{"id":763149,"date":"2026-04-30T06:55:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/763149\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T06:55:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:55:37","slug":"the-vine-with-a-murky-past-that-is-strangling-vanuatus-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/763149\/","title":{"rendered":"The vine with a murky past that is strangling Vanuatu’s forests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vanuatu’s tropical rainforests are suffocating under an invasive species which, according to local lore, was introduced during World War II to camouflage Allied operations.<\/p>\n

Commonly known as “big lif”, or merremia, its big leaves and ropey vines form a blanket that smothers the forest.<\/p>\n

“Big lif is considered to be the biggest driver of deforestation in Vanuatu because it literally strangles the existing vegetation and invades the forest,” James Carter, the project manager at the South Pacific World War II museum in Luganville, said.<\/p>\n

“It’s unbelievably destructive.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is prolific across the islands, but the people of Kole village, in the east of Vanuatu’s Santo Island, have had some success keeping their land clear through a pioneering carbon project for the region.<\/p>\n

Villagers earn money for their conservation efforts, including planting trees in place of the big lif, by generating carbon credits that can be sold to support the village.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Big lif, also known as merremia, is widespread across Vanuatu.\u00a0 (Supplied: WWF)<\/p>\n

“[Big lif] really destroys many trees and also destroys the forest,” Skip Ser, the chief of Kole village<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

said.<\/p>\n

Chief Skip’s father established the Loru conservation area in 1993 to protect more than 200 hectares for the benefit of future generations.<\/p>\n

“The thing that I love the most in the forest is the environment there,” Chief Skip said.<\/p>\n

But big lif is extremely difficult and costly to manage, and for the residents of Kole village, it is a full-time job to keep it at bay.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Skip Ser is the chief of Serekar clan, a community that lives in Kole village in the east of Vanuatu’s Santo island.\u00a0 (Supplied: WWF)<\/p>\n

Camouflage then and now<\/p>\n

In World War II, Santo Island was home to the largest US supply base in the South Pacific.<\/p>\n

In 1942, as Japanese forces looked to head south, towards Australia, the Americans had concerns that supply lines would be cut.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

An image from the US archives shows an American naval ammunition bunker on Santo with mile-a-minute vine growing over it in September 1944.\u00a0 (Supplied: US Archives)<\/p>\n

Mr Carter said that in just 21 days, Allied forces built an airstrip in the jungle, allowing B7 bombers to land, refuel, rearm, and fly back to Guadalcanal.<\/p>\n

“Really [the Americans] saw the importance of Santo and the New Hebrides [Vanuatu] as being the perfect point where they could build a massive supply base and just keep supplying the Pacific,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Carter said the theory that big lif was introduced to camouflage the supply base was well accepted across Vanuatu, despite lacking evidence.<\/p>\n

\"black<\/p>\n

Big lif can be seen taking over the jungle behind an American World War II combat training centre.\u00a0 (Supplied: US Archives)<\/p>\n

“It’s an interesting one because there are two weeds. There’s big lif, and there’s also mile-a-minute,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s believed that one was brought to Vanuatu during the war by the Americans to camouflage their ground structures, which makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n

“But then it depends on your research sources as to which one that was, because there is no proof that the Americans brought either of them to Vanuatu.”<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

US Navy sailors in 1943 walking along a jungle trail overrun by mile-a-minute, an invasive vine.\u00a0 (Supplied: US Archives)<\/p>\n

Mr Carter said he did not doubt it was used as camouflage, as it continues to do the same job today.<\/p>\n

“I remember when we went looking for a Royal New Zealand Air Force Corsair a few years back, and we got to the spot where the local guys said, ‘It’s here,’ and we’re going, ‘Where? We can’t see anything,'” he said.<\/p>\n

“They said, ‘Hang on,’ and they got out with their bush knives, and they cut their way through all the big lif, dragged it all off, and there was the aircraft.<\/p>\n

“It’s extremely invasive, unbelievably invasive, and you can see how it’s just killing everything.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

Volunteers at the South Pacific World War II Museum cleared away big lif and mile-a-minute vines to reveal the wing of a crashed aircraft. (Supplied: Karl von Moller)<\/p>\n

Big lif, big problems<\/p>\n

Despite decades of conservation efforts, Chief Skip said it was a losing battle as big lif took over.<\/p>\n

He had to change what they were doing and focus solely on addressing big lif with targeted management.<\/p>\n

“If we are not careful, then we’ll lose everything, all resources inside our land,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

Working with Glarinda Andre, a director from NGO Live and Learn Vanuatu, Chief Skip established the Loru Forest Carbon Project, which lets the village earn money from its conservation efforts through carbon credits.<\/p>\n

The credits can be sold to polluting companies to offset their emissions via carbon trading markets.<\/p>\n

The project is funded by Climate Resilient by Nature, an Australian government initiative, in collaboration with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia.<\/p>\n

The team also found that cutting down big lif and replanting trees in its place was effective in reducing its presence.<\/p>\n

While the project was set up in 2012, it is only now they are earning funds and starting to see progress in reducing the problem with big lif.<\/p>\n

Chief Skip and his village started their own nursery to grow native fruit trees.<\/p>\n

“One of the best ways to destroy merremia is to grow a forestry plot,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"green<\/p>\n

Saplings in the Loru conservation area are planted to restore the forest.\u00a0 (Supplied: WWF)<\/p>\n

Ms Andre said that through the program, women have been empowered to manage business finances, children now have access to education, and youth in the communities have been trained as rangers.<\/p>\n

“Households have been able to purchase the water tanks to improve water security, and it’s an integrity program, and it brings a lot of benefits to our people,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Chief Skip and his clan finance their forest conservation efforts through carbon credits. (Supplied: WWF)<\/p>\n

The inclusion of big lif management in the project is the first of its kind in Vanuatu.<\/p>\n

Chief Skip hopes other communities will follow suit, as environmental pressures continue to grow.<\/p>\n

“We have sea level rise, pollution, and I think [it’s] very important to stop this climate change,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We have to look after the trees, look after the birds, then in the future, our children can have enough resources or can see what we are achieving.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vanuatu’s tropical rainforests are suffocating under an invasive species which, according to local lore, was introduced during World…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":763150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[23],"tags":[313568,313567,14994,4788,746,18850,313570,14896,164207,313571,313572,159,313569,67,132,68,57957,122643,259368],"class_list":["post-763149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-allied-forces","tag-big-lif","tag-carbon-credits","tag-conservation","tag-environment","tag-forest","tag-glarinda-andre","tag-invasive-species","tag-james-carter","tag-merremia","tag-rainforests","tag-science","tag-skip-ser","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vanuatu","tag-weeds","tag-world-war-two"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116492352552690056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}