Tahiti’s rahui tradition has helped revitalize ecosystems — including the area around the surfing games

TIAHURA, Tahiti (AP) — During their stay The turquoise ocean of Tahiti a few years ago, fishermen noticed that their catches — and therefore the fish in them — were getting smaller and smaller.

Because fishing is such a vital part of Polynesian life, local leader Dominique Tehei, 51, and his team knew they had to find a way to restore the ecosystem. They decided there was a traditional Polynesian practice that could help them do so: creating a rahui.

The traditional conservation method of regulating human activity to replenish and protect marine ecosystem resources is being revived and is bearing fruit in Tahiti and its surrounding areas. venue for the surfing competitions at the Olympic Games in Paris. While local communities and leaders acknowledge that rahui is not a one-size-fits-all solution to all environmental problems, they are working with researchers and scientists to strengthen grassroots, community-based approaches.

Rahui farming has occurred for centuries on islands in French Polynesia, Hawaii and New Zealand, said Hunter Lenihan, an ecologist and co-director of the Rahui Forum and Resource Center based in Moorea, Tahiti, which has meant temporary bans or restrictions on harvesting natural resources in designated areas.

“(The practice) was suppressed by colonizers,” Lenihan said, “but … it’s been experiencing a resurgence that began vigorously about a decade ago.”

Although the most common form of rahui is a no-take zone placed in a lagoon or offshore — like a marine reserve — rahui have also been established in local bays and rivers by planting taro crops to capture sediment from agriculture or other development activities before it flows into the ocean and adversely affects reefs.

Even in no-fishing zones, rules can vary depending on the needs of the area. Sometimes fishing is only allowed during a specific season. Other times, only certain methods are allowed, such as line fishing or spear fishing, while the use of nets or cages is prohibited. In some rahui, fishing and swimming are prohibited altogether, protecting some areas from excessive tourism development.

Decisions about where, how, and when to establish rahui are made and administered by community leaders.

Tehei said that in the years leading up to the creation of a rahui in Teva I Uta in 2019, where he lives, he and other conservationists initially had difficulty convincing villagers that a rahui was a good idea.

“Fishing is a source of money and food,” Tehei said. “They were worried they wouldn’t be able to access it when they needed it most. So of course they were a little nervous.”

Tehei said that on their way back home they managed to convince the villagers to allow parts of the reef and surrounding areas to be closed for two years so that other parts of the reef could remain open for fishing.

Tehei was not alone in his efforts to establish rahui in Tahiti.

Members of the Rahui Forum and Resource Center visit and talk to communities in Tahiti to learn why they want to establish a rahui, and then connect with local NGOs and community leaders who can assist in the process of establishing a rahui.

“The system was built from the ground up,” Lenihan said.

Community leaders and government officials also conducted awareness campaigns, placing billboards and posters about rahui in churches, schools and town halls throughout Tahiti.

There are currently dozens of species of rahui living in Tahiti, including in Teahupo’o, where surfers competed in surfing competitions during the Olympic Games in Paris.

Signs mark their presence, informing visitors of the regulations and the penalties for violating them. Locals vacationing at the beach or working in tourism can point out buoys in the water marking rahui zones, while explaining how important they are to the community’s conservation efforts.

Acceptance of rahui has also flourished: A 2019 Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project survey found that 90% of French Polynesian people support rahui, a much higher rate than support for other legal conservation methods, such as marine protected areas. Rahui have been legally recognized in French Polynesia’s environmental code since 2016.

But Tehei acknowledged that the rahui system isn’t perfect: Sometimes it’s hard to monitor the entire area, especially during new moons when it’s darker outside. Other times, they’ve had to open the rahui before the ecosystem has had a chance to fully recover, as promised to fishermen. The lack of management when opening one rahui has led to overfishing, he said.

“We had no idea who was going to the reef and unfortunately I would say within three weeks of it reopening… the whole island came. We had 30 boats coming out to fish,” he said. “It was a total disaster.”

Tehei said that despite the setbacks, they continue to promote and monitor various measures to improve rahui practices. One of the efforts is to work with the local government to create a catch registration system that would catalog how much each fisherman catches.

But, Tehei says, the rahui have helped change the attitude of some Tahitians about caring for the ocean and its ecosystems.

“For the people of Tahiti, the ocean is everything,” he said. “People want it to be healthy and prosperous.”

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