Revitalising a Destination Through Food, Farming and Hospitality - Vanuatu's Indigenous Leadership shows the way.

#ACIAR #winta #gstc #ChangeIsHere #regeneration #regenerativevanua #regenerativeagritourism #indigenousknowledgesystems #climateresilience #climatejustice #edf11

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Since I began focusing my attention on alternative models for tourism, I have become convinced that successful regenerative strategies (i.e. that work and survive) are those that:

1.) emerge collectively from the grassroots led by the motivation to care ;

2.) approach the local issues holistically, shaped by place; and

3.) gain the support and backing of those authorities that control the funding and policy. ?

?In August I had the privilege of watching how these contributing factors are working to revitalise a small island developing state buffeted by the shocks of climate change and Covid.

?At the invitation of Jerry Spooner , CEO of Regenerative Vanua and Cherise Addinsall , academic advisor & researcher, I was able to join a talented group of individuals from around the Pacific (members of the Pacific Chapter of the Global Agritourism Network ) to explore ways in which agritourism could become a regenerative force and move farming and hospitality enterprises beyond extracting value to growing people and enriching communities.

?Vanuatu is one of the best countries to investigate this idea being a small island of a mere 300,000 people living on one of 80+ islands where the diversity and remoteness has meant that 300 languages still survive. Its indigenous Melanesian culture, values and way of life have thrived over several thousand years. Vanuatu was first colonised by the British in the 18th Century and obtained independence in 1980. Vanuatu is one of 15 countries and 2000+ island in the Pacific Ocean whose area is twice that of Earth's landmass. Take a long look at the map to find Vanuatu.

Vanuatu may be labelled poor if only economic indicators are used but its people are rich in talent, grit, determination, and creativity. There's more than irony in the fact that while still assigned Least Developed Country (LCD) Status economically, Vanuatu consistently occupied first place in the global Happiness Index!

Ni-Vanuatu are a proud people committed to caring for Vanua - a term that encompasses the land and oceans, people, traditions, customs, beliefs and values and that provide their sense of identity and belonging. The Minister's opening words on Vanuatu's Sustainable Tourism Policy (2011-2025) express their character best: “Vanuatu was listed as the 8th most tourism dependant country in the world and globally described as a vulnerable nation. Yet in 2020 while facing COVID-19 and Cyclone Harold, Vanuatu graduated from Least Developed Country status. This is because Vanuatu is a resilient nation, no one in our country goes without food or shelter because this is our way of life, these are our values, this is the kastom ekonomi (traditional economy). Since gaining our independence we have known the importance of maintaining our kastom ekonomi and access to our kastom lands.

Vanuatu has several challenges to contend with that include the significant and varied impacts of climate change, rural depopulation, pressure on land for farming, food security and, the worst of all, poor health - Diabetes one of several Communicable Diseases, (NCDs) increased from 3% in 2010 to 7% in 2020 ?arelatively low rate for Pacific countries (the same rate in Fiji reached almost 20%!) [i]34% of adult women and 23.4% of adult men are considered obese.? Both these health indicators, while lower than in some other Pacific Islands, are on the rise and influenced by diets.

?Thanks to several years' exposure to a western set of values associated with modern commerce, traditional customs were considered less relevant and local food, cooked with traditional methods, was losing its appeal. Consumers were attracted to cheaper processed alternatives and the preference for fast food (noodles, rice and canned goods) meant that many of the time-consuming traditions associated with community harvesting, food preparation, eating, and communal celebration, were also eroding; farmland was neglected and the power of Vanua to unify, inspire and fortify a community was weakening.?

?While obviously the health issue has been of concern to many, there is one woman in Vanuatu for whom eliminating the threat of NCDs had become a lifelong mission. Vautasi McKenzie-Reur started life as a home science teacher, then studied nutrition and became a successful entrepreneur and food activist. She spent over two decades trying to persuade her fellow citizens that ill health was avoidable and the best cure was a diet of fresh local food. Vautasi fully understood that food wasn't just about nutrition and metabolism, it has a profound cultural and spiritual significance such that if the knowledge and skills of preparing indigenous foods are lost, then the culture will unravel. In this short video Vautasi outlines the challenge.

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Vautasi wasn't alone with her concerns, so the Vanuatu Agritourism Association was formed with the intent to develop ambassadors to visit all parts of the country to stimulate a demand for fresh produce grown by local farmers. Motivated by the need to plan a recovery from Covid, the Vanuatu Ministry of Tourism and Trade developed the Vanuatu Sustainable Tourism Strategy 2021-2025 (VSTP) based on 4 themes:

·?????? Wellbeing: through High Value, Low Impact Tourism

·?????? Resilience: through Niche Tourism Product Development

·?????? Diversification: through Agritourism

·?????? Sustainability: through Certification, Investment and Ni-Vanuatu Entrepreneurship

Instead of putting tourism first and setting its growth as of primary importance, the goal of the VSTP is "to protect and celbrate Vanuatu's culture, kastom and people through sustainable and responsible and tourism." In other words, ?tourism was seen as the means not the endgame.

The unifying factor and catalyst for change had become food - not just any food but the local availability of a reliable, nutritious, appetising, and varied diet created and served by caring, creative chefs aware of and sensitive to local growing conditions. ?

?The strategy was sound but implementing it would be a challenge as it would require an increase in the number of chefs knowledgeable and enthusiastic about local food who could prepare affordable, nutritious meals that would appeal to locals and visitor alike. Fortunately, help was at hand. In April 2019, Fijian born chef Robert Oliver had launched a TV show focused on competing chefs in four Pacific countries to be selected on their ability to showcase local food. For the Vanuatu series, Vautasi was the judge now able to reach and influence her fellow citizens to extent previously considered impossible.

The program, known as The Pacific Island Food Revolution (PIFR), ?has produced shows in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu, all in local languages and reaching audiences in rural and maritime areas. Social media reach for the program far exceeds what a limited tourist board budget could achieve reaching almost six million people. PIFR been screened in over 25 networks across 12 Pacific Island countries as well as well as internationally in Australia, New Zealand, south-east Asia, and the United Kingdom. A brave and novel approach? Yes, and it seems to have worked. Research revealed that on average across all four Pacific countries where it was shown, 42% of those who watched reported a positive change in their diets. A key element of the program was its focus on food growing healthy people and ingredients in the context of culture. Several of the contestants have developed fulfilling careers and lifted themselves out of poverty. ?Read A Recipe of Hope featuring the story of one such star, Leonid Vusilai, who won first prize in the first series and has since been working with chefs and bungalow owners to show them how to support local farmers and present seasonally fresh local food in ways that delight both residents and visitor.

Thus far I have addressed the first condition for success of a destination's regenerative strategy i.e., commitment and passion at the grassroots. The second is a holistic perspective that motivates, unifies and creates synergies between sectors traditionally treated separately. Agritourism was not treated as just another market niche that could attract more visitors but a critical pillar in a well-being strategy designed to enable Ni-Vanuatu residents, businesses and visitors to thrive physically (personal health), socially (healthy communities) culturally and spiritually.

Traditional economic (neo-liberal) approaches separate these elements but in Vanuatu they are intertwined within their kastom ekonomi shaped by a commitment to Vanua, the life force that is key to all well-being. Vanua is the sum of its various manifestations - geology, geography, history, ecology, hydrology, fauna, flora, human presence and culture that constitute the web of life or its life force of a place. Vanua is the organising principle that provides a cohesive sense of identity, place and belonging. Vanua shapes the way humans organise themselves in relation to the natural context in which they operate. Vanua is dynamic and evolves and aims for harmony and balance. This perspective enabled persons engaged in a variety of sectors such a health, conservation, education and local government to see their role, ?get involved and collaborate.

The third condition was met in several very effective ways. Covid turned out to be a wake up call and a blessing as it highlighted an over dependence on a volatile sector - tourism - that Vanuatu couldn't control and was showing signs of undermining the nation's cultural integrity. When borders closed, hundreds of workers were stranded far away from home with no Plan B. It was the Elders of the community who encouraged them to return to their villages and get back in touch with their traditional skills and activities - as a nation of subsistence farmers that meant growing food, re-learning how to fish and tend livestock and because Vanuatu is most vulnerable to rising sea levels and worsening cyclones, that also meant revitalising construction skills using available materials. As a result, Vanuatu survived the Covid period better than most other Pacific countries.

Vanuatu lies on an economic fault line balancing pressures from external, commercial sources to "develop" while sustaining control over developments that could undermine its identity and weaken its capacity to meet the needs of all its peoples not just a few. ?This recent article Resistance to Mega Tourism in The Conversation indicates what's at stake. Scholars Api Movono and Regina Scheyvens have consistently shown the importance of indigenous values to Pacific Islanders, notably the role of Vanua and need to ensure economic growth results in improvements to residents' well-being goals. As described in this article and several academic journals, many Pacific Islanders found life to be more pleasant and manageable with no tourists.

The assumption that a series of separate economic investments (inevitably from outside the country and focused on projects that required land) together with sustainability practices focused on individual Sustainable Development Goals could generate wholesale improvements in the well-being of a country is currently being challenged within Vanuatu and outside.

The first challenge stems from the fragmented approach to sustainability given their division into 17 discrete goals. Evidence is mounting that failure to see their interconnections often results in the achievement ?of one goal impeding the achievement of another. In 2015, FutureEarth, a group of earth scientists, articulated the position also held by indigenous leaders and regenerative thinker-scientists:

The land, climate, oceans and water are all part of one Earth life-support system in which humans are intimately embedded. Changes in one affect changes in all. Failing to recognise these interactions is leading to the unintended deterioration of the whole Earth System. It has become clear that safeguarding our land, oceans, freshwater and climate is a precondition for social justice and strong economic development and vice versa. Failure to capture these interactions can undermine critical parts of the functioning whole. Future Earth 2015

As an indigenous country, Vanuatu's leaders were more drawn the ideas being put forward by regenerative thinkers i.e., that "We need to move quickly away from an extractive economy that results in degeneration and sterility towards a generative economy fuelled by renewable sources that has the capacity to realise nature's untapped potential for abundance (Capra, F & Wahl, D 2019).

It was in this context that Regenerative Vanua was formed as an independent not-for-profit ?to integrate the earlier initiatives with a view by:

·?????? restoring pride in Indigenous food culture within resilient and climate smart communities, and through regenerative forms of agritourism, farming and food systems, and landscapes.

·?????? enabling Indigenous Pacific people to be meaningfully engaged in tourism, while raising their pride in their food and farming heritage, and ensuring land sovereignty

·?????? achieving justice, healing & revival through meaningful regenerative agritourism experiences.

Since its formation, Regenerative Vanua has focused its activities on:

• developing The Regenerative Agritourism Framework with working definitions, standards, criteria and categories for Regenerative agritourism and Regenerative Indigenous agritourism with a particular focus on: protecting and supporting Indigenous land management knowledge systems; climate mitigation and adaptation; land sovereignty and self-determination; decolonisation of land and food systems and supporting rural Indigenous livelihoods and wellbeing in the Pacific.
• gaining approval from the Vanuatu Bureau of Standards to act as the organisation responsible for research, training, and support in the development and auditing of Regenerative Agritourism and Food Tourism standards in line with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) criteria.
• developing the means to offer third-party certification for sustainable agriculture and tourism ??
• working with farmers and hospitality providers in communities to attract and serve visitors interested in experiencing rural life in Vanuatu. ?

Footnote: As you can tell, Regenerative Vanua is a small team punching way beyond its weight NOT with the intent to compete but to serve other countries in the Pacific and forge a pathway that respects indigenous values' capacity to survive and thrive.

I am so grateful for the inspiration of experiencing first hand how indigneous-based regenerative values are actively and positively shaping a destination's strategy. I returned home fully regenerated and want this story to spread - so please share this and best of all listen to the same story being told in the voices of those who authored it!

??Watch this pace for updates! I left my heart in Vanuatu - so could you!

[i] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-total-disease-burden-by-cause?country=~FJI

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