Hanua-Koke owners tap into eco-tourism business

A COUPLE from Central plan to tap into the eco-tourism business to protect the environment and culture.
Ulato Avei and husband William Kwara own the new Hanua-Koke conference business venue at Boera village in Central.
Kwara said Boera was a coastal village where people depended on the mangroves and the sea for food and protein. He said mangroves were the breeding grounds for fish.
“So where our business centre is, we have mangroves growing along the beach and we protect them.
“This is also to help prevent climate change issues like sea-level rising. The reason we are doing this is to make the locals become more aware of the climate change effects.”
Kwara said some of their cultures especially the Hiri tradition, the Lakatoi building and clay pot-making were slowly dying out.
“We intend to move into the eco-tourism business,” he said.
“We have been approached by tourism organisation to use this place as a tourism hub because of the mangroves and because of the slow extinction of our cultures so we will be moving in that direction to revive that. Once we are ready, we will involve the villagers to revive these cultures.”
He said the Tourist Promotion Authority planned to bring in overseas tourists to view cultural activities.
“We can engage the women and men to practise our cultures and traditions again.”