Conclusion

On Thursday 24 July 2003, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) commenced operation following serious but contained conflict in Solomon Islands between 1999 and 2003.

the disruption to political patronage networks engendered by the combined impact, in the late 1990s, of declining demand for Solomons log exports due to the Asian financial crisis and the reform agenda of the Ulufa’alu 24

government.

As Braithwaite et al note, this fostered the conditions in which the treasury was drained by spurious compensation claims and “ethnic divisions” came to be exploited for political purposes by members of an elite struggling to control fewer and fewer resources. The authors identify a number of shortcomings of RAMSI that relate to a failure to deal with the problems associated with natural resource extractive industry in Solomon Islands. They assert that the following actions should have been implemented:^{[911] [912]}

• Prosecution of foreign loggers for breaches of the law;

• Prosecution of international commercial interests for:

o corrupting the Solomons Islands’ tax system and its customs administration;

o funding the buying of votes of no confidence in the Parliament;

o destroying the sustainability of the export industries of logging and fishing;

• Prosecution of Solomon Islands elites involved in corrupt conduct concerning logging and fishing.

It is regrettable that the effort in 1994 to enact a new forestry management regime in Solomon Islands failed.

It may seem surprising that the 2003 RAMSI intervention did not lead to the implementation of a new forestry regulatory regime for sustainable exploitation of the resources then remaining. However, this could be explained in terms of the self-interests of the political elites in Solomon Islands with whom RAMSI had to negotiate. However, it would be lamentable if after 10 years there is still no progress on this issue. It may be that a failure to address this, and the system for managing land use conflicts more generally, may compromise the long term legacy of RAMSI.

There are some areas for optimism, provided we learn from the past and focus on finding new ways to promote sustainable resource use with equitable distribution of the proceeds of resource exploitation. While much of the forests of Solomon Islands have been lost in their natural state, there is some potential for forest resources to be rehabilitated in the long term, for example, through re-afforestation.

For the future, a new forestry law is required. In devising any new law, careful attention must be paid to the protection of indigenous landowning interests in a holistic way.