Deforestation - Year of the Forests 2011

This morning board member Alaipuke was joined by representatives from Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Forest and Agriculture to talk about the deforestation of Sandalwood (Ahi) trees that has occurred in the last two weeks.

Sandalwood has become in great demand for export recently but the methods to remove the trees from land has created several issues. The biggest one being the removal of a large area of sandalwood trees from Mount Talau which was deemed a National Park in the 1990's. The national park is protected land, and no removal of trees is permitted. There has also been several cases of trees being removed from private properties without consent from the landowner.

Vava'u has great land mass to be able to create agriculture and demand for the export markets, these need to be improved upon and protected from theft, so that communities can gain economic strength in difficult times.

VEPA takes great care to preserve the environment and create advocacy and ownership of the environment to communities. This year, was deemed the Year of the Forests, we hope that our TV show will bring the first part of several stages to bring more awareness about the dangers of deforestation for the environment, food sources and health of communities.

We hope the beginning of many media events to raise awareness on several issues will open up new opportunities for environment discussion and protection.

Malo Puke for your great passion in sharing our message for VEPA.