7 February 2019

Environmentalists and local villagers on a Fijian resort island are aghast at a monumental Chinese hotel development which has ripped out part of a reef, dumped waste, blocked other landowners and disturbed traditional fisheries - before gaining legal approvals.

...Chinese developer Freesoul Real Estate Development (Fiji) has ignored two court orders to stop the destruction and is accused of running roughshod over Fijian environmental law, permits, the environment, and the island locals.

...The Chinese developers did purchase a lease of part of the site through two local clans in early 2018. But the majority of island residents do not want the developer to destroy their ancestral fishing grounds and are now taking legal action to take back their land and the foreshore around it.

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....

...Among the complaints of serious environmental damage already perpetrated by Freesoul Real Estate Development (Fiji) are:

- illegal reclamation of foreshore and beach access

- dredging and smashing of an estimated 5000 square metres of reef to build a boat channel on a beach it did not even have rights over

- subsequent illegal dumping of dead reef on protected sea grass

- destabilisation of hillsides after stripping of vegetation

- silt/raw sewage and rubbish dumped into protected seaside mangroves

- a fuel tank stored on foreshore reclamation

- trucks and excavators driving over the reef at low tides

All of the above without a foreshore lease or - at the time - an EIA approval.