Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the coastline when stormy weather is approaching. Strikingly white
tropicbirds
with long
tail feathers are also prolific, as are clumsy-looking oversized
boobies
, along with the smal-
ler terns and noddies which follow each other around on fishing expeditions and dive bomb
the lagoons in spectacular fashion. Shearwaters and
reef herons
can be spotted island-wide,
cautiously prancing along the beach edge in search of fish.
Mangrove forest
Fiji's eighteen thousand hectares of
mangrove forest
buffer much of the coastline along Viti
Levu and Vanua Levu and provide important breeding grounds for many of Fiji's reef fish.
They also perform an invaluable role in protecting the coastline from hurricanes and wave
erosion. With thick tentacle roots draping from the forest canopy and stumps thrusting up-
wards from the murky blend of fresh and salt water, these forests are unforgiving environ-
ments but incredibly productive.
Birdlife
abounds, with mangrove herons, kingfishers, lories
and orange-breasted honey-eaters the most commonly found species. For the Fijians living
around the river deltas, the
tiri
(mangrove) offer a plethora of foodstuffs, with an abundance
of
small fish
caught in reed traps, shrimps and, most delicious of all,
mud crabs
scooped up
in fishing nets.
Rainforests and terrestrial wildlife
Fiji's tropical
rainforests
are incredibly dense, with tall, thin trees entangled with vines
and creepers crowding upwards towards the elusive light. Below the canopy, impressive
prehistoric-looking
tree ferns
grow in profusion while several beautiful species of
wild orch-
ids
can be found on the forest floor. Of the 1600 known plants found in Fiji, 56 percent are
endemic, most found only within the rainforest.
More than forty percent of the forest cover of the islands remains intact, and some islands,
such as Taveuni, still have contiguous forest stretching from the high-altitude cloudforest all
the way to the coast. The largest tract of virgin primary forest is the Sovi Basin on Viti Levu,
which has become an important area for sustaining birdlife. The remainder of Fiji's rainforest
has usually been influenced by people, either through logging or farming. On the wet
wind-
ward
sides of the islands, Fijian hardwood species such as
kauvula
and
kadamu
are common
as well as
dakua
, a softer conifer from the kauri family used locally for furniture making. The
heavier hardwoods of
damanu
,
vesi
and
rosawa
have been cut extensively for timber export
and craft. Perhaps the most beautiful of trees found in the forest is the
banyan
, a member of
the fig family. The banyan initially grows as a vine on a host tree before its aerial prop roots
descend and embed themselves in the ground, creating huge buttress roots which meander
along the forest floor.
The dry
leeward
sides of Fiji's islands were once home to large tracts of casuarinas, iron-
wood and sandalwood forests. Most of the land is now covered in
grassland
or planted with
