Timber Battles Heat Up in Pacific
International Herald Tribune
August 6, 1994
Michael Richardson 

The Solomon Islands warned that it may suspend the license of a Malaysian timber company, another sign that small countries in the South Pacific are starting to take a stand against big Asian logging companies.

The Solomons have given Silvania Products Ltd., a unit of the listed Malaysian forestry company Kumpulan Emas Bhd., until Monday to show why its license should not be suspended, the company said late Thursday.

Francis Billy Hilly, the prime minister of the Solomons, said Kumpulan Emas had "consistently breached the conditions of its license by carrying out illegal forestry practices."

He said his government was "not prepared to see our forest resources kidnapped and our people's livelihood squandered."

Kumpulan Emas said arrangements were being made for representatives of the company to meet Solomon Islands officials to "clarify the matters raised."

Mr. Billy Hilly told a group of government leaders from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 12 independent and self-governing Pacific island states that the Solomons would no longer issue new logging licenses after Aug. 29. The leaders met at the South Pacific Forum in Brisbane, Australia.

In recent years, large logging companies, mostly from Malaysia, South Korea and Indonesia, have gained extensive tropical forest concessions in the Solomons, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

But Vanuatu recently announced it would curb the activities of Asian loggers, and Papua New Guinea is under pressure from environmental groups and some forestry officials to do the same.

Paul Keating, the prime minister of Australia, said in Brisbane that "unless the environmental piracy of foreign logging companies operating in the South Pacific region is controlled, the future for the region will be bleak."

Mr. Keating said it was important to ensure that Pacific island states were "not exploited by unscrupulous companies who not only pay inadequate rates of return but also carry out logging practices which would not be tolerated in a developed forestry culture."

Mahathir bin Mohamad, the prime minister of Malaysia, reacted indignantly to Mr. Keating's remarks but appeared to ignore the fact that similar comments had been made by South Pacific island officials.

Mr. Mahathir said Australia had been angered because it once dominated the economies of the South Pacific and resented the involvement of entrepreneurs from other countries.

But Lim Keng Yaik, Malaysia's minister of primary industries, advised Malaysian companies to apply what they had learned about sustainable logging in Malaysia and follow the rules and regulations of host countries in the South Pacific.

Mr. Hilly Billy said some residents of the Solomons had joined forces with foreign companies "with one aim in mind, to cut down the trees for money."

He said that in 1993, logging companies removed 700,000 cubic meters of timber from the Solomons, more than double the amount in 1992.

At this rate, he said the country would run out of commercial timber within 15 years, leaving "a ravaged forest, polluted water supplies and coral reefs smothered in silt."

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