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WORLDWIDE BIODIVERSITY/FOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS

Solomon Islands: More Trees Than Ever Being Felled and Exported.

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

February 9, 1995

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

The following article details the current forest crisis in the

Solomon Islands; and provides insights into how such clearly

unsustainable forest export levels are allowed to continue. This

item was posted in the econet conference reg.pacific, and is a

reprint of a FRONTLINE newspaper article.

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Topic 103 Cut now, pay later

dspratt reg.pacific 2:51 PM Feb 4, 1995

(at peg.UUCP)

CUT NOW, PAY LATER

Herb Thompson looks at forest industry of the Solomon Islands

Touchstone: `You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the

forest judge.' [William Shakespeare, `As You Like It', Act 3,

Scene 2]

An archipelago east of Papua New Guinea with a land area of 28,000

square kilometres spread across 1500 km of the South Pacific is

now known as the Solomon Islands. The country had been a British

Protectorate until independence in 1978. The main six islands

account for 80 per cent of the total land area and population. The

population is growing rapidly at about 3.5 per cent annually and

now amounts to about 310,000 people.

Ten per cent of the population lives in the capital city, Honiara.

Including subsistence activities, agriculture accounts for about

one-third of the nation's output. Major crops include coconut,

cocoa and palm oil. However, the most important resources of the

islands are to be found in forestry and fishing. These two sectors

account for about ten per cent of total valued output, but more

importantly, two-thirds of export earnings.

There is an existing potential for development of mineral

resources such as gold, bauxite and copper, but nothing as rich as

that found in Papua New Guinea has been found. Manufacturing

output is still small, accounting for only four per cent of the

gross domestic product and six per cent of formal employment. Most

manufacturing involves the processing of primary products.

Basic wage rates are relatively low and unemployment is a growing

problem as the cash nexus begins to bind the people together in a

variety of marketplaces. Most people of the islands travel by sea,

and the only reasonable road transportation is concentrated in

Honiara and the surrounding areas of Guadalcanal. This makes it

difficult for people to gain face-to-face contact with each other

and the increasingly important marketplace.

For the ostentatious consumers of the world the people of the

Solomons are poor. Per capita gross national product is about

US$450. This places the Solomon Islands in the lowest income group

of countries in the world. The wellbeing criteria would also put

the nation far down on the list, with only 15 per cent of the

adult population being literate and malaria a serious health

problem for everyone. However, for most of the population there is

a strong subsistence base and the extended family system has

helped to provide basic needs of food and shelter.

For a nation this poor, the forestry sector is of prime

importance. Tropical rainforests in the Solomons cover about 2.4

million hectares, or 85 per cent of the total land area. At

present only about 200,000 hectares are exploitable, the balance

growing on very steep slopes or in inaccessible areas. When the

government just ousted in November 1994, the National Coalition

Partnership, took office there was enthusiastic rhetoric

suggesting that logging could and would be brought under control.

The government promised to ban the export of round logs completely

by 1997 while, in the meantime, encouraging downstream processing

of timber. Instead of bringing it under control, more trees than

ever were felled and exported. The new government, under Solomon

Mamaloni, views economic development and the debt crisis as

problems of much more concern than preservation of the forests.

The Solomons, Papua New Guinea and Sarawak are the last places in

the South Seas that still export round logs. Under existing

logging licences, three million cubic metres of logs can be

harvested annually. This is nine times more than the somewhat

arbitrarily determined sustainable rate of 325,000 cubic metres.

Replanting operations, almost entirely on government land, cover

only about 1000 hectares per year. At this rate, a linear

projection suggests that the Solomon Island's forest resources

will be exhausted in 15 to 25 years.

As the National Ombudsman argued in 1989, "For many people, all

they have to sell are their trees, and logging companies will give

quick, easy money for them. The royalties and taxes they pay

contribute to our national economy but no one knows if we are

getting a fair price. We have little idea what the long term

effects of large scale logging will be on our rivers, our

soils and our climate."

The major focus is on obtaining greater economic returns from

logging, rather than developing a sustainable, environmentally

sound, timber industry. The reasons for this include a steady

worsening in the balance between government revenues and

expenditures, a chronic deterioration in the country's terms of

trade, and a pervasive psychological dependence on foreign aid to

bridge the domestic savings gap and the foreign exchange gap.

This has led to large-scale removal of trees without adequate

post-logging or other land regeneration measures. A number of

reforestation projects have been established with assistance from

donor countries and international lending agencies. Yet

nsustainable logging continues. The forest will judge. But it is

the next generation that will pay the penalty.

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From `FrontLine' newspaper, February 1995

FRONTLINE newspaper is published monthly in Melbourne, Australia

by a number of trade unions, with support from community

organisations, and is distributed free of charge throughout the

labour movement and through community groups.

FRONTLINE

71 Cromwell St, Collingwood 3066 Australia

* Tel 613 - 419 000 * Fax 613 - 416 1303

* email dspratt@peg.apc.org

* Subscriptions $A10 for ten issues, to above address.

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###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

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