The Struggle for Control of Solomon Island Forests

Abstract

Large-scale logging began in Solomon Islands in 1963. Since then there have been two distinct regimes. The first lasted until the early 1980s and the early years of independence. It involved a small number of companies harvesting government- owned forests or government-leased forests, confined to a few isolated locations, operating under close government supervision. The second regime came about through the expansion of logging to customary land. There was a greater spread of operations, with an increased number of companies and much less central-government control. Resource owners had little real protection against foreign loggers. This paper concentrates on the second period, reviewing the history of the logging industry during this time and the extreme divisiveness it brought about in rural areas. As logging expanded there emerged a loosely organized anti-logging movement in provinces affected by logging. The movement came to represent a direct challenge to the large-scale, capital-intensive development policy followed by the postcolonial state. The movement has had some local successes against logging companies but has failed to match the power being wielded by the logging industry and failed to slow the high rate of timber extraction nationally.