Creating the Tawatana Conservation Forest area in Makira Ulawa Province as a Protected Area with support from World Vision
I am very happy to share the news reported in the Island Sun newspaper of a proposed a conservation area in Makira province to become a protected forest, and I quote the story.
A community in the Solomon Islands, Tawatana in Makira Ulawa Province, has all the past years refused to give into the pressures from logging companies despite the fast cash from this industry and choose to protect their resources for future generations.
The community sees the need to protect their resources, especially the forest. Among other areas of great concern to them to protect their forests, the future generation is at the top of their list of priorities. The current community leaders are so concerned that if they fall into the trap of the logging industry, their future generation will not be able to see and enjoy the so-called virgin forest.
"Our future generation must see and enjoy a virgin forest, this is one of the reasons we decided to conserve our forest and this is very important," said Tawatana Conservation Management Committee Coordinator Selwyn Aharo.
Mr. Aharo admitted during the past years, there were many challenges including the pressure from logging on their community leaders.
"The primary threat to the protected area and the Tawatana village's natural resources is logging," he said.
The logging industry is obvious in Makira, leaving Tawatana Conservation Area as one of the island's last virgin forest areas.
Most of the logging threats exist because logging's fast cash mentality will able to ease the financial pressures people face, such as school fees, proper housing and other family commitments.
Interestingly, the Solomon Islands have been logged at an unsustainable rate for decades a report stated. "The harvest rate was calculated at 325,000 cubic meters a year in early 1990s. In 2017 Solomon Islands exported more than 3m cubic meters of logs. Almost 7% of the country’s tree cover has been lost since 2000, and the Ministry of Finance earlier predicted that if logging continues at this current rate, natural forests will be exhausted by 2036," the article stated.
It further stated that the country exported more than 2m tonnes of timber in 2019. This accounted for more than 60% of the country's total exports that year, according to Guardian Australia analysis, and the logging industry is one of the country's largest employers.
Despite of the millions of dollars and employment opportunities to citizens, the destruction of logging is so concerning and could mean in some part of the country, future generations will only hear and read about virgin forest.
"I thank World Vision Solomon Islands for choosing Tawatana Conservation for its project and I hope this project will enable us to work through other remaining steps of the process to declaring Tawatana Conservation Area as a Protected Area (PA)," Mr. Aharo optimistically forecast.
End of quote.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
