China is using forestry, bamboo, and high-value timber processing to strengthen ties with the Solomon Islands—the latest example of Belt and Road timber, forestry, and bamboo diplomacy. It comes as eleven forestry officers are in China for a two-month intensive training programme as part of the Solomon Islands Seminar on Forest Utilisation and Downstream Processing, a programme set up by the Chinese to build Solomon’s downstream processing capacity.
Wood Central understands that the programme’s goal is to reduce the negative environmental impacts of logging, increase revenues from forest production to benefit local communities, and develop a regulatory framework that promotes a greater balance between utilising forests for both logging and non-logging purposes.
Organised by the National Academy of Forestry and Grassland Administration, the training is supported by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (MOFCOM). In addition, eight officers are attending a similar workshop on the Technological Innovation of Bamboo as a substitute for plastic initiative for developing countries.
According to Richard Raomae, the Solomons’ permanent secretary for forestry, the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Honiara embassy has been instrumental in facilitating the programme, adding the Solomon’s are focusing on downstream processing and value-adding as part of its Government for National Unity and Transformation (GNUT) priorities – which feed into the National Forestry Policy.
“We anticipate that the training will upskill our forest officers to a broader innovative idea on value adding that will help drive the Ministry’s implementation of this program,” Raomae said: “As frontliners working with communities, acquiring such innovative knowledge will assist in promoting the utilisation of non-wood forest products, such as bamboo and rattan, for better use.”
According to Raomae, the officers selected for training are middle managers. And with this rare opportunity, they “will have acquired something valuable to contribute to the country in implementing mandatory government policies, particularly the Ministry’s corporate plan and the National Forest Policy going forward.”
Under similar training and seminar arrangements, Raomae said three senior forestry officers recently completed a two-week training stint in China, also focusing on wood processing and sustainable utilisation technology: “This training covers a wide range of technical aspects of wood utilisation, and to be able to acquire knowledge on the current status and development trends of the wood industry, especially learning from China’s logging management systems and other wood technology aspects, is a bonus to the Ministry and the forestry sector.”
“This will be beneficial for timber production in the Solomon Islands and the timber industry,” Raomae said. “Officers attending the seminar trainings in China are being selected from the various technical departments within the Ministry of Forestry and Research.”
- For more information about timber opportunities in the Pacific, a $1 billion-plus market for tropical timber, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from October 2023.
