IF there’s one country that thrives on revenue received through illegal activities, it would be Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.
For the past 20 years Solomon Islands had been relying on revenue from log exports to finance its services, most of which came from logging companies which continually break the country’s code of logging practice.
More than 70 percent of the country’s national budget was financed by revenue received from log exports.
The breaches include logging of protected tree species, duplication of felling licenses, logging in protected areas, logging outside concession boundaries, logging on steep slopes, riverbanks and water catchments.
Breaches also mean logging without authorisation, obtaining logging concessions through bribes, transporting illegally harvested timber, declaring lower value and volumes of export logs, ignoring national and international environmental, social and labor laws and regulations.
Ninety percent of the above were committed by more than one hundred logging companies operating on the main islands of Solomon Islands except Rennell Bellona Province.
Although millions of dollars came into the country over the past decades, landowners and indigenous Solomon Islanders saw little or no benefit to sustain their livelihoods.
THE LOSERS
Indigenous Solomon Islanders are the losers in the multi-million dollar logging industry according to a former Commissioner of Forest Gideon Bouro.
Mr Bouro said that the landowners and license holders who are dominantly Solomon Islanders lose financially, socially and environmentally.
He said many of the social problems which had resulted in family divisions came about through logging operations through disagreements over land boundaries and allocations, sharing of royalties and host of other things.
Environmentally, Solomon Islanders lose out in these operations because most of the people’s trees and biodiversity were lost. Natural disasters not seen before are frequent nowadays such as flash floods and landslides.
He said people have seen many days of rain in the past but have not seen flash floods and landslides as had seen recently.
Mr Bouro said the current sharing of log export money is a bad arrangement for Solomon Islanders where the contractor gets 60 percent, government 25 percent and the license holder and the landowner share the remaining 15 percent, normally it would be 10 percent to the licensee and the landowner 5 percent.
The Licensee, under obligation is expected to meet community obligations and contributions while the landowner share the royalty with relatives, which further reduce their share of the royalty money.
He said under this arrangement, the contractor not only get the 60 percent but a little more than that through a 20 percent profit margin as well as transfer pricing.
Mr Bouro said logging companies are also good at making very high overhead costs in their calculations to avoid paying profit taxes to the government.
He said there are many more logging companies operating in Solomon Islands than in the previous ten years because of subsidies or funds provided by original companies enabling foreign workers starting up logging companies.
“The creation of these subsidiary companies came about through an employee of the original company, mostly of Asian origin breaking off from the main company and after acquiring a few logging machines, establish another company,” said Mr Bouro.
He said many of the logging companies now operating in Solomon Islands country got their licenses to operate during the ethnic tension era when there was no law and order and their applications have not gone through the proper screening processes and procedures.
Mr Bouro confirmed receiving calls from permanent secretaries and other government officers during the ethnic tension era seeking directives from him whether or not they can issue logging licenses.
He said this is the reason why a lot of logging companies are cutting trees from the islands.
Mr Bouro also said that a lot of the country’s exportable trees on flat lands have gone and the only remaining natural forests are those on steep hills and areas prohibited under the country’s forestry Act.
But he said logging activities on Isabel and Western Provinces are going towards and above the 400 meter altitude which can be very devastating environmentally.
He said Solomon Islanders should now think seriously about the future of their forest and its biodiversity and turn to other alternatives such as agro-forestry, conservation and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Fund which can sustain the forest into the future.
STORIES FROM THE COMMUNITIES
The effects of loss are being felt by various communities in Solomon Islands.
Moli community in Choiseul Province was a community which had engaged in logging activities more than ten years ago and after Eagon Company left them, the people not only felt hopeless but their standard of living had declined.
A Moli village elder and Eagon logging company’s Public relations officer Paul Telovai said the once sharing community is now charging all activities carried out even between relatives.
“It is now very unusual that brothers and sisters put a price tag on all activities which were done freely in the past such as clearing land for gardens and even assist in helping build houses. Communal work is not as good as it used to be because people expect money to be paid before any is done”.Mr Telovai said the company left without fulfilling its promise to pay the salary of a nurse in the village’s clinic and the classrooms are rusting away with no funds to have them repaired.
A logging Camp site
He said life is even harder than the days before logging company came and the damages remain until today.
In the Western Province of Solomon islands, women are complaining that streams are getting murky, undrinkable and fire wood are hard to collect.
They are being pushed aside when it comes to logging issues, which they are not happy about.
They confirmed sexual exploitation in logging camps with foreigners entering into false marriages only to leave their so called “wife to look after babies while the foreigner worker leaves for his home country, never to return again”.
This has resulted in children being abandoned or are left with parents who are faced with more difficulties in bringing the children up.
They confirm losing environmentally, culturally, and financially through logging activities and advised communities that have not gone through logging to forget it because logging will cause more problem that profits and benefits.
LICENSE HOLDERS ARE ALSO LOSERS
Even licensees, perceived by Solomon Islanders as being receivers of huge amounts of money are losers.
One of the licensees who managed two logging operations on Makira Island, Mike Saeki confirmed that most of the money received were spent on landowners’ demands, such air and sea fares, hospital and medical costs and other community contributions.
Mr Saeki said logging companies give money to licensees as advances and must be repaid in full after every shipment. He said after shipments, licensees don’t have enough money that they start advancing money from the companies again and when companies leave, they are left with very little money or not at all to allow them venture into other income generating activities.
The situation continues today and within a few years from today, Solomon Islands will not be in a position to export good volumes of round logs which will result in a drastic drop in the country’s revenue to finance its services.
A ban on logging will have little effect financially, socially and environmentally to Solomon Islands and its people because damages have been done by logging companies for more than 20 years.
Article from Live & Learn Media Centre, Chinatown
[source: http://www.solomonstarnews.com/]
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