Fuiono Senio | |
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![]() Senio (right) and ethnobiologist Paul Alan Cox won the 1997 Goldman Environmental Prize for their conservation efforts at Falealupo in Samoa. Their work later led to the founding of Seacology. | |
Died | 17 May 1997 |
Nationality | Samoan |
Occupation(s) | Chief and environmentalist |
Awards | Goldman Environmental Prize (1997) |
Fuiono Senio (died 17 May 1997) was a chief and environmentalist from Falealupo village on the island of Savai'i in Western Samoa.
A logging company offered funds to the Samoan government to build a school for Senio's village if they could log the rainforest nearby. As the loggers were about to start work, a visiting biologist offered to raise funds if logging stopped. The village elders agreed to accept the offer and set aside the rainforest from the coast to the interior ridge of Savai'i, as a rainforest preserve. The loggers returned, and Senio ran in front of them and threatened them with a machete, telling them to go away. This act became well known throughout the South Pacific, where similar problems affected many poor island communities. [1]
He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1997, shared with Paul Alan Cox, for their contributions to the protection of rainforests of Falealupo. [2]
He died of liver cancer a month after receiving the Goldman prize.
Samoan culture tells stories of many different deities. There were deities of the forest, the seas, rain, harvest, villages, and war. There were two types of deities, atua, who had non-human origins, and aitu, who were of human origin.
Savaiʻi is the largest and highest island both in Samoa and in the Samoan Islands chain. The island is also the sixth largest in Polynesia, behind the three main islands of New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands of Hawaii and Maui. While it is larger than the second main island, Upolu, it is significantly less populated.
Falealupo is a village in Samoa situated at the west end of Savai'i island 20 miles (32 km) from the International Date Line used until 29 December 2011. The village has two main settlements, Falealupo-Uta, situated inland by the main island highway and Falealupo-Tai, situated by the sea. The road to the coastal settlement is about 9 km, most of it unsealed, from the main highway. The village's population is 545.
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Pio Taofinuʻu, S.M. was a Catholic cardinal and Archbishop of Samoa-Apia. Born in the village of Falealupo on the island of Savai'i in Samoa, he was the first Polynesian bishop and cardinal. He was made a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI in the Consistory of 5 March 1973, of the Title of St. Onofrio. His father was Taofinuʻu Solomona and his mother, Mau.
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Seacology is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization headquartered in Berkeley, California, that works to preserve island ecosystems and cultures around the world. Founded in 1991, it began with the work of ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox, who researched tropical plants and their medicinal value in the village of Falealupo in Samoa during the mid-1980s. When the villagers were pressured into selling logging rights to their rainforest in 1988 to build a new school, Cox and his wife offered to help secure funds for the new school in return for an agreement with the villagers to protect their forest. With the help of his friends and family, Cox secured the funds within six months, later earning him and the village chief, Fuiono Senio, the Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts. Word spread throughout the islands, and with increasing demand for similar projects, Cox, along with Bill Marré and Ken Murdock, decided to form Seacology and expand their work internationally. For the first few years, the organization operated on a volunteer basis.
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Fa'amatai is the indigenous political ('chiefly') system of Samoa, central to the organization of Samoan society. It is the traditional indigenous form of governance in both Samoas, comprising American Samoa and the Independent State of Samoa. The term comprises the prefix fa'a and the word matai.
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Harrison Ngau Laing is a Malaysian environmentalist and politician, a member of the Kayan tribe. He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1990 for his work to prevent deforestation of the Sarawak region. He was a member of the Malaysian Parliament from 1990 to 1995.
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