Solomon Islands has been in the news for some weeks now. Much of the attention has focused on security, China and the West. Solomon Islands is a complex place, not well understood by many. It is a country heavily dependent on natural resource extraction – gold and timber in particular. Its heavy reliance on extractive industries make it susceptible to the resource curse and social conflict. In this three-part series, lawyers William Kadi and Dirk Heinz draw on their deep experience in working with customary landholders in Solomon Islands to examine the destructive impact of poorly regulated logging. In part 1, Felled by its own Failures, examines the ways in which Australia, as a major development donor, failed to reign in rampant logging. Part 2, The damaging effects commercial logging has had on Solomon Islanders, Kadi and Heinz discuss the destruction wrought by poorly managed logging. We await the publication of part 3.
