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27 September 2026
There are places where the boundary between land and sea seems almost impossible to draw.
The Marovo Lagoon in the Solomon Islands is one of them.
The lagoon is surrounded by volcanic islands, rainforest, mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds. Hundreds of smaller islands and reefs are scattered through the water, creating a landscape in which forest and ocean seem to belong to the same world.
The wider Marovo–Tetepare Complex covers more than 1,600 square kilometres of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. It is on the Solomon Islands’ UNESCO Tentative List for possible future World Heritage nomination.
But its importance is not only natural.
Thousands of people live around the lagoon in more than fifty villages, and communities have developed detailed traditional knowledge of the forests, reefs and waters on which their lives depend. The sea provides food; the forest provides materials and plants; both are closely connected with cultural and spiritual life.
Perhaps that is what makes this part of the Solomon Islands so interesting.
It is not a landscape kept apart from human life.
People live within it, depend upon it and carry generations of knowledge about it.
Here, the lagoon is not merely something beautiful to look at.
It is part of the community.
#SolomonIslands #MarovoLagoon #Pacific #RajatChandraSarmah
Rajat Chandra Sarmah, Guwahati, Assam, India, Instagram @rajatchandrasarmah, YouTube: conversewithasmile, email rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
