Legalizing the exploitation of Tubi. The commercialization of tubi raises a lot ofquestions. Early this year cabinet gave its approval and gazettes the tubi species to be listed under schedule 2 of the Wild Life Protection and Management Act, which now allows the commercialization of tubi. This is a very big decision. It would be interesting to know what reasons did the cabinet relied on to justify for the decision being made? In May this year, Director of Environment gave justification saying that by listing the tubi species under the schedule 2 of the Act, it can bring benefits to the country. What evidence is there to verify that by moving the tubi species to schedule 2 it would bring benefits to the country economically? How can we be certain that putting tubi on schedule 2 will bring national benefit when we don’t know its market value? Even the Comptroller of Customs in a recent media interview, was unable to indicate the market value because tubi species was not listed in the customs export and import list. Did they thoroughly conduct research on information related to the market value of this species or explore scientific advices? Did they meet requirements of the Act when issuing permits for exportation of this species? Because in section 14 (4) of the Act, it stated that “…where an application for the export of a specimen for commercial purposes the application shall state the name of the intended receiver of the specimens and provide copies of the relevant permit issued by the country to which the specimens are to be sent to or imported from and clearly show the export or import value of that specimen” Is this section of the Act being exercised when issuing permits for investors? Also, under the Act, the Director shall issue permits only to an approved person wishing to export tubi provided that the application have a valid business license issued by the respective Provincial Government permitting the approved persons to carry out trade in wildlife. In contrast, the Isabel Provincial Government is very frustrated about recent reports that many of the tubi logs which are transported to Honiara for exportation are coming from their Province. Environment Minister of Isabel Province, Hon. Wilson Tohidi recently said in a media article that tubi is still a prohibited species in Isabel Province under the Provincial Ordinance and as such any harvesting of tubi is regarded as illegal in Isabel. Transparency Solomon Islands calls on the National Government to be consistent with its decision making so that both the provincial government and the national government may have equal views of any changes that needs to be done. In this tubi scenario, it is sad to learn that the Provincial Ordinance is not respected by the cabinet when making its decision to commercialize tubi. TSIunderstandsthat the objective of the Act is to comply with the obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species which Solomon Islands signed in Washington on the 3rd day of March 1973. Furthermore, the Act serves to protect and conserve the wild flora and fauna of Solomon Islands by managing of these specimens to ensure sustainable uses of these resources for the benefit of the country. But with the current commercialization oftubi, itdoes not speak well on the provision of the Act to manage, protect and ensure sustainable uses of this resource. The decision to commercialize tubi has raised a lot of questions that needs to be properly addressed by the relevant authorities. Therefore, it would only be fair to say that by approving this commercialization,this indirectly exploits south Choiseul and Isabel as tubi only grows in parts of these islands, yet relevant Provincial Ordinances does not reflect well on this decision plus there is no clear indication on who will be benefited the most. Will it be the resource owners? The Country as stated by the Director of Environment? Or the exporting company? Landowners, loggers and government officials all have an important role to play in protecting this important natural resource. Our leaders must ensure that our environment is protected and that the benefits from harvesting natural resources flow to all Solomon islanders. We want to know what you think about this issue. Call TSI on 28319, email [email protected] or get in touch via our face-book page facebook/TransparencySI
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 21:44:29 +0000