At loggerheads

Vanuatu

Landowners in Vanuatu say they are reluctant to comply with a ban on log exports. They say they fear this could reduce their chances of getting a fair share of the profits of logs already cut.

Attorney-General Patrick Ellum has been addressing traditional chiefs on the island of Erromango to explain the government’s policy. But he says the government is talking to the logging companies to renegotiate the number of logging licenses to be issued for Erromango and the amount of timber to be harvested.

Prime Minister Maxime Carlot Korman banned log exports in June, reacting to concerns by overseas aid donors that the trees were being felled at an unsus tainable rate.