A REPORT on the effect of industrial logging on the lives of Solomon Islanders calls for urgent action to prevent further environmental damage and generational harm in local communities.
The report, The Impacts of Logging on Human Rights in Solomon Islands, from Franciscans International, is based on visits and meetings with more than 300 people in six of the affected communities on Guadalcanal Island, during October 2022. It has been produced in partnership with Dominicans for Justice and Peace, the Society of St Francis, the Dominican network in the Solomon Islands, and the Community of the Sisters of the Church (CSC) (Solomon Islands-Pacific Province).
It found that logging continued to blight the island communities, and was having a negative impact on their way of life. This ranged from polluting water supplies and destroying crops to damaging the lives of young people and causing conflict.
One community elder quoted in the report said: “Logging pollutes the land, sea, bush, river, and at the same time it pollutes the relationship between people. Everything touched by logging gets polluted and possibly leads to conflict.”
Franciscans International first raised concerns with the Solomon Islands government before a UN human-rights review in 2021, after its members and Dominicans gathered reports from communities living near logging sites.
The Franciscans international Asia-Pacific co-ordinator, Budi Tjahjono, said: “We found that logging continues to disrupt almost all aspects of life for people who traditionally have a close relationship with the environment, and rely on it for water, food, and medicine. Other issues caused by logging, including the introduction of invasive species, conflict within communities, and domestic trafficking of young women and girls, threaten to cause generational harm.”
The report provides an overview of the main findings and the most pressing issues around commercial logging, which relate to pollution of the water supply, affecting health and fishing; the destruction of the forest; and the impact on farming, as well as the social and domestic effect on young people, especially young girls, caught up in exploitative relationships with foreign logging workers.
The report recommends swift action by the government to regulate and control logging activities, give local people ways to seek compensation and to understand their rights, and provide immediate steps that can be taken to both mitigate the harm already caused by logging and prevent similar issues during future projects. It also calls for international support to protect the islands from further ecological damage, and to hold the international logging industry to account.
Sister Veronica Vasethe CSC (Interview, 14 June 2013) said: “The community needs awareness, and the government needs to support that. It’s about protecting the people, because not only are loggers interested in the trees, they also come to destroy our people. We are all together in this, to find ways and solutions to help these people and this country.”
A copy of the report in the local Pijin language will soon be available.
Mr Tjahjono said: “It is our hope that this publication will make a positive contribution by proactively offering the government avenues that reflect the reality on the ground to start implementing the commitment it has made. It is not too late to meet these challenges, but it is imperative that meaningful action is taken now.”
The report is at: franciscansinternational.org