by Ofani Eremae
As logging continues to wreak havoc across Guadalcanal Province, one tribal group is racing against time to save one of the province’s last, remaining virgin forests.
At the forefront of the race is Cyril Kulisuia, leader of the recently registered Bubutasi-Penguniu Tribal Land Association in Birao Ward, East Guadalcanal.
“We are doing this for the future of our children and grand-children,” Kulisuia told In-depth Solomons during a recent trip to his community.
“Almost every land in Guadalcanal is already logged-out. Bubutasi-Penguniu land holds perhaps one of the last remaining virgin forests in the province,” he explained.
“This is why we are fighting to preserve it from logging, mining and other destructive human activities.”
Kulisuia and his tribesmen have every reason to worry.
Just next door, Grace Logging – an Asian logging company – is rapidly expanding their operation towards Bubutasi-Penguniu tribal land.
“If we fail to act now, Grace Logging would definitely move in, and this whole virgin forest will be wiped out within a year or two,” Kulisuia said, waving to the hills behind Oa village where his tribe is currently working to protect.
“We wanted the whole land here to be protected. We wanted to achieve Protect Area (PA) status for our land as soon as practical to keep the loggers away.
“This is what we are doing now.
“With the help of the Ministry of Forest and a number of non-government organisations who are spearheading conservation efforts across Solomon Islands, we are well on our way towards achieving PA status for our land.”
PROTECTED AREAS
Creating protected areas of land or sea is provided for under the Protected Areas Act, which came into effect in 2012.
The Act gives landowners the power to protect their land from logging and mining, and to protect their marine areas from harmful activities.
But to achieve a Protected Area status, landowners must go through a 12-step process that involve, amongst other things, community consultation, formation of management committees, applying to the Ministry of Environment, consultations and investigations and others that are outlined in the Protected Areas tool-kit.
Only the Minister for Environment has the power to declare a protected area after being satisfied that the community has fulfilled all the 12 steps set out in the Protected Areas tool-kit.
For Kulisuia and his Bubutasi-Penguniu Tribal Land Association, their journey towards protecting their land begun in 2022.
“We are now at step 8,” Kulisuia stated.
“Four more and we should get there,” he added.
Different communities have different reasons for protecting their land or sea.
CARBON TRADING
For Bubutasi-Penguniu Tribal Land Association, their primary reason is to allow them participate in carbon trading schemes that a number of NGOs are currently promoting.
Carbon credit trading has been touted as an alternative to logging. And communities have been encouraged to pursue it.
In the Solomon Islands, Sirebe tribe in Choiseul became the first in 2019 to achieve Protected Areas status.
They protected 806 hectares of rainforest in South Choiseul, built a team of six dedicated Indigenous Rangers, formed a string of women-led savings group and led on decisions about how their forests are managed.
Through carbon trading, Sirebe tribe is able to earn SBD$1.2 million a year, which are paid in instalments of SBD$300,000 every quarter.
While the money keeps flowing into their bank account, the community continues to keep their rainforest and all the benefits it provides — clean water, food, medicine, materials and cultural importance – intact.
“This is the kind of scheme we are looking to engage in when we are able able achieve PA status for our land,” says Kulisuia.
“We want to earn good money from our land, while protecting it at the same time,” he added.
A UNITED TRIBE
Kulisuia was able to progress their conservation efforts due largely to the collective backing of his tribes men and women.
Basil Teteha, 81, of Haimabulu village was one of the staunchest supporters of the tribe’s conservation efforts.
Having lived in Makira-Ulawa Province for most of his young life, Teteha had seen the destruction Asian loggers have done to the environment.
“Frankly, logging has done nothing good to people and the environment,” he said.
“As someone who has worked in logging, I’ve seen first hand the negative impacts of logging on people and their land.
“It was a sad story that I don’t what to see repeated on my people’s land.
“This is why I whole-heartedly support the conservation efforts our tribe is currently pursuing,” Teteha told In-depth Solomons.
David Heloa, 83, also of Haimabulu, was another tribal elder who wanted to see Bubutasi-Penguniu land gain protected area status before he dies.
Heloa said Grace Logging, which is operating next to their land, has already approached them to do logging on Bubutasi-Penguniu land.
“As a leader of this tribe, I told them I don’t want anything to do with logging or mining,” Heloa said.
“All I want is for our land to be protected from logging or mining before I die. I don’t want to see my grandchildren suffer because their land has been destroyed by greedy foreigners,” he added.
Grandmother Catherine Nado, of Makina village, has heard of the negative impacts of logging on communities.
“But she was not prepared for the experience she and other women of Makina are now going through due to the nearby operation by Grace Logging.
“The logging up there has let loose wild pigs that are now feeding on and destroying our food gardens,” an angry and disappointed Nado said.
“This is happening at a scale we’ve never seen or experienced before,” she added.
“Wild pigs are everywhere. They destroyed our food gardens, leaving many of us critically short of food.
“This is unacceptable. And this is why we the women of Bubutasi-Penguniu tribe fully support the initiative to protect our land from logging and mining.”
In East Guadalcanal, it’s not just the Bubutasi-Penguniu tribe that’s pursuing conserving their land.
Other tribes within the four wards across the constituency are doing likewise – working with NGOs and forestry officials to protect their land.
HEAVILY LOGGED PROVINCE
Guadalcanal is one of the heavily logged provinces in Solomon Islands. In fact logging
has dominated the country’s economy since the 1980s and has impacted its political and social landscapes.
Even today, the forestry industry remains Solomon Islands’ economic lifeline.
From 2015 to 2020, it contributed on average to 68 percent of the country’s total exports, 46 percent of its foreign exchange revenue, and 7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Central Bank.
However, since 2017, there has been a decline in both log production and exports. The Central Bank reports that in 2019 log production and exports declined by 2.4 percent and 3.7 percent respectively.
In 2020 round log production dropped by 13 percent. This was due to weaker demands in China, weaker export price, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the anticipated decline in the stock of harvestable logs.
China remains the number one market for Solomon Islands logs.
On Guadalcanal, records kept by the provincial government showed more than 20 logging companies were operating in the province by 2015. That was at a time when nationally, the Government had issued more than 400 logging licences.
The negative impacts of logging on the environment had been so devastating, prompting the last provincial government led by Premier Francis Sade to review logging on Guadalcanal
In a policy statement the Sade government produced, the province admitted that since 2014, most of its commercial forest has already been logged or logged over.
The province also acknowledged that its forest ecosystems is at its worst state due to deforestation and growing population.
“Natural resources such as forests are harvested at the expenses of the community and the landowners,” the policy noted.
“Logging demonstrated a strong case where licensee (usually the educated landowner) received greater benefits at the expenses of the village people.
“With the diminishing of merchantable forest, the possibility of having the same experience with mining is high.”
For Kulisuia and his tribesmen, logging and mining are terms they would rather keep out from their community discussions.
“No, no, no…..we just don’t want anything to do with logging or mining.
“Our mission is to protect our land for the future of our children and our grandchildren,” he said.
