Restoring Punaruu Valley orange trees to preserve Punaauia municipality’s natural and cultural heritage in French Polynesia
Punaruu Valley is facing an alarming decline in orange production. Faced with this threat, French Polynesian youth launched an effort, via the “orange carriers” team from the Association for the Protection of Punaruu Valley, to give new life to the valley’s precious orange trees. Supported by the European Union through the PROTEGE project, this initiative aims to protect this endangered natural and cultural heritage, while ensuring a sustainable future for this emblematic resource of the region.
Aging grove and declining production
"Orange production has been steadily declining over the years. If this continues, we won’t have any in 20 years,” said Arikinui Nordhoff, secretary of the Association for the Protection of Punaruu Valley. This is a reality that the municipality of Punaauia has been facing for the past decade or so.
To preserve the municipality’s natural and cultural heritage, an orange tree renewal operation has been underway for two years now, led by the association for protection of the valley. It has consisted of the creation of a nursery for seedlings from the valley and the gradual replacement of the oldest trees , whose production has been declining. “This is one of the keys to preserving our heritage. These old trees must be revived by planting new ones,” explained Simplicio Lissant, Mayor of Punaauia.
XPF 6 million in European Union funding
The EU-funded PROTEGE project implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC) supports initiatives for the sustainable and climate-change-resilient development of the economies of the European Pacific overseas countries and territories (OCTs).
As part of those efforts, the association received some six million francs in funding to protect the Te Rata Plateau’s orange groves from pressure due to invasive species.
This support allowed them to purchase equipment (bush cutters, a shredder to make compost, auger, chainsaw, irrigation system, etc.), set up a living area for volunteers (shelter, water tanks, etc.) and secure the nursery site (fencing, roofing tin, tarpaulins, etc.)
Saturday, 24 August , marked the second and final helicopter mission to Te Rata Plateau. The goal was to visit the facilities together with the Mayor of Punaauia, the Association’s President and the Pacific Community in order to view the considerable amount of work that association volunteers had accomplished and discuss the issues and challenges to be met to make this crop sustainable.
An end-of-operations report is currently being drafted. It will be available on the PROTEGE website so as to share the knowledge acquired during this initiative.
