Biodiversity Conservation Network
19. Nut Oil Processing and Ecotourism on Makira, Solomon Islands
Location: Makira Island, Solomon Islands Partners: Conservation International (CI)
Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT)
Maruia Society
BCN Funding: $347,574 Partner Contribution: $100,000 Grant Period: January 1, 1994 - December 31, 1998+
What's at Stake?
During times of high sea level, Makira Island within the Solomon Islands, was isolated for long periods of time. As a result, a wide variety of unique plants and animals evolved. For example, ten of its 76 species of birds are endemic.
International logging operations are a pressing threat to the island's natural resources. Many Makira communities have already succumbed to the relatively large amounts of cash that the logging companies offer people in order to high-grade the timber on their land.
To resist these threats, the Conservation in Development (CID) program established Makira's first conservation area. The team has been working with the Hauta and Warohito communities for five years to define the area and to identify enterprises whose viability is linked to the need to conserve the area's biodiversity.
The Conservation Area is situated on the central area of Makira Island. The area covers approximately 63,000 hectares of largely undisturbed indigenous vegetation and includes a large number of villages still engaged in traditional lifestyles and resource use.
To date, the program has focused on conservation awareness and education, ecotourism and extraction of ngali nut oil for export enterprise development, and monitoring of biological and social factors.
1997 Update
The Ecotourism enterprise follows a strategy that was developed in 1996. The community has set a limit of three tours per year. The 10 day tours (for a maximum group size of 15) provide visitors the opportunity to directly experience the natural and cultural wonders of this unique rainforest. This enterprise directly involves most of the Highlands population and some villages on the North Coast of Makira -- in all around 500 people. Tours were run in September of 1996, and July of 1997 with the third tour currently underway as this report is being written.
The July ecotour brought in SD$9100 (approximately US$2500) to Makira communities, which was the largest sum yet. The coastal community at Togori put all of their share of the earnings from this tour into a community fund, with noone taking a private share. The Togori fund is used for community works and amounts to SI $1885 (approximately US $510). These were their share of the revenues received for two nights of accommodation, food and entertainment as well as carriers and guides for both days.
The Highland communities continued their established system of sharing out the bulk of the money earned in the ecotour to individuals within the communities. Such distribution puts the responsibility for the use of the money in people's own hands. The total amount distributed to highland villages was SI$6615 (approximately US$1780). A small amount of SI$600 (approximately US$160) has been put aside from the latest tour for a community fund for Highland villages. The income from the June ecotour amounts to approximately 40% of the total cash generated in the Highland communities over the last year.
The Ngali Nut Oil enterprise involves the local production of oil for the cosmetic industry. This production involves communities and individuals at Warihito, Highlands, North Coast and Wainoni Extension areas, affecting more than 600 individuals.
The Warihito Ngali Nut Press is the only one of its kind in the South Pacific. This was confirmed during the Indigenous Nuts of the South Pacific' Conference held from July 21 to 25, 1997 in Honiara. There was wide attendance at the conference by other producers and it became clear that Makira's ngali nut oil enterprise was well ahead of other nut products in terms of its production and marketing development.
Significant work was done with partners to develop markets for the ngali nut oil product. Given the positive market responses in 1996, a decision was made to increase production and to extract 1000 liters for the rest of the calendar year, an increase of 30% over 1996 production. It seems likely that production will increase again and so training for local staff in production planning is being provided.
Success Stories
Tourism places a value on traditional activities and material culture, which was previously believed inferior to "modern" ways. It helps the community by allowing households to earn money without the men having to spend extended periods of time away from their families while seeking work on the coast. It also brings the outside world to them, and broadens their understanding of the world and people of different cultures.
In both enterprises it appears that young school graduates are benefiting greatly. These young people return from schooling and often cause social problems because of adjustment and boredom problems. The ecotour has been particularly successful in providing these young people, particularly the young men, with roles as tour guides, pan-pipe band members and carvers. Some young boys are also assisting with the nut press.
Anecdotes are powerful ways to convey some of the success stories in this project:
- Old man Francis, an elder of a Makiran highland village, is an example of one individual's inspiration from the project. He wants to set aside all his land on the other side of the Ravorigi River for permanent conservation.
- As villagers have realized that tourists want to see traditional forms of village life, some of this dying knowledge has been sought out by the younger people and put into practice. Local staff have noticed a rapid 'revival' over the last year in local traditional knowledge and its demonstration through the pan-pipe bands developing more traditional tunes and instruments, custom dancing, carving and other forms of traditional knowledge.
- Francis Tarihao, the team leader, commented that he had seen attitudes to the program change in recent times. For example, the highland community of Maraone initially did not want to join the conservation program. However, since the tourists have come and they have discovered that tourists want to buy carvings, they have changed their minds and want to be part of the ecotour. They are now fully involved in the ecotour and tourists have commented that the visit to Maraone has been particularly significant for them. Other villages (Vugiroga, Wairagiragi) who have not been involved in the enterprises to date, now want to be included in the project, and receive ecotours as well.
- In July, John Hingia, the nut press manager based in the remote village of Warohito, attended and made a presentation at the first Pacific region-wide conference on indigenous nuts. John's attendance obviously raised the community's sense of accomplishment in the project. In particular, the team took great pride in the fact that the traditional way of cracking nuts is still better than mechanical or electrical machines that crush (rather than crack) the nuts. (This issue of how the nuts are cracked became an issue of hot contention at the conference)
- John Waihuru, the community organizer of the Makira ecotour, attended a national ecotourism conference and came away with a strong sense of pride the Makira ecotour. It became clear to him that they were developing their own distinctive approach to ecotourism which suited Solomon Islands village life.
Challenges
We reviewed the project in 1996 and decided to build on the momentum gained in terms of the enterprises and the community work begun with the biological monitoring. As a result two new advisors have been brought into the project.
Project partners have bought on Sarah Wilson as a management advisor who will build on the strategic and human management aspects of the project. Tough decisions need to be made in terms of the management of the project. We need to ensure that there is added value at all levels. A new emphasis on Village-based Resource Management Planning, will strengthen the links between the enterprise successes and conservation goals.
Roger James has previously lived in the Highlands of Makira and is a scientist engaged to monitor native pigeons for the program. He noted "People I've never met before from villages outside the conservation area have been approaching me to come to their village to tell them about 'life blong kuvwau' (native pigeon)". Building on his strong links with the community, he has been hired as a community resources management advisor.
There is widespread local concern over the lack of freshwater fish in the Ravo River (one of the major rivers in the Conservation Area), and the realization that something needs to be done. One of the key challenges is to address the practice of night-fishing which is particularly detrimental to the fish stocks. The land-owners on the coast have raised this concern because the fishing is happening upstream in the Conservation Area. We are seeking to look at this resource issue in the context of wider resource management planning efforts at the village level.
The project partners have learned that there are things that are very difficult to control in the program. This ranges from the practical difficulties of working in an area of high rainfall with difficult river crossings, through to the problems that success itself can cause. An example is that ecotourism successes have raised the profile of the area so that bird watching enthusiasts and scientists have tried to gain access to the Makira communities with no reference to the program. The local community politely refused to allow these people to stay as they had set clear rules that only the tourists coming as part of the ecotour enterprise would be permitted.
During an evaluation meeting for the women at Warihito they commented that it was a problem that nuts from each ëzone' could only be sold to the nut press at one time in the year (the nut collection area is split into 6 zones, with each zone allocated 2 consecutive months of the year to bring their nuts to Warihito to sell). Hence, the income to a family only comes in during two months of the year. They were keen to think of ways to spread the income throughout the year. However, increasing the quantity of oil produced is dependent on securing markets and further end-product development. The women brainstormed other possible ways of extending their income and these ideas are in the early stages of investigation.
There are very real internal challenges related to the oral "story" culture of Makira, which will always be part of the program. The way that the Makirans think and interact often seems inscrutable, not only to westerners but also to other Solomon Islanders! The best approach seems to be to have a process to deal with these, rather than trying to anticipate and prevent them. Also, an increasing level of ownership and management by Makirans themselves is essential, and will involve a commitment to training and capacity building.
Authors:
Francis Tarihao: Manager of Conservation in Development Program, Honiara, Solomon Islands. Francis has been involved in the program over the last five years and brings a strong background of community development and leadership.
Sarah Wilson: Conservation Area Manager, Melanesia Program. Sarah has a special interest and experience in Management and Strategic Planning.
Roger James: Community Resources Management Advisor, previously a pigeon biologist working with the Makira Conservation Area. Roger has a background in endangered species management.
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