant and to install a cleaning system in its kitchens that turns desalinated water into cleaning products using saltwater and electricity, eradicating harsh chemicals.

Matanivusi Beach Eco Resort, on Viti Levu’s southern coast, created such an innovative waste-management and low-plastic environment that it became the world’s first registered surf ecoretreat. The resort collects all rainwater, separates all waste into compost, recyclables and waste and crushes all non-returnable bottles to use in concrete mix. All wastewater is treated so that it can then be used as a natural fertiliser for the gardens.

Luxury adults-only resort Likuliku not only boasts Fiji’s first and only overwater bungalows but strong eco credentials too. Along with eliminating single-use plastics, it has worked tirelessly to save one of the world’s rarest creatures from extinction – the Fiji crested iguana. The resort implemented programs to eradicate non-native animals and restore habitat, and also started a captivebreeding program – there are now more than 80 of the critically endangered iguana species on the island.

On Malolo Island, also in the Mamanuca Group, the game-changing Six Senses Fiji is the country’s first resort to be entirely solar powered. Offering 26 spacious and sumptuous pool villas and 60 residential villas, the resort collects rainwater, offers low energy and chemical pool filtration, has worm-based septic tanks and has its own reverse-osmosis plant and water refinery producing drinking water – meaning no plastic bottles. Local craftsmen used fallen trees for both furniture and resort construction. Cuisine is locally inspired and sustainably sourced; wine is sulphite-free and organic.

Several Fijian resorts have upped the ante when it comes to cultural sustainability whereby local villages make an income out of sharing traditional customs with tourists. Maqai Beach Eco Resort on Qamea Island off Taveuni has given 10-per-cent ownership of the resort to a neighbouring village to ensure directors and managers work with local chiefs on all key decisions. Leleuvia Island Resort near Suva meanwhile works with six villages on their island to train young locals to bring back knowledge of Fijian-canoe sailing and navigation skills. The resort assisted in providing traditional camakau sailing canoes to the villages, part of its efforts to revive Fiji’s sustainable sea transport culture.

+ Don’t miss

Meet a rare Fijian iguana at the 28-hectare Kula Wild Adventure Park which can be explored via elevated boardwalks rising from the valley floor to the rainforest canopy. Fiji’s centre for the captive breeding of endangered species, the park breeds two types of Fijian iguanas, colourful native birds and turtles. Be met with wide smiles and waving locals as you traverse untouched tracts along Fiji’s Coral Coast on a modified e-bike mounted on a 19th-century sugar-cane railway. Ecotrax Fiji takes tourists on a velocipede ride to the deserted Vunabua Beach where you can take a swim and sip on a coconut as a reward for all that pedalling.

Nature’s bounty Clockwise, from above left: On Fiji Airways’ new eco tour, visit a turtle sanctuary and plant mangroves (above); the Ecotrax tour; meet native wildlife at Kula Wild Adventure Park; marine biologist Johnny Singh at Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort.

“Be met with wide smiles and waving locals as you traverse untouched tracts on a modified e-bike mounted on a 19th-century sugar-cane railway.”

Island-hopping

Clockwise, from below: Blue Lagoon Cruises’ Fiji Princess; cultural show; Sawa-i-Lau caves of Blue Lagoon movie fame; underwater magic; exploring with Blue Lagoon Cruises; the famed Fijian hospitality.