This article is an attempt to situate the modern ecotourism ventures operated in the Bouma region of Taveuni today in the context of the island’s history of development from the pre-colonial times and the local Fijian communities’ vanua (land) identity. The main argument is that Bouma is a peripheral sphere, constructed by a series of events that contributed to a condition of “uneven development” (Harvey 2005:55-89; Smith 2008[1984]). The process was an intertwined history of land sale by the paramount chiefdom,
establishment of large-scale plantations by foreign planters, and gazetting of nature reserves by the British colonial government from 1860 to 1914. These were further legalized by the colonial land tenure system and native policies. Although Bouma was seemingly left untouched in this history of land alienation and retained the majority of the native lands on Taveuni, the spatial dynamics of the island has been transformed and it became marginalized from the export-based plantation economy of Taveuni.