Aid & Sandalwood

Places like Bua (Vanua Levu, Fiji) or Ha'apai (Tonga) are places filled with forgotten History and facing many challenges, mainly socioeconomic but also climatic and humanitarian ones (as has been the Tonga's case in January 2014 with Cyclone Ian, still barely recovering from the aftermath of the natural disaster, with about 1000 houses destroyed or damaged, and even more recently with the Cyclone Winston in Fiji in February 2016).

Both these countries (Fiji and Tonga) have had a culture of sandalwood two centuries ago and could benefit from the revegetation of the lands with the good quality ancestral yasi species of sandalwood, but also from the generation of income through the sales of handicrafts and from a touristic experience that would be incited by the promotion and protection of their historical heritage.  

Lands in these areas have lost their ancient high values during the Sandalwood Wars (early 1800s, what the Seeking Mana series are about). Some of them now suffer from dry conditions or destructions by the repeated natural disasters of the region. Due to the economic and environmental characteristics of the yasi culture, the communities involved in a revegetation via sandalwood would benefit tremendously from its reimplatation. 

A yasi tree needs about a generation (say 20 years) to be fully grown and sold, with a considerable income at the end of the end of it. Just one tree planted for the birth of a child and it might cover the costs of higher education to that child at the time he were to start studying in college.

My long-term objective is to see the creation of new zones for a community-based and responsible tourism, facilitating the capacities in generating incomes through heritage protection, food and accommodation, handicrafts sales, etc and the revitalization of sandalwood culture, especially in dry or damaged areas.

The prime beneficiaries would be the provinces of Bua and Macuata on Vanua Levu's Island in Fiji (both provinces being on the dry part of the island).