Commercial logging is widespread in the Solomon Islands but Tetepare Island is unlogged and contains 120 square km of intact lowland rainforest. The Tetepare landowners have conserved the island through banning commercial resource extraction and initiating a 13km Marine Protected Area. The Tetepare Descendants Association employs rangers to patrol the island and these rangers are supported through funds from the ecolodge. In exchange for conserving the island, Tetepare landowners on neighbouring islands are supported through educational scholarships, employment and other community benefits. Please consider supporting Tetepare through a donation to our scholarship fund.
A dazzling variety of plants and animals make their home on the island’s 120 square kilometres of primary lowland rainforest – some of the last remaining in Melanesia. The rainforest protects species such as the endangered coconut crab, the endemic Tetepare White-eye, hornbills, tiny pygmy parrots and the prehensile-tailed skink, the world’s largest skink. The tropical waters support three species of turtles, the dugong, huge bump-headed parrot fish, schools of barracuda and pods of bottlenose and spinner dolphins.
TDA rangers, marine monitors and conservation staff are undertaking a suite of research and monitoring programs to learn more about the unique wildlife and ecosystems of Tetepare, and to discover how best to manage and protect this unique ecosystem.
The island’s beaches support nesting populations of three species of turtle including the endangered leatherback turtle, green and hawksbill turtle. Turtles feed in the seagrass beds found in the protected waters surrounding Tetepare. Tetepare’s turtle conservation program includes tagging adult turtles and protecting turtle nests from poachers, monitor lizards and high tides.