The financial year 2023-2024 has seen our work continue to focus on the 2024 Kolombangara conservation scholarships and KIBCA, the conservation organisation representing Kolombangara Island landowners.  

Support for Kolombangara Island conservation

The conservation scholarship program for Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands has now been in place for 16 years. The island’s landholders have agreed not to log areas of the island above 400 metre altitude, a total protected area of 20,000 hectares. In return, payments are provided by 4nature and other organisations to parents of islanders to partly offset their children’s school and university fees. Payments are made direct to the schools that the children attend.

At the start of 2024 two new KIBCA co-coordinators were appointed after long-time coordinator, Ferguson Vaghi departed. While there was limited administrative funds for KIBCA in 2023 (resulting in the postponement of the 2023 scholarships), the appointment of new co-coordinators and confirmation that support for the nomination process could be provided meant that the conservation scholarship program could resume in 2024.

During 2024, 4nature provided administrative support to KIBCA to allow for the distribution of the nomination forms and to allow the KIBCA executive to meet to make decisions on scholarship recipients. As a result of the increased publicity, over 500 applications were received, making the selection of the worthiest recipients much harder. There are usually between 100 and 150 applications.

4nature supporters raised funds that allowed for the distribution of 98 conservation scholarships at a total cost of SB$85,000 or AU$16,000. This consisted of 80 standard scholarships to 22 schools and technical colleges and 18 university scholarships to 2 universities. This is the highest level of funds distributed to the scheme by 4nature.

During October and November 2024, I travelled to Kolombangara to meet with KIBCA staff and volunteers, KFPL, Wildlife Conservation Society and several schools and universities where scholarship recipients attended. 4nature has been asked to assist with the development of a strategic plan for KIBCA during 2025.

Other

4nature has developed a new website which was launched during the first half of 2024. This will allow us to reach a large audience and better explain the value of our work. The website is accessible via 4nature.org.

Thank you to everybody for generously supporting 4nature.

Andrew Cox
President
November 2024