Logging Takes its Toll
The accelerating rate of logging by large-scale commercial
operations in Melanesia has alarmed even the World Bank.
Melanesia, which includes Papua New Guinea, Solomon Is., Vanuatu,
Fiji and Kanaky (New Caledonia), has witnessed escalating
conflict over its rich natural resources. Landowners are fighting
for their rights and their future against corrupt governments and
destructive companies. Melanesia's "logging fields" are
the latest arena where these bitter conflicts are being fought --
nowhere more than in the Solomons Islands.
Community tension over government-supported logging of disputed lands on Pavuvu Island has lead to one murder, one suspicious death, and escalating violence. Maving Brothers Ltd, a Malaysian company, has logged half the remaining forest already, and is planning to move in on the rest. The indigenous landowners are fighting to regain control of their lands and establish small- scale village-based "ecoforestry". In the Solomon Is. logging continues at three times the estimated sustainable level, with production forests predicted to be logged within the next ten years. Logging practices by the mainly Malaysian and South Korean companies are uncontrolled and destructive, and supply the Japanese and Korean log market. With more than 60% of government revenue derived from log export levies, forest depletion means a looming disaster for the economy.
The Solomon Is. lie to the northeast of Australia and east of
Papua New Guinea. A land area of nearly 30,000 square kilometres
is spread over some 992 islands. It has a population of around
340,000 that is growing at 3.5% per year. Although a former
British colony, approximately 90% of the land in Solomon Is. is
customarily owned by family groups. Around two-thirds of the
Solomon Is. is covered with tropical forest, and many of the
people still live in villages that depend on the forest for their
survival.
The last 10 years has seen a wave of foreign logging companies
sweep through Solomon Is. The current level of official
production of 830,000 cubic metres, mainly whole log exports, is
running at nearly three times the sustainable level, according to
the 1994 Annual Report of the Central Bank of Solomon Is.
Considerable concern has been raised over this situation, from
within the Solomon Is. and in the wider Pacific region, and also
in the international financial institutions the IMF and ADB. With
more than 60% of government revenue coming from tariffs on log
exports to Japan and Korea, the country's economy seems locked
into a spiral of resource depletion and unsustainable
development.
The Solomon Star newspaper reported on 10th November that
US$2.2 million was paid in bribes from the logging company
Integrated Forestry Industry Ltd, a subsidiary of Malaysian
company Kumpulan Emas, to Ministers and other government
employees. This revelation has shaken the country, with many
calls for the resignation or sacking of the Ministers concerned.
A large protest march occurred in the capital, Honiara on 29th
November, called by the Union, Churches and Non-Government
Organisations.
The journalist Duran Angiki, who reported the story for the Star
was sacked following pressure from the government and logging
companies. He is now taking legal action against the newspaper
for his dismissal. However, on 4th December, three of the seven
Solomon Island Government Ministers charged appeared in the
Central Magistrates Court in the capital Honiara on corruption
charges.
Some of the logging companies come with a record of destruction
from the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Logging by Malaysian company
Maving Brothers Ltd has been at the heart of a controversy in the
Russells Is. over corruption, land rights, and environmental
destruction. Violence in the Russells Is. is escalating as
logging divides communities into those who support the logging
and receive payments from it, and those who oppose it.
With the long-standing armed conflict on nearby Bougainville and
tension between mining companies and landowners elsewhere in
Melanesia, logging is a major threat to the stability and
security of the region. Revenue from logging is huge, but less
than 5% of the profits actually stay with the resource owners.
The companies and government take the lion's share.
Until recently, the only opportunity for landowners to make a
financial income from their forest resources, was through
logging. It was part of a dilemma that many face: they need cash
for education, health, housing and consumer goods but want to
protect their natural resources for the future. However, a tide
of small-scale alternatives is rising to challenge destructive
foreign logging. One of these landowner alternatives is
`ecoforestry', or harvesting timber in an ecologically and
socially responsible way. Greenpeace has been working with the
Russell Island communities and with the New Zealand Imported
Tropical Timber Group (ITTG) to establish these initiatives.
The controversial government logging of Pavuvu Is in the Russells
Group has divided a peaceful community, with the recent murder of
anti-logging leader Martin Apa. He was brutally killed on 30th
October as the Malaysian company Maving Brothers was making a
push to log the rest of Pavuvu Is. It has been claimed that both
the company and the Solomons government are implicated in the
murder, the government doubly so through failing after a month to
send an investigative team to find his killers.
Previously, in July this year, tensions reached a high point as
frustrated local landowners set three company bulldozers on fire.
The Russell Is. lie 45 km northwest of Guadalcanal in Central
Solomon Is. The 12,427 ha Pavuvu Island is the largest of the 20
inhabited islands of the Russells group. Few people currently
live on Pavuvu, because late last century missionaries, traders
and developers forced the indigenous people to move to outer
islands.
Considerable areas in northern Pavuvu have been cleared of
rainforest for coconut and cocoa plantations. The 1000-metre
strip encircling the lower half of the island was not developed
(it has been logged now), and since the late 1980s Levers, who
have leased much of the forest since colonial times, have been
unable to clear the forest due to a corporate policy that
prohibits clearing rainforests. Levers Solomon Island Ltd. still
has a current lease over most of these areas, though Levers
International sold their interests in the company last year.
In the 1960s and 1970s the indigenous landowners of Pavuvu (known
as the Lavukal) began a campaign to have the lands leased by
Levers, or what is known as the `alienated lands' returned to
customary control. They have been fighting ever since, with the
1990s seeing this intensified under the threat of logging. The
main avenue to have the land returned is via legislation that
covers the Alienated Lands, where a requirement is that the
indigenous communities must have a viable development project for
the land.
An Australian aid-funded forest assessment in 1992 found that
Pavuvu contains more than 130,000 cubic metres of harvestable
logs, worth more than US$20 million. However, the landowners have
ideas other than logging. They have developed their own
resettlement scheme that involves establishing a landowner
company, Lavukal Resources Development Ltd, and includes small-
scale ecoforestry and ecotourism. As of November 1995, a total of
12 Russell Islanders had been through a six-week ecoforestry
training course, with several now completing management plans in
preparation for harvesting on their customary land on Pavuvu
Island. They are very near to harvesting and marketing timber.
The ITTG-supported ecoforestry training has received funding from
the New Zealand government.
Into the picture in the early 1990s came a Malaysian logging
company, Maving Brothers Ltd. The Maving Bros company directors
include Solomon Islander Robert Belo, and Malaysians Hii Kiong
Mee and Hii Yew Mee. Working with politicians, they have secured
a licence to log the alienated lands to pave the way for a
proposed government "development" and resettlement
scheme. They tried to start operations in 1992 but were forced to
back off after landowners threatened to burn their machinery.
They returned in 1995 with the support of the recently returned
Mamaloni government, and the government paramilitary defence
force.
In February 1995, the ousting of Central Province premier Nelson
Ratu by pro-logging provincial members, allowed the final
'approval' to be given for logging to start by Maving Brothers.
When the logging equipment arrived the landowners began a
peaceful protest at the logging camp. The government responded by
having a Paramilitary Field Force (PFF) move in and make arrests.
The PFF has been stationed there ever since in support of the
company and vested government interests. Landowners have tried
every peaceful means possible to have the Solomons government
halt the logging and address their concerns, including many
meetings, a petition and peaceful rallies.
Government propaganda claims that all the landowners now support
logging. Alan Kemakeza, Minister of Forests, Conservation and
Environment claims that "the Pavuvu alienated lands are
owned by the government, not the people of Russell Islands".
Yet he also says the reason for the logging is for resettlement
and return of the lands to the customary owners. Since April
1995, the trees have been falling at a rapid rate. The only fresh
water source on southern Pavuvu has been polluted with silt and
many shipments of logs have already been shipped to Japan.
With the "alienated" lands almost exhausted, the
company is now pursuing logging of the actual customary lands. It
is expected that bogus "landowners" will sign
agreements to log these areas, pitting the actual landowners in
further direct conflict with the company and government.
An investigative mission by the opposition party in Solomon Is.
recommended that the logging be halted immediately and the land
returned to the customary landowners. A recent investigative
visit by Greenpeace to Pavuvu confirmed local reports of illegal
and destructive practices. According to Greenpeace Solomon Is.
Forests Campaigner Lawrence Makili, both the government and the
company are guilty of lies and destructive practices.
"We found that more than half the logs at the Pavuvu camp
were undersize, there was illegal logging on customary-owned
land, and destructive practices such as cutting next to a stream
and hauling the log up the stream bed. Yet before logging started
in April, the government promised landowners that the operations
would be controlled and monitored by government forestry, lands
and agriculture officers. None of this has happened. There's only
destruction," he said. "When a company representative
was asked about the undersize logs, he said`they came from when
large trees have fallen onto small ones, but this does not
account for the large proportion and we observed free-standing
small trees that had been felled."
Despite widespread public condemnation of the logging, the
government has refused to halt it and address the concerns of the
landowners. A public opinion poll in Honiara in June found that
85% of people agreed that landowners should have the first say
over any development of their land. "This failure of the
government to respect customary land rights threatens the very
foundation stone of Melanesian culture. It is not government for
the people but basic profiteering for a few people," Makili
said.
* Don't buy tropical timber from Solomon Is unless it is from a
certified ecoforestry source
* Send a letter to the Prime Minister of Solomon Is., Solomon
Mamaloni, urging him to halt the logging immediately, return the
Pavuvu lands to the customary owners and fully investigate Martin
Apa's murder. Use the following letter as a basis but make
changes.
Model Letter:
Prime Minister of Solomon Is.
Rt Hon Solomon Mamaloni
Prime Ministers Office
P.O. Box G1 HONIARA
Solomon Is.
Fax: 677 26088
Dear Prime Minister ,
Logging of your country's forests has been in the news a lot
lately. I was shocked to read that your government is supporting
a Malaysian company to log forests on Pavuvu Island when the
landowners strongly oppose it. Of even more concern is the brutal
murder of a local man who was opposed to the logging, and that
your government has failed to investigate his death. From the
outside it seems that your country is slipping further towards
violent conflict similar to neighbouring Bougainville, and that
the foreign logging companies have more say in the running of the
country than the people of Solomon Is..
I have been told that customary rights to land and resources is
the cornerstone of Solomon Is. and Melanesian culture. The lesson
the world over is that abuses of indigenous peoples' rights haunt
and burden future generations, as they have to redress the
injustice at some stage. Is this the legacy you wish on your
grandchildren? Also, with the excessively high rates of logging
occurring in your country, surely it would be better to support
local village people to use their forest resources in a way that
is sustainable, such as the small-scale timber production plans
by the Russell Islanders.
I urge you to halt logging on Pavuvu Island immediately before
further blood is shed within the Russell Island communities, and
return all lands alienated from the customary owners back to
those rightful owners. I urge you also to immediately start an
investigation of Martin Apa's death and ensure that justice is
carried out.
Yours sincerely ... (: your name :)