Queensland forestry expertise will be transferred to the Solomon Islands in a new project which could become a model for Melanesian development.
Despite escalating ethnic tensions and political instability in the national government in Honiara, The University of Queensland has been engaged, with the Solomon Island Rural Development Trust Board, in constructing a commercial forestry nursery and training local people in its operation.
The nursery, on North New Georgia Island, is the first such facility in the country to be established on tribal customary land and run by local people. It is the first of a range of project activities designed to assist the local community to rehabilitate their forested land and ensure sustained commercial and environmental values.
The project involves collaboration among staff from UQ's Faculties of Natural Resources, Agriculture and Veterinary Science and Biological and Chemical Sciences, the Queensland Government Departments of Natural Resources and Primary Industries and the Solomon Island Rural Development Trust Board.
UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay said the forestry and community development project built on negotiations between the University, the Rural Development Trust Board and representatives of the Solomon Island Government which commenced in October 1999.
It was the first step in building a relationship between the Solomon Islands and Australian sources of technical and higher education expertise such as The University of Queensland and would extend into other resource and community development sectors.
The University currently has 13 Solomon Island students enrolled in five faculties.
"Queensland agencies can make a vital contribution in assisting in the introduction of appropriate technologies to the Solomons," Professor Hay said.
"Along with the increased adoption of those technologies already available, there will be a need to develop ways to manage community change so that social cohesion is not destroyed and the focus remains on regional development that is both integrated and sustainable."
A recently completed review of experience across UQ faculties confirmed the leadership that UQ could bring to a closer engagement for development through education, training and research with the Solomon Islands and elsewhere in Melanesia.
Professor Hay said the University, as the host of one of only seven international Rotary Centres for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution, could also make a particular contribution at this time in peace studies and conflict resolution to lay the basis for co-operation and trust.
The University was establishing a new Centre for International and Community Development in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to integrate the issues of peace with social and economic development, environmental and natural resource planning and management.
UQ Senior Lecturer in Tropical Forestry Dr Jim Davie said the forestry and community development project in North New Georgia arose from a request by the people through the Christian Fellowship Church and its spiritual leader, the Rev Ikani Rove.
"The community has asked for advice, information and the direction necessary to guarantee them a sustainable future," he said. "The project reflects a clearly stated concern by the Rev Rove for inter-generational equity in his community following the logging of the land."
The project area of about 40,000 hectares on New Georgia Island includes the three regions of Ngrassi, Dukerana and Lunga where forest logging has been completed, where logging is still occurring and an area where logging has not yet commenced.
The project area has no existing infrastructure for telecommunication. Roads are few and mostly constructed as part of the logging operation. The sustainability of the forestry project and its social development objectives will require new infrastructure to be established.
"The project has started with the construction of a commercial scale forest nursery, but will grow to encompass a range of other activities to allow income from sustained land production to fuel the community's needs in a rapidly changing social and economic environment," Dr Davie said.
From a development perspective, the project had a number of important features which suggested that expatriate intervention could have a significant beneficial impact on the social and economic circumstances of the community, he said.
"The need for the project has been determined by the community who have been provided substantial seed funding through the Solomon Island Rural Development Trust," he said.
"They are aware of the need for specific technical and scientific input from expatriates, yet through a strong sense of cultural identity, seek only that aid which they believe will further empower them and increase their economic autonomy.
"From a research perspective, the project is unique in Melanesia because it is so strongly community led that initial funding has been provided.
"In a sociological sense it offers an opportunity to examine the constraints and opportunities of direct transfer of technical assistance into communities on customary land. In this, it is responding to a situation which is set to become more common in the Solomon Islands as alienated government land is handed back to original customary owners."
Dr Davie said in an economic sense the project would provide considerable new experience about how income from natural forest logging could contribute to community development. It would provide the opportunity to investigate a range of issues associated with forest and soil restoration. It also provided a base for commercial hardwood plantation establishment.
Media: Further information, Dr Jim Davie, telephone 07 3365 9015, mobile 0408 478 155.
