Solomon Islands Tetepare Conservation Project at COP 15

Geoffrey Smith, Fiji TV, Climate Pasifika

Copenhagen, 15 December - 

Transcript: Allan Tipet Bero, Tetepare Conservation Project, Solomon Islands

I'm representing a local community organization based with the Solomon Islands which is called the Tetepare Descendants Association. Im here to raise awareness about our organization and hope to access this REDD initiative since we are conserving a portion of rain forests in the Pacific Ocean.

We hope that such an initiative will be very beneficial to all of us Pacific Islanders since most of the REDD initiatives are carried by the African, Asians and only PNG is benefiting apart from us .

I think that this is an initiative for those of us who are from small island developing states.

The island is virtually uninhabited and because of it un-inhabitation the island is regarded as a significant area in the Solomon Islands.  Through the conservation of the forest we believe that we are helping in reducing emissions.


A taste of Solomon Islands heritage at COP15
Rachna Lal, USP Journalism, Climate Pasifika

Copenhagen, 15 December - Tetepare Island in the Solomon Islands became the centre of interest at COP15 for a number of delegates when Allan Trippet Bero explained their project on conserving the natural forests and island resources.   

Bero is the coordinator of the Tetepare Descendents Association and coordinates the Tetepare Community Conservation Project on the 120 square kilometer uninhabited island.

The history behind the island is that people were once living there until they left the islands due to their personal beliefs and issues 200 years ago.

“The people in the surrounding islands later inherited it but have never inhabited it as they consider it sacred and a symbol of their identity,” Bero said.

The people find their subsistence from the island as they do fishing, hunting and harvest edible crops and this has been a tradition for a long time.

“They do not do anything to disturb the nature or how the things have been left to the descendents.”

The project his association is working on is mainly donor funded and he is glad to be able to employ people from the neighboring islands to help out in many activities including biological monitoring at the same time.

But even so, with Solomon being famous for logging, the Tetepare Island has also been subjected to logging.

“Logging is our biggest threat and in totality, if nothing is done to stop this major trade, all our forests will be exhausted by the year 2015,” he pointed out.

So what is Bero doing here at COP15?

“I am here to raise awareness that we are trying to do something to reduce our emissions through projects like this, even if it is on a small scale.”