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Forestry is an important sector to the Vanuatu government and also to the rural communities, as in many cases it is one of their main sources of cash income. In addition to the commercial forestry operations, the forests provide a wide range of products into the subsistence lifestyle of most of the ni Vanuatu people. The main benefits of the commercial forestry operations in Vanuatu are spread between the landowners, the people who work for the timber companies, the timber companies and the government.

The Republic of Vanuatu, formerly the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides, consists of the central and southern part of an archipelago which forms one of the numerous seismic arcs found in the Western Pacific. The Santa Cruz Islands, politically part of the Solomon Islands, constitute the northern part of the archipelago (UNEP/IUCN. 1988).