Another 56 steps through the rainforest

Toloa Rainforest - the last of its kind
2,000 years of history and a fragile future for Tongatapu's only forest reserve
by Pesi Fonua

At first glance it is easy to think that the only forests on Tonga's largest Island are stands of coconut trees, but look again and you'll find the Toloa Rainforest Reserve - the only native forest reserve on Tongatapu.

Toloa Forest is hidden away in the south-west part of Tongatapu, near the Fua'amotu International Airport.
Historians believe that the forest once belonged to a royal estate of the Tu'i Tonga dynasty, which ruled over Tonga, Samoa, eastern Fiji, and Futuna and ?'Uvea about 2,000 years ago.
The capital of the Tui Tonga Dynasty was lacated in this part of Tonga, at a time it, is said, that the first Tu'i Tanga, 'Aho'eitu climbed down a casuarina tree from heaven with his four brothers, and ruled aver Tonga.
The Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga became the custodian of the forest during the l920s. Its boarding school for boys, Tupou College, was established here in 1948, and part of the forest had to be cleared for a school farm.

A few more acres of the forest were cleared recently for the extension of the Fua'amotu International airport, and today only 19 hectares or 46 acres of the forest remains.

Sepuloni Falau, the forest ranger, said that there was a plan to extend the forest by planting 15 acres of trees in a cleared area at the entrance.
"We are planning to grow Tongan medicinal plants in the area to the right, and rare Tongan trees to the left."
Sepuloni said the planting would increase the species of plants that are found in the forest. In 1998 Ian McCracken identified 200 species of plants at the Toloa Forest, but it is thought many of these species are now struggling for survive.
Today the forest is a shadow of its former self, and Tongans who remember the large trees that formed a shady canopy 40 years ago will be saddened by their loss.

Acid rain
Sepulani said that many trees were blown down by Cyclone Issac in 1982, and by Cyclone Cora in 1997, and those that were left were threatened by new enemies.
"The big trees are dying, and visiting forest experts have pointed to a number of possibilities, including acid rain, and air pollution from the aircraft that regularly fly over the forest."
No one really knows the cause, but there can be no doubt that the few remaining big trees are dying.
"There are only four Toi trees left in the forest, while the Tavahi and Te'ete'emanu are disappearing and are being replaced by fekika vao," said Sepuloni.

Other enemies af the forest, "are the bats and the human. The bats are nesting on the tallest frees and are slowly killing them by nipping off the new leaves and killing these canopy trees."
The humans are trespassing in the forest to get firewood, "but by being reckless in their chopping of firewood they have also damaged the surrounding younger trees," he said.