Pacific Islands Environment Outlook - UNEP

8
STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Box 1.1: Logging in Solomon Islands
Deforestation and forest degradation in Solomon Islands provide a
good example of a failure adequately to consider the environmental
and social costs of logging. Logging for export started in 1961, and
has accelerated over the past few years. Half the viable (non-steepsloped)
resource has now been logged, with extraction rates having
almost doubled between 1991 and 1992. At current rates, harvesting
cannot be sustained for more than eight years and the cessation of
logging is likely to produce a significant drop in national income and
output. A recent economic assessment by the ADB estimates
sustainable annual yields at 270 000 m 3 , yet logging licences have
been granted for up to 1.4 million m 3 per annum. Reforestation or
regeneration of the forests will take 30–40 years in those areas that
have been carefully logged. There has been widespread damage to
the residual forests and forest site productivity, with the result that
reforestation or regeneration may take anything from 45 to 200 years.
Significant under-reporting of volumes and values has eroded the
returns to Solomon Islands in the form of royalties and export tax. No
significant environmental analysis has been used as an input into
decisions on logging in Solomon Islands, despite available evidence
from other parts of the world which indicate that the costs, in similar
circumstances, can be substantial.
Source: UNDP (1994)
medicinal and food plants; capturing animals for food, and
sometimes for textile production. Loss of forest habitat
reduces the availability of medicinal plants and gathered
foodstuff, negatively affects wildlife, and can have a
negative impact on family nutrition, with the result that
women are faced with more health care responsibilities.
When forests are logged and land is allowed to degrade,
subsistence gardens must be moved further from villages,
and fuel wood must be carried longer distances. This
significantly increases women’s work loads and can have a
negative impact on women’s health and their ability to
meet family and community responsibilities. Additional
social problems can result from medium- and large-scale
forest development, including breakdowns of traditional
systems of social sanctions and, as men gain income, an
increase in alcohol consumption (which is often linked to
an increase in violence against women). Deforestation and
forest degradation are also known to be associated with
increased flash floods and low flows of rivers and streams.
Trends forecast to 2010
Since the commercial extraction of logs has been
largely driven by offshore demand, particularly in the
expanding Asian economies, it is of some interest to see
how the economic downturn in that region will affect
the rate of timber extraction. Anecdotal evidence
suggests that in PNG some operators have faded from
the scene, whilst (legal) operations were assisted in
that country and in the Solomon Islands when their
currency was devalued to offset the impact of the
economic difficulties in south-east Asia.
In the larger island countries, particularly in PNG,
Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, efforts to reduce the
rate of logging to more sustainable levels, to implement
the codes of logging practice, and to develop and
implement other sustainable forest management
measures (e.g. criteria and indicators, forest
certification) are expected to continue. The success of
these measures will be affected by continuing pressure
on these governments to maintain a relatively high
(and unsustainable) rate of logging in order to generate
revenues needed for development and other
programmes. Fiji will soon be ready to begin harvesting
its mahogany plantations, and also to play a role in the
on-going global efforts to demonstrate that sustainable
forest management policies and practices can be
developed and implemented.
In the smaller island countries, it is likely that
people’s awareness of the role of forests and trees in
sustaining, and improving, the livelihoods of
communities will increase, and greater efforts will be
made to protect and enhance the remaining forest and
tree resources.
Conclusion
Forests and trees throughout the Pacific region are
being removed or degraded at an unsustainable rate. In
some countries (such as Samoa), merchantable timber
resources are forecast to run out before the end of this
decade (GOWS 1994). In most countries, the rate of
deforestation and forest degradation far outstrips the
rate of reforestation, which has until recently focused
primarily on plantation establishment. Greater
emphasis should be placed on: reducing the rate of
logging or tree cover removal to sustainable levels; the
effective implementation of codes of logging practice
and reduced impact harvesting techniques to reduce the
adverse impacts of logging on social, environmental and
biodiversity elements; and increased use of natural
regeneration to provide the next forest crop. Greater
emphasis should also be placed on the sustainable
harvesting and development of NWFPs (e.g. food,
medicines, clean water, biodiversity of flora and fauna)
and services (e.g. coastal protection, habitat for wildlife,
reduction of soil erosion, regulation of water flow and
quality). Given the critical importance of forests and
trees to the region – socially, economically and
ecologically – it is imperative that the effective