Tetepare is a conservation island. The entire island is protected and managed by the TDA. The TDA has established a 13km-long Marine Protected area and employs rangers to patrol the island and the MPA. The TDA also runs numerous conservation programs, including

MARINE CONSERVATION

The TDA has permanently closed a 13km stretch of Tetepare’s reefs, lagoons and coastal waters to all harvesting, forming the largest contiguous Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Solomon Islands. This permanent closure also includes the land area from the low water mark to 500m inland. This permanently closed area is known as the Tetepare Marine Protected Area (MPA) and runs from the western tip of the island on Mbo Point at S 8º 42.22' E 157º 26.36' to the eastern edge of Soe Island at S 8º 43.62', E 154º 47.34' along the southern weather coast of Tetepare.

Signs have been installed and are maintained at each end of the MPA. TDA rangers have enforced this closed area since 2003. The aim of this MPA is to provide a habitat which protects the reproduction of marine species and gives TDA the opportunity to preserve a portion of Tetepare's pristine ecosystem in its natural state.

TDA marine monitors perform regular Reef Check surveys, trochus surveys, and seagrass surveys to assess the health and abundance of the reefs and natural resources around the island. Surveys are carried out within the MPA and compared to the data collected from outside the MPA. This comparison provides an accurate account of the effects of harvest pressure and forms the basis for future management decisions.

TURTLE CONSERVATION

Our turtle program is our flagship conservation program and involves tagging turtles as well as monitoring and protecting nesting beaches, nesting turtles, nests and hatchlings.

Tetepare is an important nesting ground for the critically endangered Western Pacific leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), which is on the brink of extinction. Numbers of leatherbacks in the Western Pacific Ocean have declined by more than 95 per cent since the 1980s due to excessive egg harvesting, hunting of nesting adult turtles, marine pollution, climate change and accidental deaths from commercial fisheries.

Tetepare has approximately 2km of beaches used for nesting by leatherback turtles and endangered green turtles. TDA rangers and turtle monitors monitor these beaches throughout the nesting season from September to April. They work in shifts to man the beaches throughout the nesting and hatchings season, performing all-night foot patrols of nesting beaches, tagging nesting females, protecting and relocating nests, and collecting data on the numbers, sizes, clutch size and hatching success of leatherbacks and greens.

During nesting season, data are collected on any turtle that comes up to nest on the beaches, including green and hawksbill turtles. Nests are relocated to higher ground if they are below the high-tide mark and protected from predators with predator exclusion cages. Nests on Tetepare are particularly vulnerable to predation by monitor lizards.

Turtle nests are monitored throughout their incubation.

The aim of our nest monitoring program is to protect turtles, increase hatchling numbers for this critically endangered species, and collect data for the management of Tetepare's turtle habitat.

Hatchling success has been growing each year since our turtle program began. This year, we have achieved unprecedented levels of hatching success, with more than 800 leatherback hatchlings and almost 300 green turtle hatchlings hatching from nests on Tetepare.

BANIATA LEATHERBACK INCENTIVE PROGRAM

We run an incentive program on the weathercoast of Rendova Island to encourage local villagers to protect leatherback turtles and nests on their beaches.

In the Solomon Islands, like many places in the world where leatherbacks nest, people routinely eat the eggs of leatherbacks and kill nesting mothers for their meat. On Rendova Island, near Tetepare, the villages of Baniata, Retavo and Havilla are home to key leatherback nesting beaches. We have developed a program to provide financial incentives for people from these villages to record sightings of nesting leatherbacks and to protect the nests, the hatchlings and the adult mothers.

Each person who finds a nesting leatherback or a nest, and reports their find to their village turtle monitor, receives a financial reward. If the nest they discover hatches successfully, they receive an additional financial reward. The TDA also donates money to a community fund for each nesting turtle and nest reported to the turtle monitor, and for each nest that hatches successfully. This program has proved very successful, and has resulted in far higher hatching numbers on these beaches.

This program runs from September to April each year and is coordinated by TDA conservation staff.