An opposition MP in Solomon Islands says the country has been "raped" and "robbed" in broad daylight by foreign loggers with the full complicity of its leaders over successive governments.
Logging tracks run like scars across the face of a tropical rainforest on Malaita in Solomon Islands. Photo: Photo supplied/Edgar Pollard - Patrick Pikacha - Felix Naitoro
Matthew Wale said global market figures released by the Central Bank of Solomon Islands for local hardwoods were 30 to 40 percent higher than prices used by the local government to tax exporters in the country and calculate royalties for landowning communities.
Mr Wale is calling for a complete overhaul of the systems in the forestry ministry to ensure the country and its people get maximum returns for their resources.
"Yeah my proposal to the government was that the determined price be scrapped, the mechanism, and that the legal price for determination of income taxes export duty and excise and royalties to the landowners, that those be based on the published price by the Solomon Islands' Central Bank."
