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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Australia Cancels Solomon Islands Forest Aid

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

January 1, 1996

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

Following is a photocopy of an Associated Press article which

details the tremendously important cancellation of Australian

forestry aid to the Solomon Islands based on out of control forest

exploitation which is expected to leave the islands denuded of

virgin forests within 15 years.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Subject: Australia Cancels Island's Aid

Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 3:50:16 PST

Organization: Copyright 1995 by The Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia Thursday canceled $1.65

million worth of annual forest aid to the Solomon Islands and

accused the tiny South Pacific nation of decimating its unique

rain forests.

The exploitation of tropical forests is a major issue in several

island nations where mostly Asian lumber firms have razed thick

jungles into vast tracts of open space.

Environmentalists have accused some cash-strapped island

governments and indigenous landowners of pursuing quick profits

and sometimes graft from foreign loggers.

Australia's Pacific Islands Minister Gordon Bilney said that at

the current rate of logging in the Solomon Islands, all the

forests there could be cut down within 15 years.

"If the Solomon Islands does not reform its forestry sector,

there will be nothing left," Bilney said.

He said Australia is not prepared "to hand out aid dollars" to

a country that refuses to practice responsible policies.

Timber is a major export for the Solomon Islands, an

impoverished archipelago northwest of Australia that gained

independence from Britain in 1978.

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