Potential Restoration Approaches for Heavily Logged Tropical Forests in Solomon Islands
Restoring heavily or repeatedly logged forests in the Solomon Islands is a growing priority given that economic pressures are frequently driving forest degradation to extreme levels. In such logged stands, damage can be so intense that natural regeneratio
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Potential Restoration Approaches for Heavily Logged Tropical Forests in Solomon Islands Eric Katovai, Dawnie D. Katovai, and William F. Laurance
12.1 Introduction Small tropical island countries are becoming more vulnerable to forest loss due to industrial logging. These countries are mostly of lower socio- economic status and often heavily dependent on logging for economic revenue (Sloan and Sayer 2015). This scenario is highly apparent in the Solomon Islands, where log export alone contributes between 50 and 70% to the country’s annual export revenue (Katovai et al. 2015). Annual log
E. Katovai (*) The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji James Cook University, Caims, QLD, Australia e-mail: [email protected] D. D. Katovai The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji W. F. Laurance James Cook University, Caims, QLD, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2021 J. L. Roberts et al. (eds.), Shaping the Future of Small Islands, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4883-3_12
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Fig. 12.1 Log export volume for the Solomon Islands between 1997 and 2017. The economy of the Solomon Islands has been heavily reliant on log export, resulting in a steep increase in logging activities in the country, with harvest quadrupling beyond the sustainable yield
exports in the Solomon Islands had been consistent in the 1980s and 1990s but increased steeply within the last decade (Fig. 12.1) (CBSI 1997–2017). Recent research has predicted that log export volumes will soon peak and then sharply decline within the next decade mainly due to unsustainable harvesting associated with bad logging practices (Shearman et al. 2012; Katovai et al. 2015). In spite of many concerns about past and current logging practices, and proposals to address excessive damage through remedial and preventive actions in the Solomon Islands, relatively little has been achieved in this frontier (Laurance et al. 2011, 2012; Katovai et al. 2016). Industrial logging in Solomon Islands is mostly selective and operated by companies from Asia. Trees are usually harvested based on size and species preference (Katovai et al. 2015). However, unregulated harvesting and the lack of monitoring by authorities often result in highly degraded forest landscapes across the country (Fig. 12.2a). Furthermore, unregulated logging practices lead to the deforestation of large forest tracts within logging concessions for temporary logging, machinery and fuel storage, logging
12 POTENTIAL RESTORATION APPROACHES FOR HEAVILY LOGGED…
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Fig. 12.2 A highly logged forest landscape (a) and a large forest tract deforested for temporary log storage (b) in Solomon Islands
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camps and dense networks of roads and skidding trails (Fig. 12.2b) (Jackson et al. 2002). In heavily or repeatedly logged stands, damage incurred from tree harvest and the associated land uses can be so intense that natural regeneration is insufficient to allow floristic and functional recovery to precut levels. Permanent shift
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