By Gary Hatigeva

ON the eve of securing their trimmed budget, the Ministry of Forest and Research is looking strongly to reduce the volumes of logs to be exported this year.

This however raised concerns and questions from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) who are worried that the government’s budget, which projected something different and indicated heavy reliance on the export with a projection of around 2.4 million cubic metres for 2018, could create major draw backs.

The Committee questioned the status of both the ministry and the budget unit as there seems to be a mismatch in their projections.

When responding to the concerns and questions, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Forest and Research, Dr Vaeno Vigulu admitted that there have not been formal discussions between his team and the unit.

But Mr Vigulu explained that based on another meeting, which received representatives from the finance ministry within relevant units, discussions were held and the issue of volume reduction was raised.

“We actually discussed about slowing down on logging activities in the re-entry or secondary forests.

“At the moment we are exporting logs that are roughly around 2.79 cubic metres per log which are quite small and that means we are applying more pressure on our remaining virgin forests but then we are harvesting more on our re-entry.

“For your information, about 85 to 87 percent of the felling licences active now, are actually operating on secondary forests.

“And so if we are to continue exporting 2.6 million cubic metres of logs we are actually going to open up our forest and harvesting smaller logs than what we export last year,” Vigulu said.

He said last year and 2016 the 2.6 million cubic exports highlighted represented harvesting on around 80 hectares and Vigulu said that was based on opening up secondary forests.

He added that the continuation of undersized harvesting will force the country to wait longer for those forests to actually produce commercial logs or higher volumes to be exported.

“We have had a consultation with SFA last week and told them straight that we have to cut down on our volume of exports because we are actually six times unsustainably harvesting our forest,” the PS further explained.

It is understood that the sustainable harvesting of forest is supposedly between 400,000 to 500,000 cubic metres per annum for Solomon Islands.

Vigulu adds, “Therefore, that by continuing on exporting 2.6 million cubic metre per year will really open up our forests and will have some negative impact to the composition of species and the species abandons of our forest.

“That really needs to be considered and the government needs to come up with an alternative to fill up the gap if we are cutting those trees.

“But if the market can go lower to accept 15 cm diameter small end, that would be good, but we are opening or exposing smaller sized logs and if we need to go ahead with reducing the exports, the government needs to look into to fill up the gaps.”

By Gary Hatigeva

THE Solomon Islands government through the Ministry of Commerce and Trade was yesterday urged to help push the affairs of local investors.

Top officials from the Ministry of Commerce and Trade were told to use available means to throw government support with anticipation to enhance and build local Solomon Islands business operators especially in their participations in the reserved business listing for indigenous.

Member of Parliament for Aoke/Langalanga and also member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Matthew Wale made this strong statement during the presentation and witnessing of the Ministry’s case at the hearing yesterday.

In the hearing, the team of officials led by Permanent Secretary Riley Mesepitu, was reminded of the tasks and responsibilities bestowed on them over the interests of their people especially indigenous business men and women of the country including the potential ones.

In his remarks, the Aoke/Langalanga MP also stressed the need for responsible ministries and bodies to collaborate and ensure strong enforcement of laws governing the reserved businesses for local Solomon Islanders, being their only opportunities for investment.

He said it is unfortunate that some foreign investors are given the ‘ok’ when they come thousands of miles away just to run retail stores, something the MP felt can be done by locals.

He added that the government also needs to ensure foreigners intending to invest in the country must not be given what local Solomon Islanders can do, “rather, come in with more than what our people or local business people cannot afford”.

However, it was revealed during the hearing that even with the list of reserved businesses for locals, the ministry is not seeing any form of activities and it is worrying for the ministry who intends to add on some more reservations to the list.

Reports however, continue to point out that while the government has a lot of incentives and programmes to lend support to local entrepreneurships, the implementations are not felt at the least.

These reports suggested that focus is on the major investors and tend to forget the small scale operations. But, an expert interviewed stressed that small businesses are absolutely vital to the country and its economy.

“Remember, almost all businesses in Honiara are SMEs.”

Meanwhile, when responding to the point of less or no activities witnessed based on the list of reserves, Wale suggested that the Government should ensure local businesses are receiving their fair share of this support through implementation of various programmes and schemes by responsible authorities.

This is another big disappointment because not doing anything for the local business entrepreneurs is sending out a clear signal to small business in the country that they (authorities and responsible ministries) do not care about them or the employment opportunities they create.

Wale on the other hand, reiterated that the Ministry should move as quickly as possible to ensure that local businesses benefit fully from the Government support on offer to them and suggested that if there is need for collaborations, then it should be done.

By Alfred Sasako and Garry Hatigeva

COMMISSIONER of Forest Reeves Moveni – the man accused of knowingly allowing illegal logging activities on government land – was yesterday grilled by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the circumstances surrounding the grant of a felling licence to log the Komaridi Reserve in east Guadalcanal.

Felling Licence No. A101521 was granted by Mr Moveni on April 23, 2015. It was granted to Mbetilonga Landholdings Group Community Company Ltd, a local company said to have represented the interests of the land-owning groups.

Mbetilonga Landholdings Group Community Company Ltd has since signed a five-year Mutual Technology and Management Agreement with One Pacific Company Ltd, which is undertaking the logging operations. The felling licence expires on April 23, 2020.

Moveni and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Forest and Research, Vaeno Vigulu, appeared before the PAC hearing in Honiara yesterday.

Outspoken PAC Member, Matthew Wale, who is also the MP for Aoke-Langalanga, fired the first salvo at Commissioner Moveni. Hon Wale asked the Commissioner as to who might have givem him the authority to grant the felling licence which allowed One Pacific Company Ltd to harvest Parcel Nos. 191-060-01 to 191-060-03.

The three parcels which cover 5, 560 hectares of virgin forest are within the Komarigi Reserve which is on a 75-year lease to the Government.

Moveni told the PAC hearing that he acted on the basis of advice provided to landowners by the Director of Mines at the time. The landowners were allegedly told that the government had abandoned the Komarigi hydro scheme project with no immediate plans for development.

The Commissioner said all the requirements were followed and processes completed.

But the Aoke-Langalanga MP said there seemed to be a hiccup in the process as officials from both the ministries of Environment and Forestry choose to blame each other for allowing government land to be logged without due regard for the fact that Komarigi Reserve belongs to the Government until its lease expires

“In blaming each other, the two ministries continue to mislead the public,” Hon Wale said.

By Gary Hatigeva

MEMBER of Parliament for East Malaita and Leader of the Official Opposition, Manasseh Maelanga has expressed his disappointment over what he described as continuous soft approaches taken to deal with the issue of logging in the country.

His point raised came as a follow-up on his question raised on the status of logging operations in various parts of the country, especially the Kakabona operation, which made headlines earlier this year.

Reports were released surrounding concerns over environmental impact the operation will have on the resources and habitat of people living around the area.

Sharing similar sentiments, the Opposition Leader raised huge concerns over the operation, which he thinks should have never been granted licence in the first instance due to its location and impact.

Maelanga also blamed the Ministry of Environment for not doing its job and with ignorance gave green light for the issuance of operational licence to the logging company.

He even claimed that officials responsible are most probably breaching some of their acts through the manner in which reports and evaluations done gave an all-clear for operations to go ahead especially for a location as the Kakabona site.

But the Opposition Leader also blasted the forestry ministry heads for what he described as, making weak stands for the people of this country and not being reactive to ensure operations in such locations never eventuate especially on environment issues.

“If you go down there, the operation has crossed the river and caused some major damages, which people and communities surrounding it rely heavily on.

“It’s not good for us to just say this is straight based on criteria and processes so we have to allow for operations to take place, no I think we need to start reacting to some of these things,” Maelanga stressed.

He added that since responsible government bodies know that logging is one of the main revenue earners for the economy and become too shadowed, they tend not to put hard measures and redirections on loggers.

“But we have to put these measures and if they do not agree to things, then tell them to live. Our authorities too have always been of the view, fearing that by putting in measures will chase these operators away.

“They will not leave because that is their money and they will continue to operate,” the Opposition Leader further added.

By Gary Hatigeva

THE Ministry of Forest and Research has confirmed an allocation of $3.6 million into its slashed budget to implement its key priority areas under the policy of the Solomon Islands Democratic Coalition for Change Government (SIDCCG).

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Vaeno Vigulu revealed this when appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing yesterday.

Mr Vigulu revealed that from a wide range of policies under the former government, seven policies were taken and adopted by the SIDCCG but were forced to reprioritise and trimmed down to what he regards as the top five key priority area objectives for the ministry to ensure their realisation.

The top five policy area objectives include a Review of the Forestry Act and the National Herbarium Research Laboratory project, where the PS said both policies received allocations of $500,000 each for their implementation programmes.

The others are the National Herbarium and Botanical Garden Fencing and Landscape project, and National Forest Resources Development Programme which were both allocated $1million each.

The Downstream Processing Project, on the other hand being regarded the ministry’s fourth top priority policy, which was allocated $600,000.

Meanwhile, the PS explained that the other two policies, National Forest Inventory and the Native Forest Enrichment and Research Project were left out because the ministry had to reprioritise.

“And we thought that the top five policy area objectives are the ones we can complete this year before the government actual close down in December.”

With the total allocation of just over $3million, the ministry has only around nine months in hand to see that all its top five priority policies are implemented.

THE Government remains focused and committed to passing the Anti-Corruption Bill this year.

According to the Government’s timeframe, the expectation is to have the ACB passed by July this year.

The ACB is currently before the Bills and Legislation Committee, which has been since October last year after it was reintroduced to Parliament.

However, due to the requirement of getting the BLC to scrutinise the Bill, and the priority to pass the 2018 Budget; the Bill has missed the current sitting timeframe.

As such, the Government encourages and hopes the Bills and Legislation Committee can work together with the Government to have the ACB ready for July’s sitting.

Meanwhile, the Government reiterated that as much as the Government would like to proceed with the proposed Bills before Parliament; it hopes BLC can produce the reports in time for debate by Parliament.

“The Government considers the ACB and other legislations as important for the Government and people of this country. Therefore, it encourages the BLC to work together with the Government to pass some of these important legislations this year,” it said.

–OPMC PRESS