When the chips are down

credit: FSP Vanuatu

A moving dust cloud on a coral coast road in the South Pacific masks a giant timber lorry and its load of tropical hardwood timber. The logs are some of the last available for export from Vanuatu. Over recent years, international logging companies have stripped the best of the once dense forests that covered the mountainous interior of these islands but the local inhabitants have little to show for it. The islands look and the rural communities feel denuded, and the 'mining' of the forest resources is not sustainable. Fortunately, local action by an NGO, Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific (FSP), has initiated community action, which could be the basis for saving what remains of the forest cover, regenerating what has been lost, and exploiting the resources on a sustainable basis and for the benefit of nationals rather than foreign businessmen.

FSP teaches villagers good forestry practices and how community forestry can help secure the forest resources for harvesting and marketing in a businesslike but sustainable way. Small portable or 'walk-about' sawmills have been imported from New Zealand so that trees can be felled and sawn selectively without need for crawler tractors and bulldozers that invariably damage surrounding vegetation, cut up the ground and leave the surface vulnerable to soil erosion. Such practices can help repair the ravages of big machines in a relatively short time but it will take decades to see forest giants grow to maturity. Yet it could be said that when the chips are down an initiative like this one has to be for the long term and the benefit of future generations.

Local market buoyant

The local market for timber for construction is buoyant and there is no problem with sales. There are also fewer disputes over land managed as community forests as it seems that a return to traditional cooperative working by families in communities eliminates many of the misunderstandings, jealousies and grievances that so often led to bitter and prolonged land disputes. And, once communities have established a good working pattern, FSP can move on to work with other communities on other islands in Vanuatu. As he prepares to leave the island of Espiritu Santo for Aneityum, forester Mark Kalotap of FSP observes, "When I see the logging companies at work, I feel that is not what we need in the country. If all the communities in Vanuatu decided to stop big logging operations and begin community-based forestry businesses, we would be happy to help them. It would be good for the country because forest income would remain here." It remains to be seen whether community action is a match for the influence and economic power wielded by big business.

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