Over The Horizon

Ngali Nuts Save Solomons Forest

Producing and marketing oil from a forest-growing nut could stave off the ominous eight-year deadline set for the disappearance of accessible tropical timber in the Solomon Islands.

Oil from the first pressings of nuts was produced recently on Makira Island in the Solomons, Maruia Society's tropical forest programme manager Annette Lees says.

"Villagers were very excited at receiving money from their forest without having to cut trees down, and have been eagerly collecting enough nuts to fill their first order for oil."

The Maruia Society has a conservation team in the Solomon Islands working with Makira Island landowners to help them protect their 62,000 hectares of tropical forest from logging. The team helped villagers build the oil press house, install the press and carry out the first pressings.

With Maruia Society's US-based partner, Conservation International, overseas markets have been found for the oil.

"This means landowners are offered a real development alternative to logging, which is crucial if we are to save important forest areas in the Pacific," Lees says.

"Producing oil from the ngali nut gives these communities the income they need so they are not forced to log their forests. It means villagers see standing forests as valuable and are not tempted to log them for a one-off cash return for their timber."

At current logging rates in the Solomon Islands, which have been doubled in the last six months to four times the sustainable level, existing timber stocks are likely to be exhausted in eight years, according to a recent World Bank report.