Scientist Soapi's first recollections are of the ocean. She grew up on the island of Rendova, a lush island in western Solomon Islands, and life centred around the ocean.
“I remember when the large waves came, we would plunge under them and emerge laughing on the opposite side. Being part of those forces of nature gave me so much joy.”
During her education, she excelled in chemistry and would later go on to study plants with healing properties, captivated by the potential that the natural world could contain cures for modern diseases. She studied in the nation of Fiji, the continent of Australia and the UK and subsequently was recognized as the first woman from Solomon Islands to earn a PhD in the field of natural sciences.
Yet Soapi was continually pulled back to her initial passion – the ocean. And what would end up being her deeply personal and rewarding work, defending one of the Solomon Islands’ most precious locations, the island of Tetepare.
The Struggle for Tetepare Island
During the mid-1990s, the sound of logging equipment echoed through the forests of Solomon Islands as industrial logging expanded across the country. Soapi had observed her home island succumb to the tools of loggers. Waterways once pristinely clear became muddy with silt, and the calls of avian species and bugs faded into silence.
As rumors began that the island might be the next target, the people of the Western Province felt they were confronting more than an ecological danger. The island was sacred – holy land, the site to ancestral gardens, burial sites, and memories etched into the land.
“To lose the island would have been like erasing our identity,” Soapi says. “It wasn’t just about trees any more, it was about who we are and heritage.”
Soapi joined others to oppose deforestation and devoted her free time to the movement. At the time, a university student, Soapi was a co-founder of the Friends of Tetepare, a community-based initiative that eventually transformed into the Tetepare Descendants’ Association (TDA).
“We collaborated with everyone on the island to conserve Tetepare, sending correspondence to specific people informing them not to do this,” she says.
They petitioned governments and rallied international allies to prevent logging concessions. The effort was relentless. Soapi worked diligently, linking descendant groups and holding gatherings across villages – all united by a common goal: to keep Tetepare untouched. The logging company tried to sway some households with money but the community stood firm – and they gave up personal gains to prove their commitment.
Soapi served as a bridge between cultural practices and evolving conservation science.
“It was essential to have both – the knowledge of our ancestors and the methods of science to demonstrate the world why this place was significant.”
Their fight garnered global attention and in the 1990s a documentary team came to document the story. Subsequently, the Australian documentary titled "Since the Company Came" carried Tetepare’s struggle to the world.
“It was at that moment we realized the international community saw what we had. We had to protect it – not just for our people, but for all of humanity.”
Their fight was successful and no logging firm was permitted to log the island then. Today, it remains one of the few remaining pristine areas in Solomon Islands. It is managed by the TDA which has numerous members. Its rainforest canopy extends continuously, rivers run clear, and threatened leatherback turtles nest on its dark sandy shores.
Community rangers – descendants of the island's original inhabitants – patrol the land, drawing on both traditional knowledge and contemporary research.
“It’s not just scientific methods at play. Cultural understanding is woven into all our actions,” Soapi says.
The preservation work also sustains livelihoods. The Tetepare Eco Lodge, managed by the TDA, allows tourists witness preservation efforts firsthand. Revenue from the facility supports guardians and community projects, while annual gatherings bring members together to make shared choices.
Protecting the island has always been easy. In communities where financial resources is limited, the temptation of quick money from resource extraction lingers.
“It’s always easier to trade timber for a some cash and have the money in your hand today,” Soapi admits. “But environmental protection gives us fish, sustenance and clean rivers for future descendants. That’s more difficult to quantify in the short term.”
Still, challenges persist. Association supporter a representative says a new plan aims to clear part of the woodland that borders the island's main marine-protected area, habitat to an abundance of marine species.
“Sadly being large, fertile and uninhabited renders it attractive to developers as well as landowners with weaker dedication to preservation.”
The representative says that at this year’s association annual general meeting in October, participants voiced strong opposition over the plan and pledged to oppose any scheme for logging, settlements, commercial extraction or destructive practices on the island.
Soapi says: “It is my wish that individuals seeking to establish settlements on the land will honor the continuous preservation work our communities have striven diligently to maintain for many years.”
An Exemplary Approach of Conservation
In her view, now a respected regional scientist and marine defender, the island's journey is a prime model of community-driven conservation.
“Tetepare showed us that environmental protection isn’t just about safeguarding land,” she says. “It is about protecting our cultural identity.”
Elisabeth Holland, former academic of ocean and climate change at the a regional university, has worked with Soapi for more than a decade. She describes her as a “talented Pacific scholar and a prominent scientific figure”.
Holland says Soapi’s work – especially in ocean acidification – has had significant impact, while her leadership has given emerging scientists a “defined trajectory and expert guidance to help ensure marine health for the region”.
Tetepare’s success has motivated communities across the Pacific region. In the year 2012, the TDA received the prestigious United Nations equator prize, a worldwide acknowledgment of its community-led conservation model.
“It shows that indigenous communities do not just receive environmental strategies – we create them,” Soapi says.
Currently serving as a partnerships coordinator at the Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science, she continues to champion indigenous knowledge and local initiatives. Soapi remains deeply tied to the island.
“I feel like I’m just one of many. I may have access to platforms and organizations, but the true effort is done by the Tetepare descendants. They are the true guardians of the island.”
