The Solomon Islands Government has been told it must drastically cut its share of logging royalties in favour of landowners.
A prominent lawyer, Andrew Nori, who has close links to the logging industry, says the Forestry Bill before parliament, contains serious anomalies and needs to be rewritten.
He says if landowners are restricted to clearing only up to five hectares of land it wouldn't justify replanting.
Mr Nori also says the methods for determining ownership will lead to strife within tribes.
And he says the ten percent royalty for landowners is too low while the 25 percent the government takes is no longer justified as it might have been in the 1980s and 90s.
"The government was then planning to, in cooperation with the New Zealand government and the European Union, to go into reafforestation. Now those plans have failed miserably. So the Government should relinquish its 25 percent - give at least 20 percent to the landowners and retain about five percent."
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