Solomon Islands On Track To Wipe Out All Forests By 2015

[hatrack]

Australia predicts that current rates of logging in Solomon Islands will wipe out forest resources by 2015 or earlier.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has released a study of the Solomon Islands economy prepared by his Economic Analytical Unit. The report is aimed at helping the Solomon Islands Government build on the success of the regional assistance mission, RAMSI, which is about to celebrate the first anniversary of its intervention in the Solomons.

The study says forest resources in Solomons will be exhausted by 2015 if timber is cut at an annual rate of 600,000 cubic metres. But the actual timber production last year was more than 700,000 cubic metres.

Most of the harvest is exported in round logs to Asia and there is little processing in the Solomons. The report says while unsustainable logging has serious environmental consequences, it has been crucial to the Budget with the timber export tax accounting for 15 per cent of all revenue."

EDIT

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1158127.htm

[phantom power]

1. "crucial to the budget"

well, then of course that overrides *all* other considerations!

I wonder what their plan for their budget is, come 2015 when they don't have any more timber to sell. Ten years goes by in a hurry.

[hatrack]

2. Yes, we can't do anything that would hurt economic growth!

Because that would be, uh, . . . bad - yes, that's the word - BAD!!

It reminds me of the best episode of This American Life I ever heard. The episode was called "The Middle Of Nowhere" and a chunk of it had to do with the Republic of Nauru.

The phosphates which founded the island's wealth are gone, leaving most of the island a combination dump and toxic waste site. The profits from the phosphates were invested in junk bonds and a failed London theatrical production, among other items, and were quickly pissed away.

There was a plan to have Nauru open an embassy and consulates in China, paid for and run by the US Government as spy posts, but that came to naught. Nauru now makes some money from housing South Asian refugees at Australia's behest, but not a lot.

The latest scheme is to mine slabs of rock from the island's interior which can be made into decorative coffee table tops.

[phantom power]

3. you called it a few weeks ago:

We're going to eat, cut and burn through every natural resource on planet earth until there's nothing left. And then, all the jackasses who laughed at us for being Cassandras will wail "O! why weren't we warned??? How could we have predicted this catastrophe???"

"I'm not 'a' Cassandra, I *am* Cassandra!"
--Cassandra, from Mighty Aphrodite

[NNadir]

4. Easter Island deja vu.

http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/rapanui.html