BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

SOLOMON Islands has developed and endorsed a National REDD+ Readiness Roadmap 2014-2020.

This is according to a UNDP report titled “Proposed best practices, financial and economic instruments to implement the REDD+ Readiness Roadmap in the Solomon Islands”.

REDD+ is a strategy that was developed by partners of UNFCCC’s (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) as mitigation commitments. It is also an international policy intended to channel funding from public and private sources to reduce emissions from forest sectors, especially in developing countries.

Henceforth, under the IGECIDDM (Integrating Global Environment Commitments in Investment and Development Decision Making) project, the Solomon Islands government through MECDM, MoFR and MAL ministries is working with UNDP to implement the roadmap.

The report expressed that there are three main activities for REDD+ Readiness in the Solomon Islands REDD+ Readiness Roadmap however is in need of amending of legislation to be formalized.

Additionally, the three elements are the formulation of a national strategy, set up of a MRV system with a National Monitoring System along with the establishment of a Forest Reference Level (FRL) or Forest Reference Emission Level (FREL) with the third element being the establishment of social and environmental safeguards, possibly in the context of a safeguard information system.

UNDP stated that each of the elements could attract different types of additional co-financing in the sense that the formulation of a national strategy could align with a general update of the country’s forestry management policies, strategies and action plans.

“Often substantial amounts of funding are made available for forestry management plans”, said UNDP.

In the case of social safeguards, the report mentioned that it can be linked to other efforts to support indigenous groups as well as in facilitating their participation in consulting processes.

THE inflation rate for Honiara has fallen by 0.9 percent in May from 194.6 in April to 192.9 recording a further decline since March says the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a monthly indicator of the variation in prices for retail goods and other items.

The basket of goods chosen represents the spending behaviour of the population of Honiara and the resulting CPI is used to calculate inflation.

Government Statistician Douglas Kimi while releasing the Honiara Consumer Price Index (CPI) statistics for the month of May recently said the decline was mainly driven by price drops in Food, Drinks and Tobacco, and Housing and Utilities categories of the index, outweighing price increases in Transport and Communication.

“The Food index dropped during the month by 1.9 percent to 178.4. This was mainly driven by price declines in fresh fruits and vegetables at the Honiara market; most notable were bush cabbage -0.1 percent, tomatoes -0.4 percent, green bean -0.3 percent, fern cabbage -0.4 percent, dry coconuts -0.2 percent, cucumber -0.1 percent and cassava -0.1 percent. These outweighed price rises in melon 0.1 percent, kumara heaps 0.1 percent, bush lime 0.2 percent, cooking bananas 0.1 percent and ripe bananas 0.2 percent resulting in the fall of the overall food index,” Mr Kimi stated.

Other major changes in other sub-indexes include;

• Drinks and Tobacco slightly fell 0.9 percent driven by a marginal drop -0.02 percent in both the prices of tobacco and betel nut.
• Housing and Utilities dropped 0.5 percent on account of a marginal drop -0.02 percent in both electricity charges and LP gas, outweighing a rise 0.06 percent in the price of kerosene.
• Transport and Communication went up marginally by 0.06 percent resulting from slight increases in diesel and petrol prices by 0.05 per cent and 0.04 per cent respectively.

The Government Statistician said apart from the above, price movements elsewhere in the consumption basket were negligible.

He said the overall annual headline inflation rate for the month of May 2018 calculated on a three months moving average basis was 2.8 percent, down marginally by 1.1 percentage points from 3.9 percent the previous month.

The corresponding inflation rates for imported and other items were 0.1 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.

“The main underlying rates of inflation based on a 3 months moving average for the month of May 2018 were observed between -0.4 percent and 2.2 percent while the headline inflation rate was at 2.8 percent,” he added.

–SINSO PRESS

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

A Border Security Management workshop at Taro, Choiseul Province, last Friday provided opportunity for contribution of discussions towards the country’s border issues.

More than thirty participants comprising of members of the Provincial Assemblies, Heads of Divisions, Chiefs and Church leaders attended the workshop that was facilitated by a team led by the National Security Policy Division (NSPD) of the Ministry of Police National Security and Correctional Services).

Heading NSPD were the Director of National Security Mr David Diosi and NSPD’s Consultant Mr Bernard Bata’anisia, with the assistance of resourceful people under the National and Choiseul Provincial Governments.

According to Choiseul Province Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) for Ward 12 at Varisi Lavata Hon Nerio Ulemiki, the workshop provided an opportunity where the participants and Choiseul Provincial Government discussed and contributed ideas towards enhancing and supporting the border security management and its structures and mechanisms in the province and country.

“It also provided opportunities for the participants to interact with one another through sharing and understanding of border security management issues, build strategic linkages and sharing of information and networking between the Choiseul Provincial Government and all stakeholders on the broader border security management issues and its implementation,” explained Hon Ulemiki.

He said the outcomes of the workshop resulted in participants having better understanding and appreciation of the importance of the implementation mechanisms on the border and serious active participation by the local population.

“An outcome report was produced at the end of the workshop which will be fed into the National Security Policy framework discussion and debate,” said Hon Ulemiki.