Solomon Islands: Logging and Palm Oil Plantation Found Not Economic
4/14/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Solomon Islands: Greenpeace Finds Logging and Palm Oil
Plantation not Economic
Source: Greenpeace
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: April 14, 1999
Marovo Lagoon: 14th April, 1999: Greenpeace Pacific says there are
parallels between the findings of a Solomon Islands study it released
today and developments in Papua New Guinea. Forests specialist Brian
Brunton says there are some lessons in the report "Islands Adrift"
for Papua New Guinean landowners faced with a choice between
industrial logging and small to medium scale activities.
" In the long term, activities the landowners can control themselves,
and which have minimum impact on their environment, will prove the
most lucrative," said Brunton.
The economic report on Marovo Lagoon area in the Western Province of
Solomon Islands found small-scale cash generating development options
are worth three times those of industrial logging and an oil palm
plantation.
"Going by the report findings, there should be no logging or
plantations allowed in Marovo," said Phillip Pupuka, Greenpeace
Solomon Islands Director.
"Simply, the cash benefits to local people of small-scale activities
like fishing and other marine products, ecotourism, carving and
ecotimber are much greater than those of logging and oil palm, and
there are serious environmental and social risks with industrial
options."
The research, by an independent resource economist from USA and fully
peer-reviewed, found that small-scale options had a Present Value to
landowners of US$29 million compared to US$8 million for industrial
options. It found that further logging, the proposed oil palm
plantation, and any mining would produce potentially extreme
environmental impacts on local marine resources uses (PV US$21
million) such as reef fishing, beche-de-mer, shell fish, and bait
fish for the multi-million dollar tuna fishery, and may exclude
enterprises such as eco-timber and ecotourism altogether.
"We have analysed only part of the values associated with Marovo's
natural resources, so the benefit of small-scale options would be
much greater," said Greenpeace Pacific forest campaign Grant Rosoman.
"It confirms to us that Solomon Islands is rich in local resources,
that they are essential for maintaining and improving the quality of
life of local villagers, and that industrial-scale options are not
appropriate for Melanesia."
"We urge donor governments and regional institutions to review any
support they may be giving to industrial-scale activities in Solomon
Islands, in favour of adopting small to medium scale as the preferred
development option," Mr Rosoman said.
The research involved a village survey to gather information on local
resource values, used information from the Ministry for Forests,
Environment and Conservation to complete the logging analysis, and
based analysis on the palm oil plantation on the Malaysian company
Kumpulan Emas's proposal.
For more information contact:
Phillip Pupuka and Grant Rosoman in Solomon Islands: (677) 20455 or
(677) Brian Brunton in Port Moresby: PH/FAX- 3260560. Samantha Magick
in Fiji: PH- (679) 312861.
Samantha Magick
Political/communications officer
Greenpeace Pacific
Private Mail Bag
Suva
ph: (679) 312861 fx: (679) 312784