The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Forestry in Solomon Islands says they have formally confiscated logs, worth about 600,000 US dollars, that they believe had been illegally harvested on Petani Island.
A ship operated by three logging companies has been detained through a High Court order after 4,000 cubic metres of logs had been taken from the island despite permits not being issued.
The permanent secretary, Jeffrey Wickham, says the loggers will face repercussions.
"We are aware that there have been such activities going on throughout the country and the government has been losing a lot of revenue from those illegal activities. Not only that but we have also identified on this particular ship that there are protected species prohibited for export."
Jeffrey Wickham
The vessel is at Noro Port in Western Province with officials still to decide where to land the logs.
