The South pacific Regional Herbarium staff, Miss Bindiya Rashni presented on her Masters thesis research titled “Effect of catchment forest cover on the macroinvertebrate community structure in streams of Fiji” at the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) held at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia from 19th – 29th Jan 2015. This global conference was attended by the Masters/PhD candidates targeting biodiversity conservation related projects applicable to their home countries.
Miss Rashni discussed one of the major issues in Fiji, that is, watershed and stream biotic community. She presented on the relation of catchment forest cover and ecological health of streams (in terms of water quality and freshwater macroinvertebrate community composition) in the Nakasaleka district, Kadavu and Nakorotubu district, Ra, Fiji. Her research emphasized on the bioindicator species when considering forest intactness in catchments which can be used to facilitate ‘Rivercare’ and watershed management projects in Fiji.
The major outcome of the conference was an establishment of a global network of conservationists that have high possibility of working collaboratively in near future
