Fuiono Senio

{{Short description|Samoan chief (died 1997)}} {{Infobox person | name = Fuiono Senio | image = Cox & Senio 1997 Goldman Environmental Prize.jpg | caption = 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. | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date |1997|5|17|df=y}} | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | monuments = | other_names = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Chief and environmentalist | years_active = | employer = | organization = | agent = | known_for = | notable_works = | style = | television = | spouse = | partner = | children = | father = | relatives = | 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.<ref>Fa'asao Savai'i Society The Rain Forest and the Flying Foxes, 1998</ref>

He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1997, shared with Paul Alan Cox, for their contributions to the protection of rainforests of Falealupo.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.goldmanprize.org/node/94|title=Islands and Island Nations 1997. Paul Cox & Fuiono Senio. Forests|publisher=Goldman Environmental Prize|accessdate=21 November 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615064951/http://www.goldmanprize.org/node/94|archivedate=15 June 2011}}</ref>

He died of liver cancer a month after receiving the Goldman prize.

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Senio, Fuiono}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:1997 deaths Category:Samoan chiefs Category:Samoan environmentalists Category:People from Vaisigano Category:Deaths from liver cancer Category:Deaths from cancer in Samoa Category:Goldman Environmental Prize awardees