JUST as Malcolm Turnbull tries to outsmart Labor on environmental issues, a file of documents has emerged linking the Leader of the Opposition to a mass logging operation in the Solomon Islands. The tiny island of Vangunu is a speck on the world map; a dot in the Pacific and home to just over 2000 people. It forms part of the collection of thousands of land masses that make up the Solomon Islands.
Once covered in pristine rainforest, the island and the surrounding Marovo Lagoon were the subject of lobbying by the New Zealand government and environmentalists to have it World Heritage-listed in the late 1980s. Almost two decades later, the island is again being talked about - only this time for different reasons.
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It emerged that he had been chairman of Axiom Forest Resources from late 1991 to to July 1992 -- a company that had earlier been the subject of a series of damning AusAID reports. Published in the early 1990s, the reports likened Axion and its operations on Vangunu to "a clear-felling operation" that made little attempt to be sustainable. Responding to the issue at the time, Mr Turnbull told ABC radio that he had had no hands-on role in the logging operations on the Islands.
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More embarrassingly for Mr Turnbull, the file also contains scientific articles published in international journals detailing the impact logging has had on the local Solomon Islands community. A 2002 report by marine biologists published in The Status of Solomon Islands Coral Reefs said the unique reef and Marovo lagoon system was still suffering from the effects of logging. "Villagers report huge sediment plumes following heavy rain," it said. "Once the rain has stopped, the water may clear within 24 hours to a week. In the rainy season that means the plumes are a semi-permanent feature." A 2005 Melanesian Geo article by local resident Douglas Pikacha said the lagoon may never recover from the damage. A further paper published last year said large algal blooms from sediments in the catchments were wreaking havoc on the delicate reef system.
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http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25119923-949,00.html
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