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, Ko ...

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 capit ...

. 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 ...

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

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a 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 most of its int ...

. 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, ...

. 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 th ...

, the battle of Wickham Anchorage, 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'') ...

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 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 finally confirmed in ...

stratovolcano 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 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 contin ...

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 categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulnera ...

of animals: the leatherback turtles, the Vangunu giant rat, 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. 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, 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. They live mainly by subsistence agriculture and are skilled at fishing.

History

Geography

Ecology, flora and fauna

Demographics

References

Further reading