Periodic Reporting for period 2 - WACE (Women at the Cutting Edge. Assessing the gendered impact of industrial logging on well-being in Solomon Islands.)
Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2019-11-30
This project has assessed how and why industrial logging affects men and women differently. Using empirical, qualitative data from an ethnographic case-study of the logging industry in Solomon Islands, it demonstrates the highly inequitable nature of the country’s logging industry, and its particularly negative impacts on women. In addition, through this project, case-studies on the wider social impacts of logging from around the globe are compiled in a peer-reviewed special issue of a scientific journal that is read by forestry professionals.
Worldwide, China is the main importer and exporter of tropical hardwood. The majority of this wood presently comes from the Pacific, in particular from Papua New Guinea and neighboring Solomon Islands. In these two countries, the logging industry is notorious for its unsustainable character and its high rates of illegality in timber felling.
However, there has been less systematic attention to the social impacts of industrial logging, and especially for its impacts on gender-relations. While it is well-known that women generally benefit the least from the logging industry and that they are often adversely affected by its environmental and social impacts, the literature on this matter is fragmented. There is also little understanding of how and why individual women’s experiences may vary depending on their positions within society. Moreover, the importance of gender-equitable logging practices hardly receives attention from policy and industry.
This project documents and generates insight on how women and men living in logging concessions in Solomon Islands experience the impacts of logging during and after logging operations. It takes into account both objective aspects of well-being, such as the impact of logging on income, shelter, and food-security; as well as subjective aspects of well-being, notably relationships with others and safety.
The project’s outputs include peer-reviewed scientific papers, reports and recommendations directed at a policy audience and articles meant for the wider public. Through these outputs the project aims to contribute to more equitable logging practices, and therey improved well-being of women and men living in logging concessions.
While the timber harvesting processes that are at the core of this project take place in the Pacific and other tropical regions, the implications are highly relevant for the EU. The EU is committed to sustainable imports of tropical hardwood. In practice this means that the Union will maximize its imports of certified timber. While the standards and criteria of these timber certification systems do take into account the social impacts of the logging industry, including its gender impacts, this project shows that there is much room for improvement in how these criteria are formulated, implemented and monitored. Addressing the challenges in gender-equitable timber production and processing is vital in light of the EU’s committment to sustainable forest management.
Further reading:
The Great Timber Heist (Oakland Institute): https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/PNG_Great_Timber_Heist_final_web.pdf(opens in new window)
Paradise Lost: How China can help Solomon Islands protect its forests: (Global Witness) https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/paradise-lost/(opens in new window)
IOM (International Organization for Migration). 2019. Community health and mobility in the Pacific: Solomon Islands Case Study. Honiara: IOM.
Worldwide, China is the main importer and exporter of tropical hardwood. The majority of this wood presently comes from the Pacific, in particular from Papua New Guinea and neighboring Solomon Islands. In these two countries, the logging industry is notorious for its unsustainable character and its high rates of illegality in timber felling.
However, there has been less systematic attention to the social impacts of industrial logging, and especially for its impacts on gender-relations. While it is well-known that women generally benefit the least from the logging industry and that they are often adversely affected by its environmental and social impacts, the literature on this matter is fragmented. There is also little understanding of how and why individual women’s experiences may vary depending on their positions within society. Moreover, the importance of gender-equitable logging practices hardly receives attention from policy and industry.
This project documents and generates insight on how women and men living in logging concessions in Solomon Islands experience the impacts of logging during and after logging operations. It takes into account both objective aspects of well-being, such as the impact of logging on income, shelter, and food-security; as well as subjective aspects of well-being, notably relationships with others and safety.
The project’s outputs include peer-reviewed scientific papers, reports and recommendations directed at a policy audience and articles meant for the wider public. Through these outputs the project aims to contribute to more equitable logging practices, and therey improved well-being of women and men living in logging concessions.
While the timber harvesting processes that are at the core of this project take place in the Pacific and other tropical regions, the implications are highly relevant for the EU. The EU is committed to sustainable imports of tropical hardwood. In practice this means that the Union will maximize its imports of certified timber. While the standards and criteria of these timber certification systems do take into account the social impacts of the logging industry, including its gender impacts, this project shows that there is much room for improvement in how these criteria are formulated, implemented and monitored. Addressing the challenges in gender-equitable timber production and processing is vital in light of the EU’s committment to sustainable forest management.
Further reading:
The Great Timber Heist (Oakland Institute): https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/PNG_Great_Timber_Heist_final_web.pdf(opens in new window)
Paradise Lost: How China can help Solomon Islands protect its forests: (Global Witness) https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/paradise-lost/(opens in new window)
IOM (International Organization for Migration). 2019. Community health and mobility in the Pacific: Solomon Islands Case Study. Honiara: IOM.
The core of my work has consisted of generating new empirical data by conducting ethnographic field work on the island of Malaita in Solomon Islands, an archipelago of just over 600,000 inhabitants, situated at the Western Pacific’s logging frontier.
I conducted over 200 interviews with a roughly equal number of women and men living in 14 logging concessions in Malaita province. In addition, I household records that were kept for 30 days by ten households. These records provide insight in income, time expenditure, diets and happiness among people who live in logging concessions.
Based on a selection of the generated empirical data, I led the publication of a professional report called From Happy Hour to Hungry Hour. Logging, fisheries, and food-security on Malaita, Solomon Islands. This open-access, illustrated report was written for local and national audiences in the field of forest governance and gender, but can also be used for scholarly purposes. It presents ethnographic evidence of how logging affects Solomon Islander men and women and how it transforms gender relations, while it also proposes specific measures to protect women’s well-being in forest concessions.
In the report, I call for attention to a number of issues surrounding logging that specifically affect women. Part of these issues relate to women’s livelihoods. For instance, the bulk of women’s fishing activities takes place in mangrove forests, but my research shows that sedimentation caused by upstream logging activity is negatively affecting these forests, which in turn is detrimental to women’s ability to collect shells from them. Moreover, in many logging concessions mangrove forests are clear-cut to facilitate the construction of logging infrastructure. In such situations, women’s fishing grounds disappear altogether. Another issue affecting women’s livelihoods concerns the effects that logging has on freshwater supplies. As fetching water is mainly done by women, pollution and even destruction of water sources as a result of unsustainable logging activities is burdening women in particular.
Aside from the impacts that logging has on livelihoods, my study calls attention to a number of severe social impacts. These include conflicts over the inequitable distribution of benefits from logging, increased alcoholism, increased domestic violence and sexual exploitation of women and girls. While women are profoundly affected by these issues, as they are not part of decision-making processes surrounding logging – which is exclusively a male domain – they seek other ways to influence the situation. For instance, some women have attempted to resist logging, while others find ways to set-up their own timber-milling businesses in the margins of large-scale logging operations. However, what is ultimately needed is commitment from logging companies and governments to safeguarding women’s well-being in forest concessions. To that end I have drafted a Policy Brief and given multiple presentation to share my findings and recommendations with relevant government and civil society organizations. In addition, I have presented my work to different scientific and lay audiences.
I conducted over 200 interviews with a roughly equal number of women and men living in 14 logging concessions in Malaita province. In addition, I household records that were kept for 30 days by ten households. These records provide insight in income, time expenditure, diets and happiness among people who live in logging concessions.
Based on a selection of the generated empirical data, I led the publication of a professional report called From Happy Hour to Hungry Hour. Logging, fisheries, and food-security on Malaita, Solomon Islands. This open-access, illustrated report was written for local and national audiences in the field of forest governance and gender, but can also be used for scholarly purposes. It presents ethnographic evidence of how logging affects Solomon Islander men and women and how it transforms gender relations, while it also proposes specific measures to protect women’s well-being in forest concessions.
In the report, I call for attention to a number of issues surrounding logging that specifically affect women. Part of these issues relate to women’s livelihoods. For instance, the bulk of women’s fishing activities takes place in mangrove forests, but my research shows that sedimentation caused by upstream logging activity is negatively affecting these forests, which in turn is detrimental to women’s ability to collect shells from them. Moreover, in many logging concessions mangrove forests are clear-cut to facilitate the construction of logging infrastructure. In such situations, women’s fishing grounds disappear altogether. Another issue affecting women’s livelihoods concerns the effects that logging has on freshwater supplies. As fetching water is mainly done by women, pollution and even destruction of water sources as a result of unsustainable logging activities is burdening women in particular.
Aside from the impacts that logging has on livelihoods, my study calls attention to a number of severe social impacts. These include conflicts over the inequitable distribution of benefits from logging, increased alcoholism, increased domestic violence and sexual exploitation of women and girls. While women are profoundly affected by these issues, as they are not part of decision-making processes surrounding logging – which is exclusively a male domain – they seek other ways to influence the situation. For instance, some women have attempted to resist logging, while others find ways to set-up their own timber-milling businesses in the margins of large-scale logging operations. However, what is ultimately needed is commitment from logging companies and governments to safeguarding women’s well-being in forest concessions. To that end I have drafted a Policy Brief and given multiple presentation to share my findings and recommendations with relevant government and civil society organizations. In addition, I have presented my work to different scientific and lay audiences.
My project adds to the existing scientific literature on gender and sustainable logging by making a connection between the two, and by adding new empirical data. Within an international policy context, it further puts the importance of making gender an integral part of sustainable forestry on the agenda and offers practical tools for doing so. Moreover it generates and contributes to a societal debate on the gendered impacts of logging. It is encouraging to note that this debate has intensified and broadened in the past years, both within and beyond Solomon Islands. There is increasing attention, especially in global and regional media in the Pacific and in the policy arena, for the need to address the highly inequitable nature of timber production.