PARADISE LOST How China Can Help the Solomon Islands Protect Its Forests

PARADISE LOST How China can help the Solomon Islands protect its forests OCTOBER 2018 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................................................................01 KEY FACTS ....................................................................................................................................................................................03 CHAPTER 1 UNSUSTAINABILITY ......................................................................................................................................04 THE SOLOMON ISLANDS’ FORESTS ARE BEING CUT DOWN AT A HIGHLY UNSUSTAINABLE RATE 1. A NETWORK OF LOGGING ROADS COVERS MUCH OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS ...................................05 2. THE SOLOMON ISLANDS EXPORTS MORE THAN 19 TIMES THE ANNUAL SUSTAINABLE HARVEST, YET LOGGING IS STILL INCREASING ......................................................................................................08 3. THE SOLOMON ISLANDS’ NATURAL FORESTS ARE PREDICTED TO BE EXHAUSTED SOON .............09 CHAPTER 2 COMMERCIAL AND LEGAL RISKS TO BUSINESS ..............................................................................10 TIMBER FROM THE SOLOMON ISLANDS IS AT HIGH RISK OF BEING ILLEGAL 1. THERE IS A HIGH RISK THAT LOCAL LANDOWNERS’ PERMISSION IS NOT LEGALLY SOUGHT .........11 2. THERE IS A HIGH RISK THAT COMPANIES LOG OUTSIDE THEIR CONCESSION BOUNDARIES AND FELL MORE TREES THAN ALLOWED ..................................................................................12 3. THERE IS A HIGH RISK THAT COMPANIES LOG IN PROHIBITED PLACES AND HARVEST PROTECTED SPECIES ...................................................................................................................................12 4. THERE IS A HIGH RISK THAT COMPANIES DO NOT CONDUCT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENTS ...................................................................................................................................................14 5. THERE IS A HIGH RISK THAT LOGGING COMPANIES DO NOT COMPLY WITH LEGAL REQUIREMENTS AROUND MAPS ................................................................................................................................14 CHAPTER 3 LOGGING AND DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................................15 THE TIMBER TRADE IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS DOES LITTLE TO BENEFIT LOCAL PEOPLE 1. THERE IS A HIGH RISK THAT PEOPLE IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS DO NOT BENEFIT FROM THE TRADE IN TIMBER .......................................................................................................................................15 2. THERE IS A HIGH RISK THAT LOGGING COMPANIES DO NOT PAY THE TAXES THEY OWE ................16 CHAPTER 4 CHINA’S ROLE ..................................................................................................................................................17 CHINA IMPORTS THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF LOGS FROM THE SOLOMON ISLANDS 1. CHINA IMPORTS THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF LOGS FROM THE SOLOMON ISLANDS .......17 2. THE SOLOMON ISLANDS IS CHINA’S SECOND BIGGEST SOURCE OF TROPICAL LOGS AFTER PAPUA NEW GUINEA .........................................................................................................................................................18 3. THE FATE OF CHINESE BUSINESSES IMPORTING LOGS FROM THE SOLOMON ISLANDS IS LINKED TO REGULATING IMPORTS OF TIMBER ..............................................................................................19 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................20 APPENDIX ....................................................................................................................................................................................22 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................................................................23 Front cover: ©Alessio Bariviera PARADISE LOST HOW CHINA CAN HELP THE SOLOMON ISLANDS PROTECT ITS FORESTS 01 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY At first glance, the Solomon Islands looks like a tropical paradise with palm-fringed white sand beaches and pristine, biodiverse rainforests. It’s advertised as being ‘untouched’ or ‘unspoiled’. But look closer and the paradise isn’t so idyllic. Solomon Airlines 1 The last untouched wonder of the world. These islands are laid-back, welcoming Lonely Planet 2 and often surprisingly untouched. Tourism Solomon Islands, the Solomon Is. Unspoiled. country’s official tourist board3 The islands remain unhurried, undeveloped, Hideaway Holidays 4 untouched and unspoiled. Tucked away in the South Pacific, the Solomon Islands are a little known, unspoilt paradise. Solomon Island Holidays 5 [The Solomon Islands] is one of the Traveller 6 Pacific’s last unspoilt destinations. 02 Our new investigation conclusively shows that tropical If this situation is going to change, the timber in the Solomon Islands is being harvested on an unsustainable scale, and that much of the activity Solomon Islands needs China to act. driving this environmental destruction is at high risk of Virtually all of the Solomon Islands’ timber is exported to being illegal. mainland China, and indeed this small group of islands Through a combination of detailed research, satellite are the country’s second biggest source of tropical logs, imagery, trade statistics, and on-the-ground and drone after Papua New Guinea. The two countries supply half of photography, we reveal the shocking pace and extent of China’s tropical log imports. the growing degradation of the Solomon Islands’ China is taking serious steps to address environmental tropical forests. degradation and to reduce pollution and carbon If this carries on unchecked, it will have a disastrous and emissions at home. At a national conference on irreparable impact on the country’s environment, and our environmental protection in 2018, President Xi Jinping global climate, already pushed to danger point, will reiterated China’s goal of building an ‘ecological suffer the added burden of losing more of the world’s civilization’, leading in global climate governance; and carbon sinks. drew links between a healthy environment and improved national security.18 And in 2017 China extended a ban on The Solomon Islands is one of the poorest nations in the commercial logging in natural forests so that it covered 7 Pacific region. The economy is heavily dependent on the the whole of the country.19 forestry sector,8 9 10 and yet the country’s forests continue to disappear fast.11 The Solomon Islands’ authorities are But the Chinese government is overlooking an important well aware that, without change, the country’s timber aspect of its ecological footprint: the raw materials that trade will soon slow to a trickle with nothing left to log and it consumes from overseas. It is the destination for about barely any timber to trade. The first step to prevent this two-thirds of all tropical logs globally, many of which come from happening is to make sure that – at a very minimum from countries like the Solomon Islands that are struggling 20 – logging companies in the Solomon Islands comply with to address governance and rule of law issues. While the country’s laws.12 the country has enacted ‘Green Supply Chain’ policies to reduce waste and pollution in domestic manufacturing This is not a new problem, and this is not the first alarm sectors, these do not yet require commodities sourced bell. Despite constant warnings from landowners, from abroad to be legal and sustainable.21 parliamentarians, UN officials and academics, a lack of enforcement and a pervasive web of corruption continue This report and our previous analysis of Papua New to plough through the Solomon Islands, creating profit for Guinea show that 50% of China’s tropical logs come a handful of individuals and abandoning accountability at from countries whose forest sectors are plagued with the door. The Forestry Department has difficulty enforcing risks of illegality. If China continues to buy its wood the law,13 especially in the more remote parts of the with ‘no questions asked’, it risks undermining efforts country where some of the largest remaining forests are.14 by its trading partners to improve governance, prevent Indeed, it is highly unusual to see forestry officials outside environmental degradation, and achieve the UN the capital.15 Sustainable Development Goals. The innovative steps that China is taking to reduce its own carbon emissions will be “We no longer have power to regulate; undermined if it continues to buy so much tropical wood from the Solomon Islands. Indeed, 77% of the Solomon all we do is watch as the forest Islands’ greenhouse gas emissions come from forestry and resource disappears.” land-use changes.22 By not questioning the illegal activity businesses are taking part in, China enormously increases 16 Job D. Tausinga, 2005, later to be Solomon Islands the commercial and reputational risks to its businesses 17 Minister of Forestry and those they trade with. We call on China to require its timber importers to carry out checks to ensure that the It is often argued that logging tropical forests is a good timber they buy is, at a minimum, legal in its country idea because it brings development to local communities. of origin. Essentially,

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