The Tokelau project started with a phone call during lockdown five years ago. Conservation International had been successful with its proposal to MFAT, and wanted us to contribute to a very different sort of aid programme—an initiative that allowed communities to take conservation into their own hands. The kaupapa meshed well with new citizen science tools we were developing.
Over nine long, hot days in Tokelau, the Conservation International team ran education programmes in each of the schools, conducted biodiversity surveys in the lagoon, and across the dozens of motu, and out at sea. New Zealand Geographic collected environmental DNA samples, trained teams on each atoll to build photogrammetric models of coral reefs using mobile phones and shot virtual reality videos to allow Tokelauans, near and far, to get a first-hand experience of island life.
You can now travel virtually to Tokelau—visit nzgeo.com/tokelau to fly over the atolls, dive beneath the waves, hunt for coconut crabs and explore one of the most remote island nations on the planet.
