First plantation in Tetiaroa Atoll, French Polynesia

In June 2009, the company Beachcomber SA and the family of the late actor Marlon Brando gave their agreement to integrate the atoll of Tetiaroa in a project of conservation of coconut varieties from Polynesia.
Practically, four to five small islands or peninsula, will each be replanted with a single variety.

Thanks to the geographic isolation of these places, coconuts palms will breed only between palms of the same variety, allowing conservation, production and dissemination of certified seednuts. Four or five varieties of coconut palm will be then preserved on Tetiaroa.

In April 2010, although no funding was dedicated to this activity by the local government, the first plantings of the conservatoire began on Tetiaroa. Seednuts of the horned coconut variety were planted a a small motu of Tetiaroa. For more information on the horned coconut palm, please visit our Tetiaroa blog here.

This work was indeed not easy, because the coconut trees were planted in half barrels of metal; the bottom of the rusted barrels was pierced by the roots of the coconut palm, making it difficult to impossible for manual unloading of coconuts. This allowed us to realize the extreme strength of the roots of the coconut palm, which play an important role in the fight against coastal erosion.

The resident biologist Nicolas Leclerc removing seedlings from barrells

So we had to bring out the heavy artillery: we banged the drums using a machine pallet forks. Coconut seedlings were then "stripped": the reduction of leaf area limits the evapotranspiration and facilitates recovery. Then they were transported by boat on a stormy sea, to the place of planting.

It was decided not to publicly disclose the exact location of this plantation, to limit the risk of theft of this extremely rare material. There are currently on this motu a few coconut trees that will be gradually destroyed when the newly planted horned coconuts will come into production.

In order to create a new population of coconut palms of the conservatoire, we generally recommend selecting twenty to fifty coconuts from the same parental variety. Then, two to four descendants of each parent are planted in a geographically isolated place. The relatively high number of parents limit the rate of inbreeding in subsequent generations. This avoids generating crosses between relatives, causing deleterious effects and a consequent reduction in vigor and fruit production.

Given the extreme rarity of horned coconut palms, it will not be possible to find twenty parents showing the required characteristics. For now, only a dozen of horned coconut palms have been reported in French Polynesia. We recommend getting seed from at least four different palms, so as to limit the deleterious crossovers between relatives in the next generations.

Contacts have been made to get horned seednuts from Raiatea and Tahaa. We recommended to continue harvesting seednuts from the horned coconut palm growing on Tetiaroa. The resident biologist Nicolas Leclerc (on pictures) told us that all the coconut produced by this palm does not have horn; fruits with coconuts horns are sometimes stolen by some workers who take them back as souvenirs. We emphasized that the hornless fruits of the horned coconut palms could also be germinated. Around the fruit, which bears the stuffing horns, is a tissue of maternal origin only. The absence or presence of horns shall not affect on the genetic nature of the embryo of the seed. A hornless coconut seed from the horned coconut palm could give a horned palm, just as likely a horned coconut seedlings (phew!). To avoid confusion and promote self-fertilization, it is better to remove all the inflorescences and fruits of the five or six palms that surround the horned one. Thus all seednuts collected at the foot of the horned coconut will sure originate from this tree.



The horned coconut from Tetiaroa given by Teihotu Brando



Because of cross pollination habit of the coconut palm, seednuts harvested on the horned coconut palms will not give all horned coconut palms. Thus, then the progeny will fruit in the motu, it will be necessary to perform a selection among the palms, and to eliminate some of the hornless. Anyway, the genes will be preserved, even if they do not speak to one hundred percent. In future generations, we will come gradually to form a population where all individuals will bear horns.

Plantation of horned coconut palms on Tetiaroa

Polymotu project is starting in Fiji islands....

During our last trip in Polynesia, Two public lectures about coconut palm conservation were conducted in Fiji. The first one was held at the University of South Pacific in Fiji, with about 50 people listening although the heavy rain after Cyclone Tomas. The second lecture was held at a Regional Workshop held from 15th to 19th March 2010 at Novotel, Nadi.

This last meeting was attended by 20 participants from 8 SPC member countries. We also invited stakeholders of the tourism industry to attend our lecture, and we were very happy that they came !

Thanks for coming to Mr. Viilame Ratugolea (Waya Lailai Resort), Mr. Jerry And Alumita Sovatabua (Botaira Beach Resort), and Ms Elenoa Nimacere, Hospitality Manager (South Sea Island). Resort owners were interested to be involved in conservation and ecotourism programs.

Visit to South sea Island, from left to rigth:
Dr Roland Bourdeix, Dr Tevita Kete, Manager Elenoa Nimacere and another worker.

The following day, Elenoa Nimacere invited the research team (Dr Tevita Kete and Dr Roland Bourdeix) to visit the island where her business is located. She was very interested to plant traditional coconut varieties for both ecotourism and conservation purposes. 

South Sea Island is located in the Mamanuca Group. Natively known as Vunavadra (a traditional Variety of Pandanus), the island is now rented by South Sea Cruises and is used to host day cruisers. South Sea Cruises hospitality manager Elenoa Nimacere said the coconut tree planting project would help prevent the sand from being blown to different parts of the island when there were strong winds. This information was released by the Fiji times on line, as follow:

Polymotu and the Global Coconut Conservation Strategy

COGENT (the International Coconut Genetic Resources Network) had conducted several consultations on the conservation and use of coconut diversity to assist coconut growing countries to develop a progressive conservation strategy.

The Global Coconut Conservation Strategy is now available on line. This strategy was reviewed during a meeting gathering genebank managers, international experts and the COGENT Steering Committee in December 2007. The strategy aims to optimize the conservation of as much representative diversity as possible in the most cost-effective manner for the short, medium and long term.

The Polymotu approach was included in the global coconut strategy, as shown in the following extracts:

Page 16:

"A new conservation strategy, which involves planting of single coconut varieties on small islands, serves both conservation and breeding purposes. The geographical remoteness of the islets will ensure isolated reproductive systems that are needed for true-to-type breeding, avoiding the use of the costly technique of controlled pollination. This strategy includes both in situ and ex situ conservation – an Indonesian Islet, for instance, could be planted either with a local variety or a Polynesian variety."

Page 20:

"Promoting conservation through use by supporting national coconut breeding efforts in a globally coordinated breeding programme; testing new approaches to conservation such as the use of islets for in situ conservation as well as for breeding and seed nut production; linking with research activities to serve as platform for the utilization of conserved diversity; and developing catalogues of conserved germplasm and farmers’ varieties, high-value products and coconut food recipes, and other public awareness materials to increase coconut consumption.