Pacific Briefs

Too much logging in Solomon Is.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands—Commissioner of Forests Peter Sheehan has warned that the country will lose its logging industry in seven years if harvesting by Malaysian and South Korean companies continues at its current rate.

Sheehan told a conference in the capital that the current cutting of 550,000 cubic meters of forestland a year is more than double the sustainable rate.

He said forests now are the country’s most important resource, providing about 50 percent of the country’s annual foreign revenue.

Military equipment described as rubbish

HONIARA, Solomon Islands—The commander of the multinational police force assisting in maintaining peace between Guadalcanal and Malaita islanders has called a shipment of military equipment that arrived in the country last week “a load of rubbish.”

Fijian Savenaca Tuivaga said the shipment, including helicopter and fixed wing aircraft parts, is obsolete.

It is obvious, he said, that the consignment is “a load of rubbish, which a military hardware dealer in the United States unloaded on the Solomon Islands.”

The shipment is part of $19 million in military supplies originally purchased for protection during the height of the civil war in Bougainville, which borders the Solomon Islands. Additional equipment from the consignment remains stored in New Zealand.

Child labor in PNG plantations

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea—Children under the age of 12 are employed as laborers in tea and coffee plantations in the Highlands, teachers’ union leader Arnold Kondil has claimed.

He said most of the children living in the area are not sent to school. “Instead, they are employed by the plantations to make quick money.”

Parents require their youngsters to work in the plantations with them, normally for the same hours, Kondil said, prohibiting them from attending school.

The teachers’ union is working to resolve the problem.

Third global sale of French Polynesia pearls

PAPEETE, French Polynesia—French Polynesia’s black pearl producers have announced a collaborative, global auction sale to take place for the first time on June 23-24.

The sale, titled “United Pearl Producers Auction,” will target primarily Japanese, French and U.S. buyers.

The joint effort is aimed at reducing the number of pearls sold through other channels, which leading producers claims are of poor quality and tarnish the territory’s image on the international market.

A black pearl auction last month netted over $10 million.

More China aid to PNG

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea—China has made good on its promise to help Papua New Guinea climb out of its current economic mire with the injection of over $5 million in cash grant assistance, the National newspaper reported.

Chinese Ambassador Zhao Zhenyu said the donation is part of $10 million earmarked last year by the Chinese government, one of the “Friends of PNG” countries that pledged to help the government overcome its economic difficulties.