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Countries Appendix PACIFIC ISLANDS (77.5%) Many of the Pacific Islands are covered with forest, although exploitation is now escalating in places like the Solomon Islands. Forests of the Pacific Islands have been gradually reduced by subsistence agriculture, collection of fuelwood, and use of wood as building material but today deforestation is heightened by tropical timber harvesting. Solomon Islands The Solomon Islands are an archipelago east of New Guinea with a land area of 28,000 square kilometers, 85% (2.4 million hectares) of which are covered by tropical rainforest. The majority of these forests are inaccessible to logging, being located on steep slopes and rugged terrain. Small-scale deforestation by locals has occurred over the last few centuries, but today forests are increasingly disappearing due to timbering and to a much lesser extent, cocoa, palm oil, and coconut plantations. However, rapid population growth (3.5%) will put more pressure on un-loggable forests in the near future. Logging in the Solomon Islands is a recent development which begun only in the 1990's. Logging in places like the Russell Islands (Central Solomons) was prohibited throughout the 1980's. However, since corrupt government officials took over, logging companies (predominantly Malaysian like Maving Brothers Ltd.) have secured licenses to log previously restricted areas and logging rates have skyrocketed. The government claims that export of round logs will be banned by 1997, but this hardly appears to be the case. Instead, more than 16,000 hectares of forest are destroyed each year and it looks as if the forests of the Solomons may disappear within a generation. Logging has brought few benefits to the native population, which receives only about $18 per tree-far below market prices in Asia, and brought many problems including disease, flooding, and soil erosion. One of the largest importers of Solomon hardwood is Japan which imported 1,374,000 cubic yards from 1992-1995, the annual amount increasing by 23.3% between 1992 and 1995. In April 1998, the government moved to nationalize the logging industry because Malaysian loggers had been overharvesting the forests and not brining the expected benefits to the country. Hawaii Yes, believe it or not, even the United States have tropical rainforest cover. Hawaii is an extremely remote archipelago, more than 3000 miles away from the nearest continent and 2000 miles away from any other substantial islands. The local flora and fauna which had been developing free of other influences for 10 million years was doomed by the introduction of foreign animals by Europeans. These included mosquitoes (released in 1827 by British vessel and devastated endemic bird life by bringing avian malaria and birdpox), pigs, goats, cattle, sheep, cattle, domestic cats and dogs, wallabies, deer, mongooses, land snails, donkeys, horses, rats, and chickens; many of which became feral populations. Alien plants, like the passion flower and the poka vine, also invaded and have pushed back native plants deeper into the forests. Reportedly, more than 50% of plant species found on the Hawaiian Islands today are foreign. At least another dozen species of plants, insects, or animals are said to be introduced into Hawaii each year. At least 62 endemic bird species, about two-thirds of its native birds, have gone extinct since humans set foot on Hawai. Though Hawaii comprises only 0.2% of the US land area, it accounts for 70% of the extinctions in the US and 25% of the US's endangered species, yet the state receives only 2% of the nation's endangered species funding. In addition to foreign invaders, the rainforests of Hawaii have been cleared for timber harvesting, sugar cane plantations, pineapple plantations, and the booming tourist industry. Less than 25% of Hawaii's natural forests remain. Guam Largest (160 square miles) and southernmost of the Marianas Islands, located in the west Pacific south of Tokyo. The northern area is forested where there the U.S. Air Force has not built, while the southern area is grassy vegetation. The forest had eleven bird species until the 1960s when a massive die-off began. The die-off was unexplainable but was attributed to many factors including DDT poison, introduced diseases and predators, habitat destruction, typhoons, and mysterious military activities. By 1986, after the extinction of six bird species, biologists concluded that the brown tree snake, introduced from the Philippines in the late 1940s, was the main culprit responsible for the declining bird population. Fiji and Tahiti Tahiti's rainforests still cover 65% of the country, thanks in a large part to the interior which has been shielded from tourist development. Fiji retains 45.7% forest cover and has an ambitious reforestation program to reduce the pressure on natural forests. 84% of Fiji's forests are communally owned. |
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