The Gwaunafau Community Development Association (GCDA) in East Malaita had received a total of around $36,000 funding assistance from the Global Greengrants fund in June 2014.
The Global Greengrants fund is an international donor organisation based in USA and it can provide assistance to rural communities in Biodiversity conservation, Climate change and/or food security.
The funding assistance was used to purchase four Rota mall water tanks and tools to support a forest rehabilitation and conservation program in the community of Gwaunafau.
The water tanks was a short term adaptation measure identified to immediately address the water problem situation in the community, while the forest rehabilitation and conservation program was a long term investment to help recover parts of the forest which had been heavily degraded due to concentrated subsistence agricultural activities in the area.
From an interview with the GCDA chairman Samuel Mauasi; he highlighted that it was a timely assistance since water problem in his community was a long standing issue that requires immediate attention before long term plans can be made for repair and maintenance of the existing water supply.
GCDA board member Sam Rara confirmed that the four tanks were stationed at different locations in the village to meet the needs of every household in the community.
With regards to the forest rehabilitation and conservation program, an area of around seven hectares was cleared and replanted with Mahogany trees while an even larger part of the existing forest that is almost double the area being replanted was set aside for conservation.
According Rara, they are planning to rehabilitate all other forest areas close to the village that have been degraded, including a grassland that was used to be cattle in the late 80s and early 90s.
He said that currently the people of Gwaunafau and Mana’ra are experiencing shortage in hard wood trees for milling but they are envisioning that in the next ten years or so, that problem should be alleviated.
With this timely funding assistance, the communities of Gwaunafau and Mana’ara are confident that they can effectively adapt to unpredictable weather patterns resulting from climate change and their future generations will no longer have problems finding timber for building of homes and furniture.
By Collin Gereniu
GCDA secretary
