Pacific Standard, 24th October 2018
Logging in the Solomon Islands, a small country of 667,000 people in the South Pacific, is decimating natural forests there at around 19 times the rate considered sustainable, the watchdog non-governmental organization Global Witness has found.
"It really is quite alarming," Beibei Yin, a senior campaigner with Global Witness, said in an interview. "If this logging continues at this really unsustainable rate, the natural forest will be exhausted by 2036."
Yin led an investigation of timber harvesting in the Solomon Islands using satellite and drone images. She and her colleagues also pulled together research on the country's forests and the exploitation of this critical resource to the islands' economy. They concluded that the Solomons' most important customer has the opportunity—and responsibility—to address this situation.