Background Information
The village of Kerepua is located on the West Coast of the island of Espiritu Santo, the largest island in the archipelago nation of Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides). Until the1960's, the people of Kerepua lived in the upland bush at the base of Mount Tabwemesana, but moved down to the West Coast by missionaries or in pursuit of Western goods, such as salt and sugar. The village is currently home to approximately 75 people, representing 4 extended family clans. The people of Kerepua requested a Peace Corps Volunteer to help them with revitalization of the sandalwood trade, to identify alternate sources of income, to assist with environmental conservation, and to help establish a public water supply. In August of 2006, Matthew Drury, a Peace Corps Volunteer with a background in agro-forestry, environmental conservation, and agro-enterprise arrived in Kerepua Village for one year of service. These projects were conceptualized and will be implemented by the Kerepua Village Development Committee, Chief Aram Liu, and Matthew Drury in association with the people of Kerepua Village.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Other Projects
In other news, we just received around $8000 USD from the European Union to build a cyclone safe classroom for Ian Livo Primary School near Kerepua Community, construction should begin late May or early June.
Kerepua Village Community Church Building Project
The Warren Wilson College Presbyterian Congregation and a private individual donated $3000 USD to help Kerepua Village try to finish their Presbyterian Church. Kerepua has been trying to finish this church building for over five years now and their funds are completely exhausted. This funding has been used to purchase cement to plaster over the block walls, timber for the ceiling supports, window frames, doors, cyclone shutters, and door frames, louver glass and frames, and some basic hand tools. All this equipment had been delivered in June of 2007, and at the time, the villagers moved a few tons of sand one bucket at a time from the beach, up the steep hill to the church. Unfortunately, not much has happened since. The village has been very busy completing the public water supply, and then everything typically stops from Dec. till Feb. because of the oppressive heat and humidity of cyclone season. They are also waiting for help from a carpenter in the village of Tasariki to come and assist them, as they have never built a building except out of woven bamboo. Even all this taken into account, they should be farther along, I hope to have a better report the next time the current Peace Corps Volunteer gets to a computer.
Kerepua Village Community Store
The Kerepua Community Store was completed back in May of 2007 and last I heard is still functioning well. What was once a dark and dingy closet barely stocked and full of rats and an undisclosed amount of money in a bag is now a large, free standing store with some semblance of business hours, a diverse stock of goods, and probably a slightly less amount of rats. Three store employees have been trained in basic book keeping and the store is now a source of community pride. Everyone in the village seemed happy with the 20% of our total sales going to support the church, water supply maintenance, and the Development Committee. The corrupt image of the store has gone by the wayside as people are seeing the benefits of a properly managed store and people are no longer hiking 45 minutes to Elia Village to spend money at their community cooperative.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Special Message From Man Bush
Halo Evriwan,
I have had my last kakai (meal) with Kerepua and my good bye ceremony, it was terribly difficult. I never thought that I could be roused to tears by a string band song, but the boys from Elia Village composed a very nice song for me and then presented 3 - five foot long hand carved arrows. They're really cool, but will definitely be a challenge to get them home, along with my 4 hand carved wooden plates, lapita pottery, etc. I always manage, but now the airline regulations are getting so strict with size and weight restriction, we'll see what actually makes it. I found it much more difficult to leave Kerepua than my old village of Lovanlikoutu on Ambae, which I attribute to the size and location of Kerepua (small and remote). I have never been on such intimate terms with people like that before, regardless of our differences, in spite of the people that drove me crazy like Kalotiti, or the evil Toi - who just confessed to poisoning multiple people in the village, 2 of which died in the last few months. Despite all of this, we are all interdependent on one another, as is dictated by kastom and the island. Upon my departure, 3 of the guys, (including Kalotiti) took the 3 day trip to see me off to the airport. It's all still too fresh and emotional to convey, and I'm still a part of it, which gives a muddled perspective.
I left Kerepua about 10 days ago and flew to Port Vila to prepare to teach "Farming as a Business" at the Vanuatu Agricultural College on Santo. Last Mon-Thurs. I was the head facilitator for this course, participants consisted of the head agricultural officers from each province, ag teachers from the Rural Training Centers (vocational schools), and Peace Corps Agri-business volunteers, no light task. And certainly not what one wants to be doing during the last 2 weeks in the country, but I'm the sucker that agreed, so I can't complain.
- Matt
I have had my last kakai (meal) with Kerepua and my good bye ceremony, it was terribly difficult. I never thought that I could be roused to tears by a string band song, but the boys from Elia Village composed a very nice song for me and then presented 3 - five foot long hand carved arrows. They're really cool, but will definitely be a challenge to get them home, along with my 4 hand carved wooden plates, lapita pottery, etc. I always manage, but now the airline regulations are getting so strict with size and weight restriction, we'll see what actually makes it. I found it much more difficult to leave Kerepua than my old village of Lovanlikoutu on Ambae, which I attribute to the size and location of Kerepua (small and remote). I have never been on such intimate terms with people like that before, regardless of our differences, in spite of the people that drove me crazy like Kalotiti, or the evil Toi - who just confessed to poisoning multiple people in the village, 2 of which died in the last few months. Despite all of this, we are all interdependent on one another, as is dictated by kastom and the island. Upon my departure, 3 of the guys, (including Kalotiti) took the 3 day trip to see me off to the airport. It's all still too fresh and emotional to convey, and I'm still a part of it, which gives a muddled perspective.
I left Kerepua about 10 days ago and flew to Port Vila to prepare to teach "Farming as a Business" at the Vanuatu Agricultural College on Santo. Last Mon-Thurs. I was the head facilitator for this course, participants consisted of the head agricultural officers from each province, ag teachers from the Rural Training Centers (vocational schools), and Peace Corps Agri-business volunteers, no light task. And certainly not what one wants to be doing during the last 2 weeks in the country, but I'm the sucker that agreed, so I can't complain.
- Matt
Mt. Tabwemesana Conservation Area and Eco-tourism Project
Mount Tabwemasana Conservation Area and Eco-Tourism Project Mount Tabwemasana is the highest mountain in Vanuatu, standing at 1879 meters (6165 feet) and is a product of volcanic activity (though now extinct) from the Pliocene Epoch. It is home to a number of endemic species, most notably the Santo Mountain Starling (Aplonis santovestris). The Santo Mountain Starling, or "Matawele" as it's known by local people, is only found in the highlands around Mt. Tabwemasana at elevations over 1200 meters. The Matawele is very elusive and was thought to be extinct until sighted by a scientific expedition in 1991. The Santo 2006 All Taxa Biological Inventory Project recently completed a one week survey on and around the area of Mt. Tabwemasana and some interesting discoveries were made, most notably a new species of insectivorous bat and a new species of Schefflera (tree). This brief expedition allowed for sampling and collecting, but additional work on these samples is currently ongoing (e.g., genetic tests in the lab), and these studies will likely lead to the recognition of even more new species. (I found many interesting species of bird on this trip, like the Guadalcanal Thicketbird, but no Matawele…..yet).
In addition to the innate conservation value of this area, eco-tourism associated with the Conservation Area will provide a long-term, sustainable income to the people of Kerepua. After the last Development Committee meeting in the village, the community and Chiefs agreed to commence a tourism project and to build two small tourist bungalows. The community will provide all the building materials and labor to construct the bungalows, but they lack the resources needed to purchase other necessary items, such as cement for building toilet and bathing facilities, cooking pots and pans, and bedding. The bungalows will be operated as a community project. Women from the village would provide meals and the men would serve as guides and porters on trekking and research trips. Additional income can be generated through activities related to eco-tourism, such as the sale of handicrafts, and cultural activities. Establishment of the eco-tourism project is a hugely important for obvious ecological reasons, but it will also showcase how sustainable (versus exploitive/extractive) development is preferable for the long term interests of villages such as Kerepua. It may also serve as a model for sustainable development in other parts of Vanuatu, and throughout Melanesia.
Project Update - After many meetings with the Chief and custom land owners, we have filled out all the paper work and filed it with the government, so it'll likely take awhile to be processed and signed by the Prime Minister and other governmental functionaries. Our bungalow is complete and sleeps eight, we have bought mattresses and bedding for five beds and have built a toilet and kitchen. We recently hosted Stephen Totterman, who writes reviews for locally owned bungalows in rural Vanuatu, which should be good online publicity, you can check it out at http://www.positiveearth.org/bungalows/SANMA/kerepua.htm We have delayed the construction of or second bungalow for the time being, because we are quite busy with our other projects and do not expect a huge influx of people traveling to the Conservation Area this year. We also hope to start hosting scientific groups that will be off shoots from the Santo 2006 Project in the future. No word on the Conservation Area status from the government, but we expect to hear soon and don’t expect any problems. There are scheduled trail improvements for the next dry season as well, as the trail is quite harrowing in some places. With new direct flights from Australia to Luganville, Santo, Kerepua hopes to be in a good position to take advantage of a likely increase in eco-tourism on the island in the next few years. Santo has often been referred to as the sleeping giant with respect to tourism in the country, and it seems like that giant is finally waking up.
Kerepua Community Spice Production Project
Kerepua Community Spice Production Project
Original Abstract: It is very difficult for the farmers of Kerepua to reach the Market House in Luganville to sell their goods. The usual crops they take to market are low value but high volume; the costs involved in transporting these products to market (upwards of $150.00 per trip) largely consume what little profit they make. Sensible alternatives to these crops are vanilla and black pepper, which are high value and low volume, and also take up less acreage, which is important in this mountainous terrain. Currently, the price for vanilla is approximately $24.00/pound paid to the farmer, and this is likely to increase due to cyclone damage in other major vanilla producing areas. Simply put, you can make more money with a backpack of vanilla or black pepper than a boatload of any other crop they currently bring to market. If multiple farmers can bring their vanilla and black pepper to market on the same trip, this would drastically reduce transport cost. Kerepua has the ideal climate for vanilla, with a distinct dry season and well-drained soils, and vanilla has a stable market outlet in Luganville (unlike many other crops). The soils and climate are also ideal for black pepper and there is a domestic market in Vanuatu where demand far exceeds supply. The Department of Agriculture introduced black pepper to many parts of our region about 7 years ago, but gave the farmers no training or market outlet suggestions, so the pepper planted at that time has been mostly neglected. I helped 2 farmers salvage a small pepper harvest this year, and successful sales of this harvest have raised awareness in Kerepua to the potential of this crop. We expect this spice production initiative will fill the economic void left by our temporary depletion of sandalwood stocks, until our recent plan for sustainable sandalwood cultivation reaches its first harvest.
Project Update 2700 vanilla cuttings have been planted by private farmers in Kerepua, 150 vanilla cuttings were planted in a plantation for the community, and 150 cuttings were planted in Elia Village to support Ian Livo Primary School. Ian Livo Primary School serves Elia and Kerepua Villages and the secondary objective of setting up this plantation in Elia was to be an educational tool and to make in-roads into Elia, as there is some animosity between the two villages. The community vanilla garden for Kerepua was also set-up to be a demonstration garden, as vanilla is new to the local farmers. These two demonstration gardens will eventually benefit the school and community financially, but over the next few years their primary function will be to serve as a model for farmers to follow. The Spice Production House has been completed; however the hut they built was huge, so now it's the Kerepua Community Resource Center and will serve multiple purposes. Two curing kits (which includes large pots, thermometers, colianders, blankets, coolers, and plastic) hand pruners, and a variety of gardening tools now live in the curing house. There are also various agricultural publications, water supply tools, and other community resources stored there. Previously there was no building for community tools and most things disappeared or were broken.
We’ve planted over 1000 black pepper plants, but due climactic anomalies and other factors unknown only 350 survived, but there are plans to plant a few thousand more during the next rainy season, and we’ll be experimenting with different types of planting material and techniques. Many of these initial 350 seedlings will be added to the community spice plantation and Ian Livo School plantation. Many of the private farmers also rehabilitated their long neglected black pepper gardens and used the pruning material to propagate their own nurseries. These same climactic anomalies also caused high sandalwood mortality. We ended up growing 1000 sandalwood seedlings, with 100 already planted in the bush, and 900 to be planted shortly, but many died during the strong drought followed by heavy rain, but we still have 8000 tree bags and have identified parent trees, and a strong effort will be made during the next seeding season to grow much more in the community nursery.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Sandalwood Replanting Project
The dry, western coast of Espiritu Santo is one of the few locations in Vanuatu where sandalwood grows and sale of this wood has provided the main economic input for the village for the past few generations. Kerepua's remote location, relatively small amount of arable land, and sparse population equate to very limited opportunities for commerce and few visits from cargo ships to buy more mainstream crops such as kava and copra. All of these factors have culminated in a heavy dependence on sandalwood. A recent study by the Forestry Department has shown that sandalwood from West Coast Santo has a higher oil content than from any other site in Vanuatu, exacerbating an already high pressure on this natural resource. Continued harvesting without management or replanting has left many areas completely devoid of sandalwood and other areas with very slow natural regeneration. The migration of people from the middle bush down to an aggregated ocean-side settlement (Kerepua Village) over the last 50 years has led to unclear land ownership and poor collective management. This scenario has played out many times in developing countries and the result is nearly always the same: a "harvest before someone else gets it" mentality, depleting a resource that was once abundant.
Aside from the obvious economic factors, there are social factors to be considered as well. The main social issue is the increase in the number of land disputes with increased depletion of sandalwood. Disputes arising from the sandalwood shortage are compounded when individuals venture farther into the bush, where land ownership is less clear. A village such as Kerepua does not cope as well with land disputes as other areas in Vanuatu, where there are larger populations and more commerce. The people of Kerepua are very dependent on cooperation in their daily life due to the remote location and rugged environment of West Coast Santo. The continued over-harvesting and lack of replanting of sandalwood is slowly agitating the social fiber of Kerepua.
The aim of this project is to start a large-scale community sandalwood nursery, replant in areas where the resource has been exhausted, and write a management plan for existing sandalwood in the forest. The community would like to produce around 6000 seedlings this year. A tree nursery on this scale requires poly-bags as containers for the seedlings. At the Development Committee meeting in August of 2006, this project was voted the top priority by the community.
Materials Required
Item Price/Unit #Units Total
This project was joined with the Spice Production Project for fundraising purposes, so all of our fundraising requirements have been met.
*Update -We've began thinning an area of secondary forest for our community sandalwood plantation and have transplanted our first 50 seedlings there. We will need to continue to thin this area and plant some host trees (citrus and Acacia spp.) intermittently throughout the plantation. There are currently only 800 sandalwood seedlings in the nursery and 150 seeds in the germination bed. There are over 1200 sandalwood seedlings currently being grown in private nurseries in the community with poly-bags being funded through the project. We should have many more seedlings in the nursery, however unusually heavy rains in March caused many of the seeds and seedlings rot. Our seed supply is presently exhausted, so we plan to make up for our low numbers during sandalwood’s second seeding in June. We also provided a half kilogram of seed to the Vanuatu Forestry Department, who have had a hard time getting planting material this year as well as a quarter kilo of seed to my old village on Ambae Island.
Aside from the obvious economic factors, there are social factors to be considered as well. The main social issue is the increase in the number of land disputes with increased depletion of sandalwood. Disputes arising from the sandalwood shortage are compounded when individuals venture farther into the bush, where land ownership is less clear. A village such as Kerepua does not cope as well with land disputes as other areas in Vanuatu, where there are larger populations and more commerce. The people of Kerepua are very dependent on cooperation in their daily life due to the remote location and rugged environment of West Coast Santo. The continued over-harvesting and lack of replanting of sandalwood is slowly agitating the social fiber of Kerepua.
The aim of this project is to start a large-scale community sandalwood nursery, replant in areas where the resource has been exhausted, and write a management plan for existing sandalwood in the forest. The community would like to produce around 6000 seedlings this year. A tree nursery on this scale requires poly-bags as containers for the seedlings. At the Development Committee meeting in August of 2006, this project was voted the top priority by the community.
Materials Required
Item Price/Unit #Units Total
This project was joined with the Spice Production Project for fundraising purposes, so all of our fundraising requirements have been met.
*Update -We've began thinning an area of secondary forest for our community sandalwood plantation and have transplanted our first 50 seedlings there. We will need to continue to thin this area and plant some host trees (citrus and Acacia spp.) intermittently throughout the plantation. There are currently only 800 sandalwood seedlings in the nursery and 150 seeds in the germination bed. There are over 1200 sandalwood seedlings currently being grown in private nurseries in the community with poly-bags being funded through the project. We should have many more seedlings in the nursery, however unusually heavy rains in March caused many of the seeds and seedlings rot. Our seed supply is presently exhausted, so we plan to make up for our low numbers during sandalwood’s second seeding in June. We also provided a half kilogram of seed to the Vanuatu Forestry Department, who have had a hard time getting planting material this year as well as a quarter kilo of seed to my old village on Ambae Island.
Kerepua Community Water Supply Replacement Project
Kerepua Village Water Supply Replacement Project
Original Abstract: Kerepua has a very rudimentary community water supply that was built in 1985 with money donated by the British High Commission. The construction of the system was shoddy, but it still functions today about 4 days out of the week. The water supply comes from a small spring on top of a mountain; the water quality is excellent, but high in mineral content. Due to calcification, all of our fixtures leak or are completely blocked. For this type of water delivery system to last 21 years in Vanuatu is unheard of, they usually end up mismanaged or sabotaged. The New Zealand High Commission has agreed to fund this project, however they have a 5000 USD funding limit, so we'll be a little short on money for things like hardware and reinforcement for the water tank, but the major expenses like the poly-pipe and cement are taken care of. The simple and low-tech design of this project will be easy to maintain and improve as needed over the years. I've evaluated the old water delivery system and have improved upon certain design flaws, the main issues to be addressed are: larger diameter poly-pipe to avoid blockage, an extra 5000 gallon water tank to be put in parallel with the existing tank (which is on it’s last legs), management decisions implemented by the Chief, namely a ten-meter buffer between the poly-pipe and gardens as well as a system of taxation for future maintenance and eventual replacement after 30 years.
Project Update: This project has been completed!!!!! I was in the village when the supplies arrived, and the actual construction was completed after my departure. 1700 meters of 32mm poly-pipe and 300 meters of 25mm of poly-pipe was laid, a 5000 gallon tank was constructed of cement and wire and joined in parallel with the existing tank to double our capacity. 9 new taps were put in and two showers, also a management plan and taxation system was established to maintain the water supply over time.
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