Solomon Islands’ rich old forests will all but gone within five to seven years—88 years after logging operations began there.
This is the result of unsustainable foreign-controlled logging operations, according to Aljazeera Television network’s 101 East programme.
With it, 70 percent of the country’s export revenue will disappear, the 30-minute report aired recently said.
Seen by the network’s audience of millions around the world, 101 East said that while the debate over deforestation and environmental catastrophe has only begun in some countries, in the Solomon Islands it is over.
Large scale corruption, 101 East was told, was introduced into the country by foreign logging companies, largely from Malaysia, some 30 years ago. It continues today, it said.
In 2006, for example, US$215,000 were given out in unauthorised payments to politicians and senior public servants, in return it seems, for some US$4.6 million given to foreign logging companies in “unlawful tax exemptions” in the same year.
Little do foreign logging companies leave behind, except large scale destruction of land, trees and river systems.
Resource owners in the rural areas get meager return on their logs. In Makira/Ulawa Province, for example, some 350 villagers near one logging camp receive US$25,000 annually. That’s about US$71 per head per annum.
The company exports some 36,000 cubic metres of sawn logs annually from its operations here. The annual return to the company is more than US$1 million. That’s just one aspect of logging operations in Solomon Islands.
Now the government, led by Australian-educated Prime Minister, Dr Derek Sikua, is being placed between a rock and a hard place in terms of filling the vacuum created by the downward dive in revenue from logging.
Tourism and fisheries, eyed as potential industries to help fill the revenue gap—are estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
As if this is not enough, the lure of logging has created another problem. It is new and growing and is proving to be a headache for the country’s policymakers.
In logging camps dotted across the nation, a new generation of children fathered by foreign loggers is growing. Mothers are often under-age girls with little or no education at all.
A girl’s marriage to foreign loggers was often pre-arranged by parents who knew the foreigners had families back in Malaysia or in the Philippines and that one day they would leave.
Other young girls were often “trafficked” into logging camps often by operators of prostitution rings.
Take, the story of Mary [not her real name], for example. Mary was spending Christmas in Honiara with her aunty. By the time she arrived back in her home village in Makira/Ulawa Province, she found out that her parents had married her off to a Malaysian logger, someone she had never met before.
Mary is 16 and pregnant. She simply did not have a say in her marriage.
Tale of horror: On being told of the arrangement, she simply moved in with the Malaysian logger at the campsite. Her life has since been a tale of horror.
Mary told Aljazeera’s 101 EAST that “he’s a terrible man”.
“Some times he would lock me up in our camp house before he goes to work. One time he even slapped me,” she said.
“He’s suspicious of me, even when I am talking with my relatives,” Mary said.
Asked why her parents gave her away, Mary said: “I don’t know. But I suspect it is to do with money”.
“Do you know, the Malaysian man may be married with a family in Kuala Lumpur or somewhere?” Mary was asked.
“Yes, I know he’s married and has a family in Kuala Lumpur. I also know he will one day leave.
“I wouldn’t have cared, but now I am really sad because I am pregnant. I am sad because I will be left with a child to care for on my own,” she told Aljazeera.
Or take the case of another young girl from Waghina, off Choiseul Province. Waghina Island is an enclave of former Kiribati residents resettled there by the British government in the 50s.
Lucy [not her real name] recently gave birth to a son. From the day she returned to the Honiara apartment where she was sharing with her Asian “husband”, there was commotion every night.
This went on for several nights. Suddenly, it stopped. A neighbour later found out the man, a logger, did not want to see the child in the house. Lucy had to give the baby away to please him.
Or take the case of another underage girl on the island of Malaita. A priest had found out that her father had given her away to a logger. When the clergyman confronted the father, the response was a familiar cry.
“Are you going to provide my family with money if I took my daughter back from the Asian logger?” he asked the Catholic priest.
What many parents do not realise is that the number of children being born and left behind in the Solomon Islands by loggers is on the rise.
“These children simply have no one to look after them in terms of clothing, feeding and schoolling them,” I was told in Honiara recently.
“It’s a generation of fatherless children left behind by loggers who have gone back to their countries after they’ve destroyed our forests. The number of these types of children is growing”.
A report produced by Tania Herbert of the Christian Care Centre, Church of Melanesia, Solomon Islands, last year found that local people were also involved in the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
 “Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children [CSEC] in the Solomon Islands: A report focusing on the presence of the logging industry in a Remote region” was based on interviews and community awareness programme undertaken in the Arosi Region of Makira/Ulawa Province.
Over 1000 people came from 12 villages to attend the community awareness programme. A third or 370 of them were children. They attended the children’s sessions.
“Sixty stories of abuse were collected from these interviews. Forty one stories of child sexual abuse or possible commercial sexual exploitation of children [CSEC]. There were at least 73 children who were victims,” the 45-page report said.
The report grouped these abuses into four types: child prostitution, pre-arranged child marriage, sexual abuse cases and pornography.
It found for example that child prostitution “was the most prominent type of exploitation affecting 36 children”. 
Most of the perpetrators were foreign loggers,” the report said.
To give you some idea as to what always happened, here’s a transcribed interview with a 10-year-old boy featured in the report.
“When the [logging] ship came, I went to look. Lots of children went to look. We went out in canoes for [selling] market [goods]. They were all Asian men.
“We sold them coconuts. We did not go onboard. We were not allowed. Some girls were allowed. They were not children but they were not mature women [they were teenagers].
Love of money: “The Asian men gave them $10 each to come onboard. There were about 10 of them. I don’t know what they did onboard. No boys were allowed. The girls did not come for market—they did not bring anything to sell”.
Or this from a local mother: “The problem is loggers attracting girls. One Malaysian wanted my daughter for his house girl [domestic servant]. He came to our house—he was watching her, coveting her.
“He said to me, ‘I would like your girl to work for me, especially now. I will pay her $500 for one night. He is a married man, but he said he would like to marry her.
“My daughter refused. She has just finished school [is well educated], so she knows about this sort of man. Some of her friends tried to convince her to sleep with him  because he has money.”
On cases of early marriage or being sold by parents, there were 12 stories of children entering into early marriage or being ‘sold’ into marriage by parents, the report said.
“All but two were marriages to foreign loggers and six stories were about girls below the legal age of 15. In addition, there were two cases where a child was at risk of being trafficked, or sold to be taken to another country,” the report said.
This story from a domestic servant working in one of the logging camps is a case in point.
“One man from Malaysia took one small girl to the camp. He slept with her there. Her parents were included in this. This man from Malaysia abused her and gave her money, videos [and] clothes. This happened because her mother and father wanted money. This man would like to take this girl overseas with him [to live] when it is time for his holidays. This girl is between 11 and 15 years of age—maybe 13.”
The report also found that not only were parents involved in pre-arranged marriages. Young boys usually acted as “go-betweens” in arranging a girl at the request of the foreign logger.
These facilitators were often rewarded with cash payments and in one case, alcohol.
There also were a range of sexual abuse cases, with crimes committed by foreign and Solomon Islands men.
Child pregnancy was an issue, the report found, with at least nine girls becoming pregnant.
Pornography and children was also a major issue in the villages.
“There were two cases where pornography was of Solomon Islands children. There were also a further five cases of children being shown pornographic movies or pictures both within the camps and within the villages,” the report said.
The issue of money was “highly significant” where commercial sexual exploitation of children occurred, the report said.
“Money was cited as the reason for commercial sexual exploitation of children [CSCE] in most cases.”
Unlike other countries in the region where the problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children was widespread, the report noted that “CSCE is a new issue in Solomon Islands”.
“As such, it is possible this critical issue can be eliminated while in its early stages. The Solomon Islands Government must take decisive actions on this issue and lead the charge,” the report said in one of its recommendations.
It also urged commitment from the local police, saying it is essential to end illegal activities in the logging camps.
“Knowledge that police are involved in the monitoring of activities in the camp may also act as a deterrent to would-be abusers.
For the Solomon Islands Government, finding the money to police logging camps will just be as hard as filling the 70 percent of export revenue being created by the winding down of logging activities in the country.