Vangunu is an island, part of the

New Georgia Islands The New Georgia Islands are part of the Western Province of Solomon Islands. They are located to the northwest of Guadalcanal. The larger islands are mountainous and covered in rain forest. The main islands are New Georgia, Vella Lavella, Kolom ...

in the

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 ...

. It is located between

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

Nggatokae Island Nggatokae Island is an island in the New Georgia Islands within Western Province, Solomon Islands. It is served by Gatokae Aerodrome. The island is an extinct volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, suc ...

. To the north and east of the island is

Marovo Lagoon Marovo Lagoon is the largest saltwater lagoons in the world. Located in the New Georgia Islands, surrounded by Vangunu Island and Nggatokae Island, both extinct volcanic islands, at . It is part of the Solomon Islands. It encompasses and is prote ...

. The island has an area of . There are a small number of coastal settlements on the island, including Zaira and Halisi.

History

On March 15, 1893, Vangunu was declared part of the

British Solomon Islands The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893, when Captain Gibson, R.N., of , declared the southern islands a British protectorate. Other islands were subsequently declared to form part o ...

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over m ...

. The island was occupied by the Japanese army in October 1942, during the

Solomon Islands campaign The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, du ...

. From 30 June to 3 July 1943, it was the site of one of the first land battle of the

New Georgia Campaign The New Georgia campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied strategy in the South Pacific to isolate the ...

, the

battle of Wickham Anchorage The Battle of Wickham Anchorage took place during the New Georgia campaign in the Solomon Islands during the Pacific War from 30 June – 3 July 1943. During the operation US Marines and US Army troops landed by ship around Oleana Bay on Vangunu ...

, during which a small Japanese force was quickly mopped up by numerically superior allied forces. Since 1978, the island has been part of the independent state of the

Geography

The island is located at the southern end of the New Georgia Islands archipelago. To the north-west is the island of

and to the south-east is the island of

Nggatokae Nggatokae Island is an island in the New Georgia Islands within Western Province, Solomon Islands. It is served by Gatokae Aerodrome. The island is an extinct volcano, the highest peak is Mount Mariu (887 m.). The island has an area of 93&nb ...

. The largest saltwater

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

in the world, the

, encircles most of the island. Vangunu is a volcanic island, dominated by an inactive

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

with a height of , whose

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

slopes are now covered with thick jungle forest. Around to the south of Vangunu lies the

submarine volcano Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Many submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate formation, known as mid-ocean ridges. The volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges ...

known as

Kavachi Kavachi (also called sharkcano) is one of the most active submarine volcanoes in the south-west Pacific Ocean. Located south of Vangunu Island in the Solomon Islands, it is Kavachi after a sea god of the New Georgia Group islanders, and is also r ...

, the only currently active volcano of the archipelago, and one of the most active submarine volcanoes in the south-west

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Ecology, flora and fauna

On the southern side of the island, the forests and coastline around the tiny community of Zaira are pristine and unique, providing habitat for at least three

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

of animals: the

leatherback turtle The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of up to and weights ...

s, the

Vangunu giant rat The Vangunu giant rat (''Uromys vika''), locally known as the vika, is a giant arboreal species of rodent in the family Muridae. The rat was discovered in the island of Vangunu in the Solomon Islands in 2015, after years of searching based on loc ...

, and the New Georgia monkey-faced bat. The latter two are only found in this location. The Vanganu giant rat was documented for the first time in 2017 by Tyrone Lavery, and is considered critically endangered due to the small amount of

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

habitat — about — remaining on the island amid ongoing

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 ...

. The 200 inhabitants of Zaira have been trying to get the forests declared a protected area, so that logging and mining cannot disturb and pollute the pristine forests and coastline.

Demographics

In 1999, the population of Rendova was estimated at 2,212 people. Most of the people of Vangunu speak

Vangunu language Vangunu is an Oceanic language spoken by about 900 people on Vangunu Island, 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 a ...

, while those in the northern part of the island, around the

Marovo lagoon Marovo Lagoon is the largest saltwater lagoons in the world. Located in the New Georgia Islands, surrounded by Vangunu Island and Nggatokae Island, both extinct volcanic islands, at . It is part of the Solomon Islands. It encompasses and is prote ...

, speak the closely related

Marovo language Marovo is an Austronesian language of the Solomon Islands. It is spoken in the New Georgia Group on islands in Marovo Lagoon and on the neighbouring islands of New Georgia, Vangunu and Nggatokae. The usual word order in sentences is verb- subje ...

. They live mainly by

subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

and are skilled at fishing.

History

Geography

Ecology, flora and fauna

Demographics

References

Further reading