The island of Makira (previously known as San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in Solomon Islands. It is third most populous of the Solomon Islands after Malaita and Guadalcanal, with a population of 55,126 as of 2020. The island is located east of Guadalcanal and south of Malaita. The largest and capital city is Kirakira.
History
The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Makira was by the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña in June 1568. More precisely the sighting and also landing in San Cristóbal was due to a local voyage that set out from
Guadalcanal in a small boat, in the accounts the
brigantine Santiago, commanded by Alférez Hernando Enriquez and having Hernán Gallego as pilot. They charted it as
San Cristóbal.
[Sharp, Andrew The discovery of the Pacific Islands Oxford, 1960, pp.46,47.][Brand, Donald D. The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations The American Geographical Society, New York, 1967, p.133.]
Education
The Stuyvenberg Rural Training Centre is a rural
Boarding school centre of vocational education by the Society of Mary, located on the north coast of eastern Makira.
Environment
A 182,550 ha tract of largely forested land encompassing the eastern part of the island has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports populations of several
threatened or
endemism bird species. The site extends from the rocky cliffs of the coast to the island's central Bauro Highlands, including the catchments of the Warihito and Raro Rivers, reaching an altitude of 1,200 m, and consisting largely of tropical rainforest. The landscape is rugged, with steep-sided valleys, many streams and waterfalls, and small perched floodplains. Potential threats to the environment are
logging,
invasive species and human population growth.
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Birds
Significant birds include Melanesian scrubfowl, yellow-legged pigeons, crested cuckoo-doves, red-knobbed and chestnut-bellied imperial pigeons, white-headed fruit doves,
,
, Sanford's sea eagles, San Cristobal dwarf kingfishers, Meek's and
, yellow-bibbed lories, green pygmy-parrots, Makira honeyeaters,
, long-tailed trillers,
, Makira flycatchers, white-collared and
, island leaf-warblers, shade bush warblers, grey-throated white-eyes,
,
and mottled flowerpeckers. The
Makira woodhen, or moorhen, has not been seen since 1953; the thick-billed ground dove has not been recorded since 1927 and is presumed extinct.
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]
Other biota
Five species of restricted-range have been recorded, as well as a possibly new species of giant rat ( Solomys). There are two species of endemic fig ( Ficus).[
]
Notable people
Gallery
File:Kirakira Local Dwellings.JPG|Some of the local houses next to the beach at Kirakira
File:Kirakira Beach at Sunset.JPG|A Kirakira beach at sunset
External links
