Temotu Province

Temotu is the easternmost province of the Pacific island nation of Solomon Islands.

Location

It is located far away from the chain of the Solomon Islands, which form the other eight Solomonic provinces. The northernmost islands of the Temotu province are over 500 kilometers southeast of the Solomon Islands capital Honiara, but only 340 kilometers north of the islands of the neighboring country Vanuatu. For the province Temotu include the Santa Cruz Islands with the Duff Islands and the Reef Islands. The island of Tikopia is the southernmost inhabited island in the Solomon Islands. Further south is only the uninhabited Little Nottingham Islet in the Middle Reef the Indispensable Reefs, belonging to the province of Rennell and Bellona. The total land area is nearly 895 km ². The provincial capital Lata lies on the west coast of the largest island of Nendo (Santa Cruz Islands ).

Nature

According to a World Bank report from 2007, the province Temotu has the highest number of natural catastrophes of all the provinces of the Solomon Islands. A drought in the years 1952 and 1953, for example, called for 17 dead on the island of Tikopia. Also, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions komen according to World Bank report in the province Temotu. In the last week of December 2002, the cyclone Zoe taught with winds of up to 305 km / h on the islands Fatutaka, Anuta and Tikopia major damage to.

In the province of Temotu some animal and plant species are considered endemic, such as the Kauri tree Agathis vitiensis, the Skink Emoia rufilabialis, the one-color white-eye, the Sanford Brillenvogel, the Vanicoro White-eye and the Vanicoro Monarch.