Forestry, Public Land, and the Colonial Legacy in Solomon Islands

Abstract

Independent Solomon Islands inherited lands that the colonial state had acquired and dedicated for forest use. Solomon Islanders became increasingly wary of the government's intentions regarding control of these lands and, by the late 1960s, as political consciousness increased, resistance grew to government purchase and reservation through legislation. Pressure by Solomon Islanders caused the colonial government to limit its attempts to control the forest resource for the public good, a process that accelerated after independence in 1978. Since then, in the face of an expanding Asian market for timber, the claims of resource owners and a revenue-seeking central government have seen frantic logging of customary land by mainly Asian logging companies, with little tangible return to Solomon Islanders. Provincial governments and rural communities are already demanding control of public lands, a demand that may be resisted by the central government as timber on customary land is worked out and plantation forests mature.