Title:  Copyright 2001 Inter Press Service 

Source:  Environment: NGOs Battle for Papua New Guinea's Forests

Date:  January 26, 2001  

Byline:  By Gumisai Mutume

 

Environmental groups have embarked on a campaign to block the release

of the second disbursement of loans for Papua New Guinea's structural

adjustment program.

 

The groups, led by Greenpeace Pacific and Papua New Guinea's Eco

Forestry Forum, fear that the release of the loans coupled with the

approval by the World Bank of the country's Forest and Conservation

Project (FCP) will contribute to the destruction of its forests, the

world's third largest tropical rainforests.

 

Conditions attached to a $ 90 million structural adjustment loan

(SAL) in 1999 require the country to impose a moratorium on new

logging concessions until a full review of existing concessions is

carried out. The country already has nearly half of its accessible

forests committed to industrial logging. NGOs say some 30 proposed

timber projects threaten most of the rest.

 

Lafcadio Cortesi of Greenpeace Pacific says the Bank would be

backsliding on its commitments to forest conservation if it releases

the second tranche of the adjustment loan because the forestry review

has not been completed.

 

The moratorium was intended to facilitate a review of existing

problems in the sector and to allow for the implementation of

reforms.

 

"Once this (loan release) is done, the government of Papua New Guinea

(PNG) is likely to ignore the moratorium and begin final clearing of

one of the world's last great rainforests," says Cortesi. "The World

Bank and PNG government are poised to make decisions that may lead to

the unleashing of bulldozers, which will swiftly carry out the final

dismantling of PNG's large and contiguous forest wilderness."

 

NGOs want the moratorium to remain in force until adequate policies

have been designed and implemented, "and the Forestry Act,

regulations and guidelines, as well as Forest Authority processes and

structures, are updated to legitimize and make fully accessible

small-scale eco-forestry management," notes the campaign's sign-on

letter seeking broader NGO support in opposing the Bank loan.

 

The Bank recently supported the production of a document entitled

Forest Strategies for Community-Based Forestry and Conservation in

Papua New Guinea, which recommends that government revise the

National Forest Policy to fully recognize eco-forestry and small-

scale and medium-scale logging.

 

The report recommends a wide range of forest conservation measures

aimed at upgrading the status of eco-forestry. It calls for the

updating of logging maps clearly showing current and planned

conservation areas, fragile forest types, areas of threatened or

restricted plants and animal species and important water catchments

not available for logging.

 

But there are fears that under continued pressure from government

officials and renegade officials within the National Forest

Authority, the moratorium will be undermined and the remaining

accessible rainforests allocated for commercial harvesting.

 

According to California-based independent consultant Dana Clark, who

monitors the policies of the international financial institutions,

NGOs are worried about compliance with the original conditions of the

adjustment loan "and we are concerned about the upcoming, not-yet-

approved Forest and Conservation Project (FCP) loan."

 

During the last few years the Bank has been developing the FCP,

originally intended to broaden the types of forest management

practised in the country, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean,

north of Australia and east of Indonesia.

 

Several meetings attended by Bank officials, government and non-

governmental representatives established a critical need for a forest

policy and guidelines for more ecologically sustainable, small to

medium scale, community-based forestry operations.

 

"In a startling and inexcusable turnaround, these elements were

removed late into project development on the justification that other

donors were covering them," notes the NGO campaign document. "This is

patently false."

 

The European Union and Australian AID, the other major donors in the

sector are providing small-scale support to community-based projects,

but do not have programs to reform the Forestry Act or the Forest

Authority.

 

The present forest allocation process in the nation of 4.5 million

people remains biased towards large-scale intensive management for

log- export by foreign companies, critics charge.

 

Studies carried out by the WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Papua

New Guinea show that despite the moratorium being in place, the

Forest Authority has continued to process several areas in order to

bring them to tender and allocation. WWF specifically identifies two

concessions -- Amanab Blocks 1 to 4 and Sembo as having been put to

public tender after the establishment of the moratorium.

 

In a November 1999 budget speech, the country's prime minister Mekere

Morauta conceded that "governance has been particularly poor in the

area of forestry, with the side effect of promoting corrupt practices

and undermining environmental sustainability in logging activities."

 

The new government in PNG came to power in July 1999 pledging to

stabilize macro-economic conditions, improve the transparency and

governance of public institutions and restore relations with the

international financial institutions.

 

Morauta pledged his government's commitment to a moratorium on all

new forestry licenses, extensions and conversions, "and to proceed

with a review of all existing licenses, to ensure that proper

procedure is followed, that logging practices are not carried out in

an unsustainable way and that landowners get their fair share of

benefits from resource use."

 

A decision by the Bank's board on the FCP and the disbursement of the

second tranche of Papua New Guinea's SAL could come in a few weeks.

 

Officials at the Bank's external relations department declined to

comment on the status of the project saying an announcement would be

made in due course.

 

 

For more information:

Papua New Guinea Rainforest Conservation & Sustainable Development

Portal - http://forests.org/pngforest.html

 

URGENT ACTION ALERT: World Bank and Papua New Guinea Government Set

to Abandon Forest Conservation Goals -

http://forests.org/emailaction/png_jan_2001.htm

 

World Bank Sign-On Letter, re: Forest Conservation Backsliding -

http://forests.org/recent/2001/pngwbsio.htm