Forestry in the Kingdom of Tonga

The Kingdom of Tonga has an energy problem. A deficit exists between Tonga’s use and production of energy. Efforts need to be initiated to expand plantations, both geographically and economically to meet the energy and wood-product demands of the kingdom.

The energy use of the Kingdom of Tonga is estimated to be 1,000bbl/day of oil and 39.9 million kWh / annum of electricity consumption which is solely generated by non-renewable sources [CIA world fact book 2007est]. Tonga has no native natural gas or oil reserves, thus the fuels that provide Tonga’s energy needs are all imported and fossil.

This report is intended to outline a series of initiatives to be put in place to allow the shrinking of this energy deficit and ultimately total energy independence provided by renewable resources for Tonga.

The following specifications and constraints need to be met in order for Tonga to become independent in an energy sense.

• Finance: The project needs to be financially viable for all of the stakeholders involved. Much of the land in Tonga that is already in use for farming or plantations is not owned by the farmers themselves, but instead is leased. This is a drawback for farmers when considering slow-growth forests, as the time to maturity for these forests is beyond the foreseeable future for most of these farmers investment interests.

• Mills/Harvesting equipment: There are limited milling and harvesting resources available for the harvesting of forest plantations. Mills will need to be built/purchased as the output grows. Again, this will take investment capital and foresight.

• Geography: This small island nation is made up of 138 islands, most of which are very small and not suited to farming and plantations. However there are larger islands like Tongatapu for example, where crops and plantations have been proved feasible.

• Education: Since the style of farming in Tonga will undergo radical changes under the proposed expansion, farmers and workers both...