Ghizo Island lies in the

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

, west of

New Georgia New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province, Solomon Islands, and the 200th-largest island in the world. Geography New Georgia island is located in the New Georgia Group, an archipelago including most of ...

and

Kolombangara Kolombangara (sometimes spelled ''Kulambangara'') is an island in the New Georgia Islands group of the nation state of Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The name is from a local language, a rough translation of its meaning is ...

, and is home to the provincial capital, Gizo. The island is named after an infamous local head-hunter. Ghizo is relatively small when compared to the surrounding islands, the island is long and wide, with a summit elevation of (Maringe Hill). The local language is

Bilua language Bilua (also known as Mbilua or Vella Lavella) is the most populous Papuan language spoken in the Solomon Islands. It is a Central Solomon language spoken by about 9,000 people on the island of Vella Lavella. It is one of the four non- Austronesi ...

History

Ghizo is home to a substantial number of people of

I-Kiribati The Micronesians or Micronesian peoples are various closely related ethnic groups native to Micronesia, a region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They are a part of the Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, which has an Urheimat in Taiwan. Ethno ...

descent. These people were relocated there by the British administration of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (now the nation state of Solomon Islands) in the 1950s. They had previously spent 20 years on the islands of

Orona Orona atoll, also known as Hull Island, is one of the Phoenix Islands in the Republic of Kiribati. It measures approximately by , and like Kanton, is a narrow ribbon of land surrounding a sizable lagoon with depths of . Numerous passages connec ...

(Hull Island) and

Nikumaroro Nikumaroro, previously known as Kemins Island or Gardner Island, is a part of the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is a remote, elongated, triangular coral atoll with profuse vegetation and a large central marine lagoo ...

(Gardener Island), having been resettled on these previously uninhabited islands in the Phoenix Group from various islands in the Gilberts archipelago in the 1930s. The original resettlement in the 1930s was on alleged grounds of overcrowding, particularly on drought prone islands in the southern Gilberts. The second resettlement was on alleged grounds of the islands in the Phoenix group having harsh living conditions and also prone to drought, although remoteness and costs falling on the colonial administration also played parts. (See also Wagina Island.)Maude, H. E. (1952). The colonisation of the Phoenix Islands, Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 61 Nos. 1-2, pp. 62-89.

Environment

The whole of the island and its surrounding waters, with a total area of 12,862 ha, has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it supports populations of several

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensat ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

bird species. These include

Melanesian scrubfowl The Melanesian scrubfowl or Melanesian megapode (''Megapodius eremita'') is a megapode species that is endemic to islands within Melanesia. The Melanesian scrubfowl has a unique strategy of egg incubation in which it relies on environmental heat sou ...

red-knobbed imperial pigeon The red-knobbed imperial pigeon (''Ducula rubricera'') is a bird species in the family Columbidae. It is found in Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands archipelago. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It ...

buff-headed coucal The buff-headed coucal (''Centropus milo'') is a species of coucal. These are often placed in the cuckoo family (Cuculidae) but seem to warrant recognition as a distinct family. ''C. milo'' is a common endemic of the central islands of the Solo ...

Sanford's sea eagle Sanford's sea eagle (''Haliaeetus sanfordi''), also known as Sanford's fish eagle or the Solomon eagle, is a sea eagle endemic to the Solomon Islands archipelago. Taxonomy Sanford's sea eagle was discovered by and named after Dr Leonard C. Sanf ...

Solomons cockatoo The Solomons cockatoo (''Cacatua ducorpsii''), also known as the Ducorps's cockatoo, Solomons corella or broad-crested corella, is a species of cockatoo endemic to the Solomon Islands archipelago. This small white cockatoo is larger than the Tan ...

s, cardinal lories,

song parrot The song parrot or singing parrot (''Geoffroyus heteroclitus'') is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It is found in the Bismarck Archipelago and on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, and in the Solomon Islands except Rennel. ...

s and

Gizo white-eye The Gizo white-eye or yellow-billed white-eye (''Zosterops luteirostris'') is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. Distribution It is endemic to Ghizo Island. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and pl ...

s. Threats to the site come from

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

and

forest clearance Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

References

Islands of the Solomon Islands Western Province (Solomon Islands) Important Bird Areas of the Solomon Islands {{Solomons-geo-stub