The Solomon Islands Government has announced that it will take tougher measures on logging industries operating in the country.
After a high-level discussion between the Prime Minister and his taskforce today, it has been announced that the Government will be enforcing existing legislations and initiating new measures that will put the industry under greater scrutiny.
The taskforce is made up of all relevant ministries to the logging industry and the Central Bank of Solomon Islands.
“I wish to announce that the Government will immediately issue a notice to all ministries that no new logging licenses will be issued to any company,” he said. “The Government will also issue a notice to the ministry of environment to issue no further development consents which is necessary for any new logging developments.”
In addition the Prime Minister said the Government will also work towards helping to improve the logging sector.
And he said this also includes:
• Monitoring of all logging companies to ensure compliance with environment, labour, immigration, customs and excise laws and regulations.
• Provisions of resources by the environment to ensure that the above tasks are implemented and tough penalties are enforced.
Source: Press Release, Government Communications Unit