Environment in Solomon Islands Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The Solomon Islands consist of seven major islands and 30 smaller islands, mainly islets, covering a land mass of 28,370 square kilometers. The main islands are predominantly high islands dominated by mountainous forests, though the country also includes a number of smaller outlying atolls. The Solomon Islands comprise a country rich in natural resources, especially forestry, minerals, and fisheries. The economy is primarily based upon timber, fisheries, palm oil, cocoa, and copra. However, these resources have been poorly regulated and managed and, in the face of one of the fastest population growth rates in the region (3.6 percent per annum on an estimated population in 2005 of 450,000), have not been translated into wealth. Consequently despite these natural resources, the Solomon Islands remain one of the poorest and most politically unstable nations in the Pacific. Average GDP per capita is currently U.S. $460, while the Solomon Islands are recorded as having one of the world’s lowest human development indices.

The Solomon Islands have a rich endowment of forest reserves though this resource is under threat. Indeed, one of the key environmental threats facing the Solomon Islands is the unsustainable rate of logging exacerbated by loose controls and the granting of licenses to foreign logging companies in return for personal financial benefits. Forests cover approximately 80 percent of the country, but 80 percent of logging takes place on customary land where government monitoring (where it does exist) is weak. Unchecked logging is resulting in a rapid loss of forest cover, contributing to habitat destruction for a rich and diverse wildlife, soil loss, and sedimentation of catchments and lagoons.

Social and political tensions resulting from unsuitable resource use (concessions far exceed actual forest reserves) and over the impact of logging on communities is increasingly evident, as is corruption associated with timber extraction. The reopening of a gold mine in central Guadalcanal offers the prospect for greater wealth, but may also go the way of logging in terms of the limited social and economic benefit resulting from an extractive and environmentally damaging industry, as has been evident in neighboring Papua New Guinea. Improved environmental reporting and governance, especially in terms of capacity and willingness to deal with the management of natural resources, is vital if the Solomon Islands are to generate enough wealth for the growing, and predominantly poor, population.

Though the Solomon Islands remain an overwhelmingly rural society and economy, the principal city, Honiara (estimated population 45,000), faces problems of service delivery and basic infrastructure. Competition over scarce land and employment opportunities has not stopped considerable rural-urban migration since independence in 1978. Meeting the needs of increasing urban populations and lessoning their environmental impact will also be important in the country’s future environmental sustainability.

Bibliography:

Central Intelligence Agency, “Solomon Islands,” The World Factbook, www.cia.gov;
John Overton and Regina Scheyvens, Strategies for Sustainable Development: Experiences from the Pacific (Zed Press, 1999).