Solomon Islands Potential World Heritage Area for Clear Felling

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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7/28/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

One of the most beautiful and ecologically astounding lagoons in the

South Pacific, a proposed World Heritage Area, is to have much of its

forests clearcut for oil palm--despite the objections of the area's

indigenous population. Shredding ecological systems for short-term

gain is a dubious development strategy perfected in the good ole US of

A. There will be an ecological reckoning if wanton destruction of the

ecological systems upon which all life is dependent is not halted and

reversed through restoration.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: SOLOMON ISLANDS FOREST TO BE SIGNED OVER FOR CLEAR FELLING

Source: World Wide Fund for Nature (South Pacific),

emealey@wwfpacific.org.fj

Date: July 28, 1999

28 July, 1999 - Solomon Islands- The Government of the Solomon Islands

is preparing to sign over 10,000 hectares of rainforest land on

Vangunu Island in Marovo Lagoon to the logging company Sylvania Timber

Products at a special ceremony in Honiara tomorrow.

This is despite the Government's previous promise to await the outcome

of an intensive area-wide planning process that has been looking at

economic alternatives to Sylvania's oil palm plantation proposal.

Sylvania is proposing to clear fell some 6,000 hectares of land, known

as Lot 16, in order to establish an oil palm plantation. The company

has also expressed interest in extending the oil palm plantation into

surrounding areas of virgin rainforest held under customary tenure.

Oil palm, which is grown for its oil by-product, is notorious

throughout the Pacific because it wipes out native forests, strips

soils of nutrients and pollutes nearby rivers and reefs through soil

run-off.

The signing-over ceremony at Parliament House tomorrow (2pm Thursday)

is taking place despite strong opposition from the landowners

represented by the Marovo Butubutu Development Foundation and the

Marovo Council of Chiefs. The landowners have fought Sylvania's plan

to clear fell Lot 16 for the past three years.

The Marovo Butubutu Development Foundation and Marovo Council of

Chiefs argue that clear-felling the land will have dramatic

environmental impacts including high levels of soil erosion on land

and siltation of Marovo Lagoon which is being proposed for listing as

a World Heritage site. They are also concerned about oil palm's high

nutrient demand which is likely to deplete the weathered volcanic

soils of the island, increasing the need for massive doses of nitrate

and phosphate fertilisers. The people fear that the fertiliser would

leach straight through the topsoil and into the coral-rich lagoon

where it would generate ecologically dangerous levels of

eutrophication.

WWF, through its five-year-old Community Resource Conservation and

Development project has been working with the Marovo landowners to

research alternative developments for Lot 16. Proposals include

sustainable agricultural and forestry alternatives such as replanting

the areas Sylvania has already logged with Balsa (a high value export

commodity that requires no industrial infrastructure, bulldozers or

roads - unlike oil palm); growing high value fruit and vegetables for

domestic and tourist markets; and developing the ecotourism potential

of Marovo Lagoon.

Only a very few of the landowners of Marovo were made aware of the

intended sign over. At a meeting in May with Prime Minister, Mr

Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, the landowners were assured that no decision

would be made until the Government received an alternative development

proposal agreed by all the Marovo landowners.

However, since then, there has been major civil unrest in the country

arising from long-held tensions between the Malaitan and Guadalcanal

communities. This led to the imposition of a State of Emergency which

is still in force.

Contact: Elisabeth Mealey, World Wide Fund for Nature, South Pacific

Program, Suva, Fiji: 679-315533.

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