Solomon Island’s uncontrolled logging dilemma: Roundtable’s agenda
Honiara, Solomon Islands, 5 March 2013 – Discussions at the Solomon Islands Prime Minister’s Roundtable on Development,
Society and Environment continues today in Honiara with logging being the subject of the morning session.
The Solomon Islands’ forestry industry faces the challenges of unsustainable logging and the unregulated conversion of
forests to other land uses.
In his keynote speech, Mr Wulf Killman of GIZ stated that the forestry industry cannot be short sighted and needs to
meet the needs of today’s generation as well as those of future generations.
He said that for a sustainable forestry industry there must be a balance between its economic, social and environmental
dimensions.
“If Solomon Islands wants to deal with this problem, it needs to improve its land-use planning, improve the
participatory processes (through free prior informed consent), adopt appropriate forest legislation and ensure its
enforcement,” Mr Killman suggested.
Mr Killman said that Costa Rica, by taking appropriate action, was able to increase its forest cover from 21% in 1987 to
47% by 2008. “The same can be done in Solomon Islands,” he concluded.
The participants of this forestry discussion agreed that although there are a few logging companies that abide by the
country’s laws and regulations, and even enjoy sustainability certification, there are a number of them that act in a
rogue manner and are tainting the reputation of the whole industry.
They insisted that there were a number of ways to put the industry on a sustainable footing for instance by
strengthening the enforcement of the legislation and regulations already in place, reviewing current legislation,
ensuring that all companies are members of the Solomon Islands Forest Industry Association (as required by law) before
they can operate, and ensuring that replanting with indigenous tree species is taken up seriously by the industry.
The Solomon Islands Prime Minister’s Roundtable on Development, Society and Environment continues in the afternoon with
discussions on the education and fisheries sectors.
The three day Roundtable, ending on 6 March, is the Solomon Islands Government’s initiative to find an effective way to
achieve a more inclusive model of development – a development model that benefits all the people of Solomon Islands. It
is being attended by over 30 representatives of government, the private sector and civil society from Solomon Islands.
The event is being supported by IUCN and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
About IUCN
IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing
environment and development challenges. IUCN works on biodiversity, climate change, energy, human livelihoods and
greening the world economy by supporting scientific research, managing field projects all over the world, and bringing
governments, NGOs, the UN and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice. IUCN is the world’s oldest
and largest global environmental organization, with more than 1,000 government and NGO members and almost 11,000
volunteer experts in some 160 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by over 1,000 staff in 60 offices and hundreds of
partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. IUCN’s Regional Office for Oceania is located in Suva,
Fiji.
About GIZ
The services delivered by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH draw on a wealth of
regional and technical expertise and tried and tested management know-how. As a federal enterprise, we support the
German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. We
are also engaged in international education work around the globe. GIZ operates in many fields: economic development and
employment promotion; governance and democracy; security, reconstruction, peacebuilding and civil conflict
transformation; food security, health and basic education; and environmental protection, resource conservation and
climate change mitigation. GIZ operates throughout Germany and in more than 130 countries worldwide. GIZ has been
working in the Pacific Region for 35 years. The projects share an office with a service unit in Suva, Fiji while the GIZ
country office in Manila in the Philippines is responsible for the region as a whole. A total of 10 seconded and 6
national experts work locally for GIZ. www.giz.de/en/
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