Breaking Family Ties; Logging

Destructive Logging Practises in Solomon Islands

A teenager who wanted more leisure time than studying, I decided to do my report on the effects of logging in the Solomon Islands. To me, it is probably one of the most well-documented environmental destruction that Solomon Islands is practicing. Getting my hands on these well written documents was too easy and as a naive teenager I was happy with all that I found and the rest was history. 10 years later I painfully realised that I was wrong.

The Department of Forestry did nothing more than collect and summarise the environmental effects of logging in the Solomon Islands. These reports are outdated and bias. Theres more to the effects of logging than what these officers are willing to let on. We the people of South Vangunu are living that nightmare as we speak.

Just last night we received a house guest, a distraught uncle and one of the landowners of South Vangunu. He came seeking advice from my father about the ongoing fight to stop logging that is like a wild fire ravishing this tiny Island. This particular uncle is seeking to take this fight to the High Court. However, what most Solomon Islanders especially landowners do not realise is that the law does not side with people who fight to stop logging operations. And coupled with the corrupt practises that these forestry officials and Malaysian loggers are engaged in, there is no hope for whoever decides to protect their land.

The only option for most is to burn the machinery, vandalise the log ponds and sometimes assault each other. Some of them end up in jail.

My father is one of those people from South  Vangunu who happen to own quite a bit of area, from shore up to the ridges. We fought to keep it from logging until a year back when we realise that its only a matter of time before the law turn on us.

So instead of sitting back and watch another benefit from our land, my uncle engage a Malaysian logging company to log our land. We didn't realise that this same logger convinced others to give up their land using my family as an example on why they should. In this particular region of the Solomon Islands we are constantly reminded of how logging break family ties. But whats even sadder is we let it happen, we allow greed to come between brothers, between fathers and sons.

Today another fight is going on, this time it is to save the World Heritage Site in Rennell Island. This tiny Island host the biggest fresh water lake in the South pacific. But because of greed and corruption the title could be stripped away, further endangering millions of species unique to the Island.

If our government cannot help us then who can?