{"id":880610,"date":"2026-09-05T06:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880610\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T06:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:36:10","slug":"solomon-islands-forestry-between-australia-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880610\/","title":{"rendered":"Solomon Islands Forestry Between Australia and China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canberra has put close to SI$60 million into the fund that bought Kolombangara Forest Products and is now paying to train the plantation\u2019s heavy machinery operators. That is according to the Australian High Commission in Honiara, which announced the training programme and an upgraded Early Learning Centre<\/a> on 14 August, nine months after New Forests completed its purchase of the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Solomon Islands, forest coverage is around 90%, and most of the country\u2019s revenue comes from logging, with limited development of downstream products,\u201d Christina Gabuvai told China Daily<\/a> in August 2025. The country\u2019s chief forester was among eleven forestry officers who spent time in Zhejiang and Henan on a seminar Beijing set up, the latest instance of its timber and bamboo diplomacy in the Pacific<\/a>.<\/p>\n

China took 2.37 million cubic metres of logs from Solomon Islands in 2019<\/a> and 1.44 million in 2022<\/a>, its customs data shows, and by 2025 the figure was 1.09 million, 31 per cent fewer than a year earlier<\/a>, a fall of 54 per cent across six years by Wood Central\u2019s calculation from the same series. The Asian Development Bank counts logging output at 1.60 million cubic metres in 2022<\/a> after a 22.4 per cent fall it calls the sharpest on record, against a sustainable level earlier studies set at 250,000 cubic metres a year, and its baseline runs output down to an average of 1.15 million cubic metres a year through 2033.<\/p>\n

\"LineChina\u2019s log imports from Solomon Islands, 2018 to 2025, on China\u2019s own customs count. Hollow points are Wood Central\u2019s calculations from the reported year-on-year changes; no 2020 figure was published. The two reference lines are the Asian Development Bank\u2019s sustainable harvest level and its 2023 to 2033 baseline, which measure Solomon Islands output rather than Chinese imports. (Graphic: Wood Central, data from China customs via ITTO and Mutouyun, and the Asian Development Bank)<\/p>\n

Tropical Asia Forest Fund 2, the New Forests vehicle that bought KFPL, took the Australian money through the Australian Climate Finance Partnership, which the same bank manages, and the bank also took a 492 million Australian dollar, four-year commitment from Pat Conroy and Penny Wong<\/a> in May 2024, when the Minister for International Development and the Pacific called it one of several regional banks \u201cunwittingly caught in a contest\u201d for influence.<\/p>\n

KFPL runs 14,000 hectares of hardwood plantation inside a 40,000-hectare estate on Kolombangara, in Western Province, with the other 26,000 hectares held as natural forest, and the High Commission calls it the country\u2019s only internationally certified sustainable forestry plantation. The company holds Forest Stewardship Council certification<\/a> under licence code FSC-C013138 and counts 200 full-time staff and 800 contractors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis targeted training will give our workforce the skills to operate safely and efficiently in demanding conditions,\u201d Edwin Schramm said. The general manager of KFPL will put the Australian money into on-site courses in vehicle and heavy machinery operation and maintenance, from a partner that had already put more than $5 million into the company through Strongim Bisnis for site access, tourism, and the country\u2019s first wooden pallet line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt creates jobs, supports landowner incomes and provides a sustainable alternative to logging natural forests,\u201d Jeff Roach said of plantation forestry. Rod Hilton, his predecessor as Australia\u2019s High Commissioner, attended the 3 October signing ceremony in Honiara, and the High Commission\u2019s statement on the ceremony counted the SI$60 million as part of what enabled the transaction<\/a>, a deal Hilton called New Forests\u2019 first investment in the Pacific<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Australian researchers, through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, have been working for a number of years to establish a supply chain for responsible timber on the islands. Footage courtesy of University of Adelaide \u2013 Business Law Economics.<\/p>\n

New Forests completed the purchase on 31 October<\/a>, and the company\u2019s own site now lists<\/a> New Forests at 75 per cent, Kolombangara Island Investment Limited at 20 per cent, and the Investment Corporation of Solomon Islands at 5 per cent. \u201cSome of the initiatives include modernising forest operations, improving road and port facilities, strengthening community engagement, and implementing training programs for workers,\u201d the manager\u2019s 12 November release<\/a> states.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are no longer outsiders, you are partners, co-owners of KFPL,\u201d Jeremiah Manele said. The Solomon Islands Prime Minister handed the landowners their share certificate at Ringi on 11 November, telling them Elite Idea Limited had decided in 2023 and 2024 to sell its shares, and Frank Wickham, the ICSI chair, told the same crowd the state corporation had held 40 per cent before the transfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a commercial milestone. It is a historic moral victory that affirms the dignity of our landowners,\u201d Jimson Tanangada said. The Police Minister holds the Gizo-Kolombangara seat, whose constituency office put more than $3 million into the landowners\u2019 trust<\/a> before the transfer, and he traced the claim to 1923, when the tribes\u2019 forefathers first lodged collective claims over the island under British rule.<\/p>\n

Three Solomon Islands Timber Processors and Exporters Association exporters met PEFC controlled source terms in February<\/a>, after more than a decade of due diligence work with the New Zealand Tropical Timber Importers Group, and Simon Dorries, the Responsible Wood chief executive, says that status is recognised under Australia\u2019s illegal logging regulation and New Zealand\u2019s legal harvest assurance system.<\/p>\n

\u201cNZITTG has, since 2015, been pushing hard to source third-party legally verified timber products from the Solomons,\u201d Malcolm Scott said, and the group\u2019s chair expects another three or four exporters to join later this year or next.<\/p>\n

\"J <\/p>\n

Jason Ross, publisher, is a 15-year professional in building and construction, connecting with more than 400 specifiers. A Gottstein Fellowship recipient, he is passionate about growing the market for wood-based information. Jason is Wood Central’s in-house emcee and is available for corporate host and MC services.<\/p>\n


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