Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
if I intended to visit Rennell and Bellona. My usual answer was that, from what
I understood, the islands were not in need of the disturbances that tourism would
invariably bring in. On my return to Honiara in July 1987, however, this situation
was about to change.
Saved from the Loggers
The morning after my arrival in Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital, I found an
envelope that had been pushed under the door of my hotel room. The envelope
contained a copy of a letter from the then minister of health in the Solomon
Islands, this being his reply to the Rainforest Information Centre in Lismore,
Australia. The letter stated that the forest on Rennell had been sold to the
Queensland logging company Foxwood, “… due to the immediate financial needs
of the Rennell islanders”. The minister added “Tourism cannot have any impor-
tance for the island. It is just a rock in the ocean with nothing to offer” (Munch-
Petersen
1996
:324,
2008
:13).
1
The same day, I was contacted by islanders from East Rennell, and left for the
island a few days later, walking across the forest and crossing the Te Nggano Lake
by canoe. There was no doubt as to the touristic value of Rennell: fine and unspoilt
beaches, a beautiful fringing reef, the forest, birdlife and the immense Te Nggano
Lake with its multitude of islands. Should the island be logged, the next cyclone
would have washed the shallow forest soils into the lake, and the island's unique
terrestrial life, its fragile ecosystem, would probably be lost forever, foreboding a
bleak future for the islanders.
I found out that a team of biologists from New Zealand had actually advocated
a strict conservation regime for Rennell, but did so without consulting the local
islanders; as a result, the islanders revolted against the plan. The New Zealand team
thus gave it a second try, sharing their proposals with the islanders. This time, the
islanders liked the idea, and were therefore visibly shocked when they found out
that, instead, their whole island was meant to be summarily denuded of its trees by
Foxwood.
Back in Honiara, I called the Tourism Council of the South Pacific, in Suva, Fiji -
part of the then South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation, now the South
Pacific Forum - with whom I was then working as head of environmental projects.
I had a tourism economist travel to Honiara immediately. There was little time, so
during the following day we did a sketch plan for tourism development on Rennell.
The result was encouraging: a small, 20 bed hotel and an occupancy rate of 60%
would, over a period of 12 years, bring in the same revenue as had been offered to
1
A copy of the 1987 logging proposal by Foxwood for Rennell Island is held in the Pacific
Manuscripts Bureau of the Australian National University:
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/reels/
manuscripts/PMB1187.PDF
.
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