Shared by Global Forest Coalition

Women preparing to go to their gardens downhill.⠀

The village of Hageulu, #Solomon Islands is located high up in the mountains, and is about 8 km from the coast of East Gao Bugotu Constituency. There is no proper road access to the Hageulu community, only forest and mountain tracks the people have been using for many years.⠀ ⠀

Community participants stated that their community’s core values are communal work and respect for their culture and traditions. They help each other when the need arises, assisting one another in cultivation, building houses and sharing the day’s catch. They still preserve their  traditional war canoe, the only one left in Isabel Province, which their forefathers used during headhunting days for war and for fishing (using traditional techniques still practiced today).⠀ ⠀

The people depend mainly on land and freshwater resources for food, and occasionally the sea. Foods include fruit trees, root crops, vegetables, pigs, opossum, iguana, river prawns, fresh water eels, and crabs and fish from the coast. The major cash crops grown by the community are savusavu (traditional tobacco), kumara, taro and yam.⠀ ⠀

See their community conservation resilience initiative here: http://buff.ly/2qsPe7Y⠀ .⠀ 📷: Aydah Akao/CIC⠀