A Chinese company that dug a channel through mangroves and a coral reef to provide access to a multi-million-dollar resort and casino development on a Fijian island has been fined $FJ1 million ($650,000) by the High Court in Suva.
In the landmark judgment handed down on Thursday, Justice Daniel Goundar also ordered Freesoul Real Estate Development to pay a $FJ1.4 million bond, refundable once the damage had been remediated.
The company was found guilty in April last year of two counts of undertaking unauthorised development on Malolo, a tourist island in Fiji's west, where it removed mangrove trees and destroyed extensive parts of a reef to create the boat channel.
Justice Goundar said the company had "caused substantial harm to the environment" and the sentence reflected the "community's disapproval for the offender's lack of respect for the environment".
He added there was "no comparable case in Fiji" for sentencing purposes.
"The offender had no regard for the marine life and corals that existed in the area where the channel was dug," he said.
"The structural damage done to the area is irreversible."
While the affected areas could not be restored to their natural states, he said the damage could be mitigated with works with an estimated cost of about $FJ1.3 million.
Freesoul's lawyer David Toganivalu told the ABC the company had not yet decided whether it would appeal the judgment.
"Definitely they want to start the project again," Mr Toganivalu said.
"They will need to work with the Department of Environment to see how to rehabilitate the place again."
"The fine was a bit too high, but that was to be expected," he added.
Local media quoted Environment Minister Mahendra Reddy as saying the case would serve as a deterrent to other developers failing to comply with environment laws.
'Surprised and happy'
Navrin Fox, an Australian who has a long-term lease on land neighbouring the development site and who had raised concerns about Freesoul, said he was "surprised and happy" the fine was substantial.
"It's good to see the Fijian government and the court system standing up for what's right," he said.
"I think that they could go one step further and cancel Freesoul's lease, because they have shown negligence.
"To dig that much reef out and to dump it in front of our lease land and do that without any authority to do it is just pure negligence, and they knew what they were doing."
Wildlife Conservation Society Melanesia director Stacy Jupiter also welcomed the sentence but she too said the fine did not go far enough.
"This bond of $FJ1.4 million isn't going to be nearly enough to cover the restoration," she said.
"You'll never be able to get back the value of services that has been lost because this channel has been created.
"It takes reefs hundreds to thousands of years to be able to build structures of the size and scale of which they've destroyed and so you can't rehabilitate this.
"No amount of money can rehabilitate what's been taken away."
The story was brought to national and international attention in 2019 when three New Zealand journalists were arrested after being denied an interview with the director of the company Freesoul at its offices in the capital, Suva.
They spent the night on the floor of a Fijian police station before being released the following day with the Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama apologising for their treatment.
