FOREST PROTECTED AREAS IDENTIFIED IN SOLOMON ISLANDS

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BY GEORGINA KEKEA

FIVE sites in Solomon Islands are identified to be preserved as forest protected areas under Integrated Forest Management (IFM) project. The areas identified are Are‘are and Maramasike in South Malaita, Bauro Highlands in Makira, Kolombangara in Western Province, Mount Maetambe in Choiseul, and Tina Popomanaseu in Guadalcanal.

Already a development team from the project made site visits to the proposed sites to carry out Provincial and Community Inception Workshops at each of the provisionally identified project areas. Consultations were held with local communities regarding the project objectives and potential activities to be implemented at the respective sites.

Kolombangara island (Photo supplied)
All communities have confirmed their support for IFM and are enthusiastic about engaging with the project in implementing the activities identified. Consultations were also held with other relevant local stakeholders for each project area, including local representatives of MOFR and MAL, provincial government, NGO‘s, other community groups and donor programmes. 

 Cathy Siota of IFM says the road ahead for them will be challenging. She said for a long time, people had been relying on monies from the forestry sector and getting into conservation will be a new concept.

“Getting them to understand the importance of their resources and why conservation is important. This needs a collective agreement and input from all the rural people concerned”.

Siota said awareness is an important factor and communication is vital. She says most of the rural people do not have access to information and they need to be made more aware of what IFM project is and how they will benefit once they their area becomes a protection area.

“143 thousand hectares of land is what we are looking at conserving. The 143 thousand hectares is the total land mass for all the five project sites”.

Mangroves in Maramasike passage (Photo supplied)
It is understood that discussions with communities regarding activities to be implemented at each site were already held and some priority activities agreed and included in the site-level work plans.

Each site will receive varying amount of investments as per its needs, potential value for learning, and for its key conservation focus. 

However, it is anticipated that some sites would receive intensive investments for biodiversity conservation and livelihood improvement, while other sites will receive investments for specific conservation-focussed activities, such as learning and capacity building, research and monitoring, and outreach, as relevant, which will be decided during the project implementation.

 “They are very keen to work with the project”, Cathy Siota says.

Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) this project comes with a high price but one that is necessary for future Solomon Islanders. 

Popomanaseu in Guadalcanal
 Costing US$5.67 million, with an additional amount of at least USD30.67 million as co-financing, this project will strengthen and complement ongoing efforts by the government and its partners to promote new approaches to sustainable forest management.

Based on the project objective, outcomes and outputs and activities planned, no adverse environmental impacts are expected to result from the project. However the projects are expected to produce positive impacts on the sustainable management of land and forest resources.

ENDS///

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