Environment: Fiji to Prosecute Chinese Developers on Malolo Island

The PM and the three journalists pn 338

UPDATE 9..4.19 Fiji Government to prosecute https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/04/09/527968/fiji-revokes-chinese-resorts-rights
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Not untypically, our mainstream media went off half-cock about the recent arrest in Fiji of three NZ journalists, citing restrictions on media freedom. The journalists were following up claims of environmental damage by Chinese company FreeSoul Real Estate Developers on Malolo island off the NW coast of Viti Levu close to Nadi. 

Newsroom co-editor Mark Jennings, investigations editor Melanie Reid and cameraman Hayden Aull were detained at the Totogo police station after resort developer Freesoul Real Estate accused them of criminal trespass after they allegedly walked past a staff only area of their office . 


On hearing this,  PM Bainimarama ordered their instant release, personally apologized, invited them to dinner, and ordered a full investigation into the police action.  He also said that  the conduct of Freesoul  was "deeply concerning to me personally for some time" and later that the company will be prosecuted.

“We need to send a strong message to Freesoul Real Estate Development, and other developers looking to cause us harm, that they are not welcome to operate in Fiji –– that message needs to be backed by law to prevent repeat offences from bad-faith developers. That is why we have been considering a law which we will urgently introduce in the next session of Parliament to permanently ban companies that blatantly disregard our environmental laws and protections.”

“The Fijian people can be assured; we will not tolerate any attempts to violate the historic environmental protections enshrined in our Constitution- protections that we will build upon with meaningful legislation.”

This is what one of those arrested, Newsroom's lead current affairs and investigations journalist Melanie Reid, wrote about the FreeSoul "development." I have cut some of the photographs.

-- ACW

UPDATE: Fiji's government has announced this morning it is prosecuting 
the Chinese resort developer on Malolo Island for breaching its
 environmental consents. Minister for Waterways and the Environment 
Dr Mahrendra Reddy says permissions granted in December expressly 
ruled out development of the foreshore but that has clearly been 
violated. The Office of Public Prosecutions would act against Freesoul
 Real Estate over the environmental damage on Malolo. 
(More at the end of this story).


Villagers on a Fijian island whose reef and fishing grounds have been desecrated by a vast 

resort project without environmental approval have now voted to revoke the Chinese 

developer's lease and expel its workers.

Newsroom revealed the damage on Malolo Island, off Nadi (Click on this link to see the extent 

of the damage), yesterday in a report widely read within Fiji, leading to an Opposition MP 

demanding immediate action by the Government on what he called "criminal" non-compliance

 with environmental law.

The developer, Freesoul Real Estate, had carved a large channel through a reef near land it 

had secured a lease over, blocked other landowners' access, begun major earthworks and

 polluted the local seabed - despite two court orders to stop work on its planned 370 bure

 resort and casino.

Now a meeting of 40 landowners of the local village of Solevu, involving lawyers and chiefs, 

has voted unanimously to evict the Freesoul workforce of Chinese and local construction 

workers and stop the resort - which was to be be Fiji's biggest.

Even one clan which sold the Chinese company the lease is now engaging lawyers to revoke

 that deal given the environmental damage that has been caused over the past year.

An elder from Solevu Village, Jonetani Nayate told Newsroom: “We have all signed a petition 

for the work to be closed. They have ruined our livelihood and we can no longer get our

land crabs because of the sewage into the protected mangroves.

“This too is the Government's fault because so many times they have been told they must stop

 work but no one has made them. Now they bring in the barges at 3 and 4 in the morning and

 unload all the materials while everyone is asleep."

Newsroom understands the villagers would have a strong case in seeking to revoke the lease

 because there have been so many breaches of Fijian environmental laws and regulations.

They have won strong support from the opposition Social Democratic Liberal Party with MP 

Filipe Tuisawau contacting Newsroom to promise political agitation to stop the damage to 

Malolo.

"The environmental damage and lack of respect for the local indigenous landowners is

 shocking," he said. "The Government must immediately stop work and [have] a proper

 assessment done. The sad fact is that irreversible damage has been done to the

 environment and surrounding marine life."

The damage to the island occurred despite two injunctions from the High Court, four stop work 

notices, two issued by iTaukei Land Trust Board for non-compliance of lease conditions

 involving vegetation and mangrove clearance, one by the Director of Lands, and one by the

 Director of Environment.

Tuisawau agreed this raised serious questions about the Fijian government’s effectiveness

 to administer its own environmental laws.

"Of course it does. Enforcement is weak and the villages suffer, as we see here. All arms of

 government have been negligent here by not following through on enforcement. They should

 cancel the lease and get the company to rectify and pay damages.

"The Department of the Environment has been known to lack staff and enforcement ability, so

 this is not surprising. That's the usual excuse they give.

"But the extent of damage and non-compliance is criminal and a special investigation is 

needed. We [his party] will be pushing for urgent and immediate action."

Tuisawau said there was a broader problem that also needed addressing.

The concerns of the Malolo villagers should be the priority as these were their traditional

 fishing grounds.

A channel illegally dug by Freesoul Real Estate through the

 reef around Malolo Island.Photo: Supplied

"This is why we in the opposition are pushing for a transfer of the foreshore to traditional

 owners away from the state to prevent this type of exploitation and ensure landowners, and 

not that state, ultimately make their own decisions on their own resources."

The Freesoul lease has a condition that the company complies with Fijian law. Lawyers, other

 landowners and locals say this condition has been breached countless times. There is a

 growing perception that Freesoul cannot be trusted to respect and preserve the environment.

Newsroom has made repeated attempts to seek comment from Freesoul, the environment 

department or Fijian government ministers but no responses have been received.

The head of the department this week claimed to a lawyer representing an adjoining

 landowner that an Environmental Impact Approval had been issued, but would not say when

 or what conditions it purported to impose on Freesoul. Newsroom understands no EIA was

 in place at the time of the various legal actions.

Update: On Thursday morning Fiji's Minister for Waterways and Environment Dr Mahendra 

Reddy finally confirmed Freesoul had had its plans cut back by the government in December

, reducing the permitted units from 351 to 102 and rejecting the proposed casino. He said an

 EIA issued was for land-based development only - "a conscious decision to minimise any

 environmental impact" - and despite "very stringent conditions" it was clear Freesoul had 

violated the agreement.

Reddy said the Department for the Environment had referred the breaches to the Director of 

Public Prosecutions "to see that Freesoul... is prosecuted on the offences and environmental

 damage they have incurred on the island of Malolo