The Solomon Islands is one of the most biologically rich oceanic archipelagos
on Earth. Like the Hawaiian and Galapagos islands, the Solomons represent
one of the world's great natural laboratories, but unlike the Galapagos,
the Solomons are comparatively rich in species, and unlike Hawaii, this
diversity is largely intact. However, with one of the fastest growing populations
on the globe and escalating mining and timber industries, pressure on the
diverse land and seascapes of this tropical region is immense. Surprisingly,
despite the monumental accomplishments of early biogeographers that made
the Solomons a posterchild of textbook patterns of speciation and endemism,
little recent work has been done on terrestrial biodiversity. Furthermore,
given the prominence of this early work and the spectacular wet tropical
forests and inshore marine systems within the Solomons, the region's lack
of well-informed conservation initiatives is alarming.
At present, there are no formal protected forest areas in the Solomon
Islands. In part this is because Solomon Islands legislation lacks provisions
for even creating protected areas, but the creation of protected areas is
also complicated by patterns of land tenure. Land use is determined by holders
of customary rights to the land, namely individuals within local communities.
If a given company persuades local individuals to allow resource extraction
to proceed, the government is generally not inclined to halt this nor does
it have the capacity to provide effective oversight of the operation. In
general, extractive industry has ruthlessly exploited this situation. Furthermore,
many companies have failed to deliver on their stated commitments to build
schools and to provide other benefits in exchange for the resources they
extract. The result has been social and environmental disruption and growing
resentment of certain sectors of industry. In this context, recent escalation
of civil unrest resulted in near complete economic collapse, with parallel
collapse of rural access to social services.
Several years ago, this crisis spurred the government and people of the
Solomons to request intervention by an international coalition of military
and development institutions led by the Australian and New Zealand governments.
With the goal to restore peace and aid in reestablishing civic and economic
infrastructure in the country, this collaborative international mission,
now in country for nearly two-years, has returned law and order to the Solomons.
For the first time since the mid 1990s, the economy and general social services
are regaining function and poised for growth. Additionally, the Australian
and New Zealand governments have expressed considerable political will to
collaboratively engage in both public and private sector projects aimed
at strengthening the economic and social lives of Solomon islanders. This
affords a ready context in which to offer landholding communities credible
alternatives to commercial resource extraction for generating community
benefits that are linked to biodiversity conservation. Thus, there is an
unprecedented opportunity for well-crafted biodiversity research and conservation
initiatives to influence the rebirth of an independent Solomons.