Disease and climate change put iconic palm at risk

PACIFIC – It’s the postcard image of the Pacific but the coconut palm is under threat.

Climate change, soil that’s become too salty and a palm tree disease are putting cocos nucifera at risk, according to a report by Radio New Zealand’s Dateline Pacific.

In Papua New Guinea’s Madang province, a renewed outbreak of Bogia coconut syndrome is threatening the only coconut gene bank in the South Pacific.

The disease which is spread by insects, causes palm trees to collapse and can wipe out crops within months.

The gene bank holds different varieties of coconut, and is only kilometres away from the PNG outbreak.

A manager from the Coconut Industry Corporation, Allen Aku, says to ensure certain varieties aren’t lost, they are duplicating the gene bank so there is a lifeline for those who depend on coconuts for their nutrition and income.

“For Pacific islanders, coconut is our livelihood. When everything else is gone, coconuts is the one we survive on. So that’s why we have to keep this diversity.”

He says the gene bank exists to counter any disease outbreaks or natural disasters but having a Bogia syndrome so close to the institution means they will now have to duplicate the coconut varieties in Fiji and Samoa.

Aku says although the Bogia disease threat is worrying, equally concerning are the effects of sea level rise and climate change which are starting to impact farmers across the Pacific.

An agriculture specialist at the Australian National University, Mike Bourke, says low lying small atolls are the worst affected because there is simply no where for the coconut palms to go.

“On a tiny island or atoll, if the sea level rises a further half metre, people will start to run out of options and that’s why the concern is so great for those communities.

Dr Bourke says salinity is ruining soil, and coastal erosion is causing palm trees to fall over.

One farmer in Samoa, Perise Mulifusi, says last year they had a hard season due to the climate impacts.

“The size of the nuts are getting smaller than the usual size because the weather is very hot, you know the trees they need the rain.”

She says Samoa has an advantage in that, unlike many other farmers, they can plant their crops closer to the hills, and where the soil is richer.

The managing director of Australian company Kokonut Pacific, Richard Etherington, works with a number of coconut farmers in Solomon Islands and says there is no doubt the climate is having an effect, though there are also more immediate issues.

“I’m conscious that there is coastal erosion, there are coconuts planted very close to the sea on the back of beaches. There’s probably more immediate challenges. There is an outbreak of the rhinoceros beetle.

He says right now they’re focusing on efforts to get rid of the infestation of the rhinoceros beetle which burrows into the trees, but climate change and coastal erosion are issues they take seriously. - RNZI