BY BEN BILUA
Gizo
LANDOWNERS of Korona on San Jorge Island are questioning among themselves who authorised Sunrise Investment Limited to harvest tubi trees in the area.
According to documents sighted by Island Sun, the Korona land is traditionally owned by three tribes — Thavia, Posamogo and Nakmiru Funei.
However, some representatives of the tribes say they were shocked when logging operations began without any prior consultation.
Chief and tribe leader from Talise village, Paul Fota, said landowners were confused when the logging company arrived at Korona.
“There was no consultation carried out at all before the operation started. This is the doing of a few selfish and greedy individuals who only care about their own pockets and not the people,” he said.
Fota said landowners already have strong suspicions about who facilitated the operation, but their main concern is where to seek justice and proper legal advice.
“Due process, as required under our laws and regulations, has not been followed. This is not a decision made by landowners,” he added.
Island Sun understands that concerns have intensified following revelations that the same company had previously been convicted for illegal tubi logging in the area between 2018 and 2019.
In December 2020, the owner of Sunrise Investment Limited, Richard Kong Sing Ngea, pleaded guilty to illegal tubi felling at the Honiara Magistrate’s Court. The company was fined SBD$50,000, the maximum penalty for the offence.
Later that same year, the Foreign Investment Division also imposed a SBD$1 million fine on the company and two other Malaysian logging firms in Isabel Province for breaches of their investment licences.
In a move that shocked landowners, the government — on advice from the Attorney General — later ordered that 10,000 cubic metres of seized tubi logs be returned to Sunrise Investment Limited for export.
This year, the government again granted a logging licence to the same company to harvest tubi at Korona.
The approval followed a gazette notice issued around October 2025, which lifted restrictions on the export of tubi — a species once listed as endangered in Solomon Islands.
Tubi is a rare tree species found only in two provinces in the Solomons group: Isabel, where Korona is; and Choiseul, to the country’s west.
The rich, dark hardwood is sought after mostly by Asian countries for furniture and is being advertised at $US2, 300 (SBD$18,110) per tonne in some online markets in 2020.
Since it was a rare and endangered tree species, the Solomon Islands Government has been restricting its from felling and export until this year.
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The resource owners should be consulted first first, not the middle man.Our rare species should be protected to benefits our resources owners. Because I believe that if our resources owners are protected and benefits from the natural resources then our nation will proper.