Carbon rights

Solomon Islands does not have a statutory framework for forest carbon rights or any reference to carbon ‘ownership’ in legislation.  In the absence of legislation however, it is relatively clear that as the indigenous people of Solomon Islands own the land and forests under customary law, by implication they must also own the carbon rights in their forests (s. 239, Land and Titles Act).  Despite this, in any particular land area it may be difficult to identify who are the proper ‘owners’ of the forest carbon rights because multiple tribes or clans may have overlapping or competing claims to ownership and use of the land. 

An analysis commissioned by SPC/GIZ of the legal framework for clarifying carbon rights in Solomon Islands identified that this problem could be addressed by using the Customary Land Records Act [Cap. 132], which allows for customary interests in land to be recorded (Corrin 2012). Recording rights is a process which is legally distinct from the registration of legal interests over the title of land, as registration of rights would result in the loss of customary land tenure.

Under the Act, a customary land holding group can apply to have their right to control customary land (primary rights) recorded, along with the name of the person who is authorised to represent the customary land-holding group.  Other groups or individuals may also have their use rights, such as their right to use land for food gardens or to access to timber arising from customary practices such as gift, reward and marriage, recorded over the same land (referred to as “secondary rights”).  The Solomon Islands Law Reform Commission (2012:18) has recently made a number of recommendations to improve the Act, including changing its name to the “Tribal Land Records Act”.

The Act could potentially be used to identify and record the ‘ownership’ of forest carbon rights where customary land is concerned. However, the Act is currently not functioning as the regulations and standard forms required to give effect to the Act (s. 21) have never been made, nor have the administrative bodies required to implement the Act, such as a Central Land Record Office and provincial Land Record Offices, been created (Corrin, 2012).  In the late 1990s, a Central Land Record Office was established, and some appointments were made, but the Central Land Record Office was burnt down during the “tensions” (civil disturbance) from 1998 - 2003 and was never re-established (ibid).