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PNG RAINFOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS

Solomon Islands Forests to be Cleared before Controls in Place

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

July 12, 1995

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

Here is a report on the Solomon Islands forestry situation since

the new Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Solomon Mamoloni, took

office some four months old. The _Islands Business Pacific_

(April, 1995) reports that the moratorium on the issuing of new

logging licenses, of his predecessor's making, has been moved back

two years to 1999. Mamoloni says he also wants a log export ban

in 1999. The article also points out current logging is at 9

times sustainable levels and loggable rainforests will be finished

by the turn of the century. A bit ironic; logging controls will

come in one year before there is nothing left to cut. The article

covered many aspects of Mamoloni's administration; with the forest

policy portion presented here.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Source: Islands Business Pacific

Date: April, 1995

Page 49

...On forestry, the Mamoloni Government is considering slapping a

total ban on the export of roundlogs by 1999--two years behind a

target set by the previous government of Francis Billy Hilly. The

government also announced that it would honour a moratorium on new

logging licences imposed by Hilly's National Coalition Partnership

government. However, it intends to review it.

Foreign licensed loggers operating in Solomon Islands are capable

of harvesting up to three million cubic metres of logs a year,

nine times the sustainable rate of harvesting. At this rate it is

estimated that all loggable rainforests in Solomon Islands will

have disappeared by the turn of the century...

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responsibility for verifying all information rests with the

reader. Check out our Gaia Forest Conservation Archives at URL=

http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html

Networked by:

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