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Article

17 Dec 2014

Author:
Fitsum Weldegiorgis, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining

Logging, Mining and Climate Vulnerability in the Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands (SI) possess an eco-region with distinct rainforest and some untapped minerals. The archipelago is ranked one of the highest categories having been named ‘globally outstanding’ in the 1998 global biodiversity analysis. However, uneconomical logging activities have been the mainstay economic sources for more than three decades. Aided by the influx of foreign logging companies and increasing issuing of licenses, the country has been logging at a rate 2 to 4 times more than the sustainable yields making the industry the largest generator of employment and dominant contributor to exports and government revenue. Based on World Bank data, net forest depletion in the country has been increasing at an alarming rate of five times each year in the last ten years. The Solomon archipelago is also highly vulnerable to climate change and the country had the first township in the Pacific to be fully relocated due to climate change threats. ... Given mining started to joint-account (with logging) for more than 40% of GDP, there has been massive livelihood shift into mining. The main social issues include land entitlement uncertainties, loss of housing and customary livelihoods, lack of capacity and background to adapt to new ways of living mainly gardening, issues with the newly erected resettlement housing, lack of water and schooling for children due to the added distance from the existing schools and water sources, and the danger of social conflict as a result of clustered community groups from various villages with varying cultures and norms.