Oil Nuts and Tourism in the Forests of Makira Island, Solomon Islands

by Solomon Islands Development Trust

Partners:

Conservation International (CI) Maruia Society Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT)

Success Stories

A theater Action group was established to dramatize messages to villagers, by SIDT CID Village Demonstration Workers (VDW). This tool proved to be very effective. Pigeon Research programs have been completed at the highlands on July this year. Since October 1995 to September 1996, the team has conducted more than 90 village level workshops within and outside the Conservation area on Makira. The workshops were focused more on Environment issues and emphasis was more on the Conservation concept. These workshops were attended by more than 2,000 people both men and women. Some of the workshops were requested by the communities and others were held according to CID program's development stages. The workshops proved to be very successful ­ as a result a Malaysian logging company was pulled out from Makira Province. The women in development program is also coming up pretty well after the leadership and sewing training workshop. The women's group went back and organized themselves in their communities and have drawn work programs. The next training programs will include Sanitation, Kitchen improvement, Sup sup garden and cooking.

Challenges

The program has gone through a lot of challenges during this period. Some were internal threats, which were also related to the outside world. The main one was on the enterprises which need to be seen as an alternative to logging in the conservation area. If there is no stable and committed company to sell the 500 liters of ngali nut oil produced at Warohino, and the ecotourism in the highlands is not maintained, then this could be a turning point. This means that if these two enterprises are not functioning well or failed, then people will go for different development or even logging. For the communities to be fully engaged in these projects, the two enterprises should be reliable.

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