This article is an attempt to situate the modern ecotourism ventures operated in the
Bouma region of Taveuni today in the context of the island’s history of development from the
pre-colonial times and the local Fijian communities’ vanua (land) identity. The main
argument is that Bouma is a peripheral sphere, constructed by a series of events that
contributed to a condition of “uneven development” (Harvey 2005:55-89; Smith
2008[1984]). The process was an intertwined history of land sale by the paramount chiefdom,
establishment of large-scale plantations by foreign planters, and gazetting of nature reserves
by the British colonial government from 1860 to 1914. These were further legalized by the
colonial land tenure system and native policies. Although Bouma was seemingly left
untouched in this history of land alienation and retained the majority of the native lands on
Taveuni, the spatial dynamics of the island has been transformed and it became marginalized
from the export-based plantation economy of Taveuni.
The itaukei (natives) of Bouma do not see their environment in terms of capitalist
production values. Believing themselves as the autochthonous people of the island, they
seized the growing discourse of sustainable development and established their ecotourism
projects in the 90s in the hope of uplifting their vanua identity, on which an indigenous
blueprint of development resides. In this article, while concerning the expression of vanua in
the Bouma region as a whole, I will focus on examples from Waitabu, one of the four main
communities in Bouma. Considered one of the two founding ancestries of Bouma (the other
one is Vidawa), Waitabu now operates a marine park ecotourism venture based on a marine
protected area. However, conserving the environment for them is more than just creating a
tourist space. Natural resources are tied with their sense of identity and the spiritual
prosperity of the village, as they reorient themselves within an environment that has been
through much change.