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Lifou Island

Pacific island of New Caledonia

Summary

Pacific island of New Caledonia

Field	Value
name	Lifou
image_name	Loyalty islands Lifou map.png
image_caption	Map of Lifou, the central island in the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia.
map_image	Loyalty Islands map.png
location	Pacific Ocean
coordinates
archipelago	Loyalty Islands
area_km2	1207
length_km	81
width_min_km	16
width_max_km	24
country	France
country_admin_divisions_title	Sui generis collectivity
country_admin_divisions	New Caledonia
country_admin_divisions_title_1	Commune
country_admin_divisions_1	Lifou
population	10,151
population_as_of	2004
density_km2	8.48
ethnic_groups	Kanaks 96.9%, Europeans 2.6%, Polynesians 0.1%, Other 0.4%

Lifou Island, historically spelt Lifu or Lefu in English, and known as Drehu in the local language, is the largest, most populous and most important island of the Loyalty Islands, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. With a total area of 1,207 km2, Lifou is located east of Australia at .

Background

The first European to sight the island was Frenchman Dumont d’Urville in 1857. It was soon after visited by whalers and traders, and became a destination for Protestant and Catholic missionaries to proselytize the indigenous population. In 1864 the islands were annexed by France who in turn established it as an Aboriginal Reserve as it was not believed suitable for extensive colonialization.

Administration

The island is part of the commune (municipality) of Lifou, in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia. The administrative center of the commune is located at Wé, on the east side of Lifou Island at Chateaubriand Bay. The local currency is the CFP Franc (French Pacific Franc).

Geography

Irregular in shape, Lifou Island is 81 km long and 16 to wide. The island has no rivers, but has abundant vegetation, dense interior jungles, fertile soils, terraced cliffs and coral reefs.

Lifou Island is a former coral atoll that was part of a submerged volcano. Nearly 2 million years ago, the island was uplifted to its present shape and elevation, today it sits at a mere 60m above sea level at its highest point. Since there are no rivers on Lifou, the water comes from rain that seeps through the calcareous soil and forms freshwater ponds.

Important Bird Area

The forested Wetr district, comprising the northern part of Lifou, has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of red-bellied fruit doves, grey-eared honeyeaters, New Caledonian friarbirds, New Caledonian myzomelas, fan-tailed gerygones, South Melanesian cuckooshrikes, long-tailed trillers, streaked fantails, Melanesian flycatchers, large and small Lifou white-eyes, and striated starlings.

Food

With its rich Pacific waters, marine life such as fish, crab, lobster and turtle are in abundance, along with domesticated animals such as goat, pig and chicken . Crops include coconut, banana, taro, sweet potato, yam and vanilla. At the same time, the French introduction of coffee stayed on .

Economy

Tourism is a major industry on the island. P&O, Carnival Australia and, Royal Caribbean visit Lifou bringing thousands of visitors each month.

Chief exports include copra, rubber, vanilla and sugarcane.

Culture

The term Kanak is used for natives of the islands and their native language of the island is Drehu, with people descending from Melanesians and Polynesians. With a total of 19 different tribes inhabiting the three Loyalty Islands, six of which are on Lifou.

The current traditional high chief of the island is Evanès Boula, who in total is chief of 13 of these 19 Loyalty Islands tribes, succeeding Henri Boula on 13 June 1999. To the natives of the island, his word is law, and his power is absolute.

Gallery

File: Shore of Lifou Island.jpg

File: Lifou Island View No. 1.jpg

File: Lifou Island View No. 2.jpg

File: Church of St Francis Xavier.jpg

File: Lifou Island Grotto No. 1.jpg

File: Lifou Island Grotto No. 2.jpg

References

"Lifou, an island of many faces". www.iles-loyaute.com.
"Discover Lifou". en.newcaledonia-tv.com.
"Lifou, Loyalty Island". www.royalcaribbean.com.
. (2021). ["Wetr District in Lifou"](https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/district-de-wetr-à-lifou-iba-new-caledonia-(to-france)). *BirdLife International*.
(2023-11-10). "15 BEST Things To Do In Lifou: Cruise Passengers & More".
"New Caledonia". www.everyculture.com/.
"LÖSSI (High Chiefdom)". members.iinet.net.au.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

islands-of-new-caledonia loyalty-islands important-bird-areas-of-new-caledonia

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