Ron Vave

Ron Vave

Assistant Professor
PhD University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (2021)

Moore Hall 214
ronvave@hawaii.edu
(808) 956-0229

Dr. Ron Vave is an indigenous Fijian and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM). He holds three degrees from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji: a Bachelor’s in Biology and Chemistry, a Postgraduate Diploma in Marine Science, and a Masters in coral ecology. His PhD in Marine Biology at UHM investigated how the cultural practice(s) of indigenous Fijian funerals in Fiji influenced and affected social and ecological resilience. This interdisciplinary PhD spanned the fields of cultural anthropology, economics, and ecology. This was followed immediately by two years as a Postdoc research fellow at East Carolina University in North Carolina that focused on understanding coastal fisheries governance and conflicts.

He has 14+ years of experience as a conservation practitioner with the Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) network in Fiji and the Indo-Pacific, and conducted socioeconomic and biodiversity monitoring and evaluation as part of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences (JESS), and an Editorial Board member for the Indigenous Science Network (ISN), the International Social Science Journal (ISSJ) and The Contemporary Pacific journal.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Human dimensions of place-based resource management of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), plus its lessons and applications for resolving issues in the Anthropocene.
• Adaptive and collaborative environmental governance
• Interdisciplinary, collaborative ecosystem service assessment of social-ecological systems

COURSES TAUGHT

• PACS 108 Pacific Worlds: An Introduction to Pacific Islands Studies
• PACS 492 Community-based fisheries management in Oceania
• BIO 172L Introduction to Biology
• BIO 265L Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

RECENT JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

• Vave, R., Friedlander, A. M., Kittinger, J. N., & Ticktin, T. (2024). Cultural ecosystem services and the conservation challenges for an Indigenous people’s aquatic protected area practice. Conservation Biology, 38(6), e14403.
• Vave, R., Heck, N., Narayan, S., Carrizales, S., Kenison, D., & Paytan, A. (2024). Impacts of commercial and subsistence fishing on marine and cultural ecosystem services important to the wellbeing of an Indigenous community in Hawai’i. Ecosystem Services, 69, 101661.
• van Putten, E. I., Aswani, S., Boonstra, W. J., De la Cruz-Modino, R., Das, J., Glaser, M., Heck, N., Narayan, S., Paytan, A., Selim, S., & Vave, R. (2023). History matters: societal acceptance of deep-sea mining and incipient conflicts in Papua New Guinea. Maritime Studies, 22(3), 32.
• Vave, R., Burnett, K., Friedlander, A.M., (2023). Balancing culture and survival: an urban-rural socioeconomic assessment of indigenous Fijian funerals in Fiji. 2:100063. World Development Sustainability.
• Vave, R. (2022). Five culturally protected water body practices in Fiji: Current status and contemporary displacement challenges. Ambio, 51(4), 1001-1013.
• Vave, R. (2021). Urban-Rural Compliance Variability to COVID-19 Restrictions of Indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) Funerals in Fiji. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 33(6-7), 767-774.
• Sterling, E. J., Pascua, P., Sigouin, A., …, Vave, R., …. (2020). Creating a space for place and multidimensional well-being: lessons learned from localizing the SDGs. Sustainability Science, 15(4), 1129-1147.
• Sterling, E. J., Filardi, C., Toomey, A., …, Vave, R., … (2017). Biocultural approaches to well-being and sustainability indicators across scales. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 1(12).
• Huntington, H. P., Begossi, A., Fox Gearheard, S., Kersey, B., Loring, P. A., Mustonen, T., Paudel, P. K., Silvano, R. A. M., & Vave, R. (2017). How small communities respond to environmental change: patterns from tropical to polar ecosystems. Ecology and Society, 22(3), Article 9.
• Albert, S., Tawake, A., Vave, R., Fisher, P., & Grinham, A. (2016). Indicators of herbivorous fish biomass in community-based marine management areas in Fiji. Pacific Conservation Biology, 22(1), 20-28.

RECENT REPORTS

• Bennett, N.J., Le Billon, P., de la Lama, R.L…. Vave, R., Vikraman, N. (2025). Ocean Defenders: Protectors of our ocean environment and human rights. The Peopled Seas Initiative, Vancouver, Canada.
• Veitayaki, J., Huffer, E., Kensen, M., Kitolelei, S., Vave, R., Vunibola, S., & Young, L. (2024). Chapter 7: Solwara, Moana, Ocean and Local Communities – The Social, Cultural and Economic Connections. In S. Ratuva, A. Singh, B. Hayward, V. Iese, J. Veitayaki, C. La’ala’ai-Tausa, H. Waqa-Sakiti, E. Holland, J. Dehm, L. Young, E. Drugunalevu, A. Ward, S. Vunibola, D. Gharbaoui, M. Gauna, & D. Garcia (Eds.), Pacific Ocean and Climate Crisis Assessment: Voice of the Pacific: Climate Crisis, Adaptation and Resilience Volume 1 (Vol. 1). Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Press (University of Canterbury).