Solomon Islands Is Unprepared to Manage a Minerals-Based Economy
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Solomon Islands is Unprepared to Manage a Minerals-Based Economy GRAHAM BAINES SSGM DISCUSSION PAPER 2015/6 Logging has Not Provided a Sustainable Still No Vision, No Plan; Just Exploitation of Development Base Natural Resources Now that Solomon Islanders’ forests have been In the years immediately following independence in depleted (Allen 2011; Bennett 2000) its mineral 1978 Solomon Islander leaders may have had a brief resources are being seen as a potential base for the chance to shape the country’s future in ways that economic development of the nation. However, in could improve village life. Yet no development plan assessing this prospect from a national economic since that time has enunciated a clear and practical perspective Haque (2013) comes to the sobering vision for the use of Solomon Islanders’ natural conclusion that ‘even if potential mining invest- resources as a base for economic development. ment was to be fully realised, favourable economic Oil palm, copra and tuna were established outcomes for Solomon Islands are far from assured’. sources of export revenue at the time of independ- Could a transition to a minerals-based economy ence and forest resources were being only lightly build better lives for villagers? Might ‘partnerships exploited. Former officials of the colonial adminis- with investors ensure that resource owners receive tration who introduced legislation designed to posi- fair financial rewards and ensure proper awareness tion the Forestry Department as an intermediary and participation by resource owners’ — a somewhat between prospective loggers and communities hold- bold objective expressed in the National Development ing customary timber rights would have been sur- Strategy 2011–2020 (Solomons Islands Government prised at how quickly after independence Solomon 2011)?1 What does mining mean for the villagers Islander politicians dismantled this arrangement, under whose land minerals lie, and for their neigh- encouraging logging while weakening protection bours who will be expected to endure the downside? for affected communities and their environment. If the transition to a minerals-based economy The unsustainable exploitation of villagers’ is not planned and implemented using lessons natural resources can be said to have begun when learned from experience with logging it can be the late Solomon Mamaloni returned to the office expected to be simply a shift from one unsustain- of prime minister in 1981 and began a process able, environmentally destructive and socially dis- of weakening controls over logging using the ruptive resource-development base to another. argument that landholders should be allowed to This paper presents and discusses a range of decide.2 This removed protective measures that factors that villagers face when deciding whether or the Commissioner of Forests could have applied not to allow access to minerals buried in land over and so left unscrupulous loggers to directly engage which they hold customary tenure. Drawing mainly with naive, or in some cases conniving, customary on local sources of information this paper addresses land group representatives. Nowhere in these the weaknesses and uncertainty of national-level ‘negotiations’ was there a place for a community arrangements for handling foreign companies’ of landholders to decide; it was always selected interest in the country’s minerals, some of the ways and malleable ‘representatives’ of in which mining companies have manipulated the land groups, some of whom were porous process of mineral development approval, subsequently revealed to have no and issues that villagers face regarding this option traditional right to ‘represent’ the for economic development. trees in question. State, Society & Governance in Melanesia ssgm.bellschool.anu.edu.au Graham Baines As government officials lost power to the environmental and social damage that is an unfor- politicians, long-term economic planning and tunate accompaniment of mining. resource management were abandoned in The distressing history of logging and of how favor of short-term economic expediency. At rural Solomon Islanders were dispossessed of their the same time the ties between foreign capital timber resources has been thoroughly and accu- and the political elite steadily strengthened … rately analysed in a number of reports (Allen 2011; (Frazer 1997:41) Bennett 2000; Dauvergne 1999; Frazer 1997; Kabu- taulaka 2008); a situation that Allen has properly From 1981 logging has proceeded almost to summed up as: exhaustion of the resource without any enunciated vision of a sustainable forest industry. There are … a woeful tale of corruption, greed, prof- many lessons to be learned from the logging expe- ligacy, patronage, tax avoidance, maladmin- rience that could inform an improvement in natu- istration, incompetence, and environmental ral resource extraction through mining. Yet there is destruction. The state has forgone hundreds no indication that the current approach to exploita- of millions of Solomon Island dollars in tion of mineral resources is any improvement on potential revenue due to tax exemptions and that used for logging. the undervaluation and miscategorization of As a consequence of a progressive weakening of log exports. (Allen 2011:297) Forestry Department control its officers have dif- The Mineral Development Process is Weak ficulty in enforcing cutting licence conditions on and Subject to Interference logging companies. Legislative amendments over the years have favoured loggers, a fact clearly dem- Though Solomon Islands has a mineral develop- onstrated by the withdrawal of a strengthened 2004 ment regulatory system based on a Mines and Forestry Bill that was withheld from parliament Minerals Act 1996 (MMA) and its accompanying because the logging lobby3 perceived it to be against Regulations (MMR), and environmental and other its interests.4 mining-relevant legislation, there is still no national The incidence and scale of manipulation of cus- policy to provide an overarching guide for mineral tomary land by the villagers and politicians associ- development — this, despite external assistance ated with logging interests have increased greatly provided to develop a draft National Minerals Poli- in the context of uncontrolled logging. Over two cy in 2000 and again in 2013. While formal mining decades one donor (AusAID) made commendable policy alone does not necessarily lead to a success- efforts to support those Solomon Islanders who ful mining industry, it can provide a framework, sought order and control in this industry so as to an essential guide, that points the industry in the maximise benefits to the country and to minimise direction the country chooses to proceed. ‘Serious’ environmental and social harm. Sadly, the effective- mining companies of international standing seek ness of this support was largely negated by politi- such guidance so that they can know clearly the cians linked with the loggers (Baines 2006). A for- boundaries encompassing the sector and can dem- mer minister of forestry confirms this, stating: ‘We onstrate that they adhere to official policy. no longer have power to regulate; all we do is watch In the absence of initiatives by the national as the forest resource disappears’.5 government, as long ago as 1985 the government So, where forestry officers may have wanted to of Western Province enunciated a mineral develop- protect villagers’ environment, resources and cul- ment policy that it called on the national govern- tural landscapes, they found themselves unable to ment to adhere to in that province: be effective. Nor, as yet, are there signs that govern- The province wants to promote economic ment officers will be invested with the powers and, development but is conscious of its special importantly, provided with the resources needed to obligation to help conservative rural com- enforce those powers to protect villagers from the munities to understand and to prepare for the SSGM2 Discussion Paper 2012/1 State, Society http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm & Governance in Melanesia SSGM Discussion Paper 2015/6 social and environmental changes which come mon Islands Code of Practice … (Kolomban- with mineral development. (Baines 1985:18) gara Island Biodiversity Conservation Associa- tion Trust Board (KIBCA) v Attorney General National government leaders and officials never [2013] SBHC 87; HCSI-CC 428 of 2013) acknowledged, let alone took up this initiative.6 In reference to mining an exasperated Solomon This evidence of a less-than-thorough approach Islands High Court judge has written: ‘One could be also appears to characterise the Director of Environ- forgiven for thinking that after three attempts at leg- ment’s dealings with mineral prospecting activities. islation7 and three at promulgating regulations the In the cases of applications for two mining tenements whole area would be problem free.’ (SMM Solomons in Isabel Province for which Environmental and Ltd v Attorney General [2012] SBHC 52; ACSI-CC2 Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) were submitted 58 of 2011. Ruling on Preliminary Issues) to the Director of the Environment, the director was very quick to issue Development Consents, making no But the mineral development approval pro- call on the applicant to rectify weaknesses in the ESIAs cess is anything but problem-free. Villagers — despite many shortcomings having been pointed are confused, mining companies need cour- age and determination to attempt to negotiate out in technical assessments submitted properly,