Subject: BIOD & PNG: NGOs Picket for Timber Inquiry *********************************************** PAPUA NEW GUINEA RAINFOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS NGOs Picket Forestry Office Demanding Inquiry into Timber Industry *********************************************** Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises 7/15/97 OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE Controversy surrounding the current batch of timber area approvals continues to mount, as PNG NGOs take to the street in protest against environmental and legal irregularities in timber area allocation. They are demanding that the government investigate the timber industry in light of some 1,000,000 hectares of lowland forests having recently been approved for industrial logging under questionable circumstances. Allegations are made of police pressure on landowners to sign, landowners signing papers they did not understand, and allocations made for political gain prior to the elections. There are a number of troubling aspects to the recent poorly conceived and implemented logging areas. Recent actions are counterproductive to the spirit of new forest reforms, are setting bad precedents and undermining the integrity of the forest authority. The ability of the forest authority and the PNG government to effectively implement forest legislation is in doubt. Additionally, several of these new projects fall right on top of existing communities organizing conservation and sustainable development projects--the government, and multinationals bent on logging anywhere they can, must recognize local wishes to not pursue industrial forestry. This means removing conservation, high biodiversity and small-scale development lands from potential production forest--to insure that insidious and continuing pressure to log doesn't undermine those striving to develop a community based, Melanesian development paradigm. g.b. ******************************* RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE: ITEM #1 Title: NGOs picket forestry office Source: Post Courier Status: Copyrighted, seek permission to reprint Date: July 14, 1997 NON-GOVERNMENTAL Organisations on Friday picketed the Forest Authority Headquarters to press the new Government to urgently conduct a commission of inquiry into timber concessions and logging practices in the country. Representatives from NGO groups including Melanesian Environment Foundation, Green Peace and ICRAF also handed out leaflets on irregularities in the awarding of timber concessions. Poor environmental planning and irregularities in applying forestry laws have been targeted. MEF's Stanley Iko said there were also questions of several forest plans being used "and we think that it would be very important for a new inquiry into forestry in the country to be called and the facts made clear." The NGOs want to bring attention to the need for a new inquiry and to show that there are people in the country who are very concerned about what is happening. The NGOs have identified some of the recent timber concessions awarded to logging companies by NFA which are "flawed environmentally and legally". These include Tapila Wipim, East Awin, Semabo and Hekiko (Western province), April Salumei (East Sepik), Asengseng and Rottok (WNB), Makus Tolu (ENB) and Buhem Mongi (Morobe). He said all of these projects have bad environmental plans and the forest areas are too small to be logged because there are less timber species to be cut. Mr Iko said: "We believe that certain policy legislations and environmental laws have been breached in the process of issuing or granting logging concessions to areas considered as high biodiversity value." An NGO statement said: "We are alarmed by the announcement that tenders are to be called in areas of high biodiversity priority . . . putting logging interests before those of future generations. "These projects show that the planning and implementation of forest acquisitions by Forest Authority and the allocations of concessions are gravely defective. "These are serious breaches of the legislative intent and raise serious questions about the role of the Forest Board. "We call for a new Commission of Inquiry into logging to establish how these acquisitions were made, why the projects have been allowed to go forward and we call for a full and wide-ranging investigation into the driving forces and motivations behind these blatant misallocations." The NGOs group supports sustainable development and at the same time is committed to stopping reckless industrial logging and devastation of forests, rivers and marine systems. ITEM #2 Title: NGOs to demand inquiry Source: The Independent (PNG) Status: Copyrighted, seek permission to reprint Date: July 7, 1997 Byline: Harlyne Joku NGOs TO DEMAND FOR INQUIRY INTO FOREST CONCESSIONS PORT MORESBY: Members of non-government organisations will picket outside Papua New Guinea's National Forest Authority offices this morning, demanding a new commission of inquiry into the awarding of nine new forest concessions to certain developers, the Independent reported today. The groups include the Individual and Community Rights Advocacy Forum Inc (ICRAF), Conservation Melanesian, melanesian Environment Foundation (MEF) and Greenpeace. Spokesman for MEF Stanley Iko said the NGOs will be calling on the new government to establish the inquiry. "The aim of our demonstration is to draw attention to our demand for a new commission of inquiry into the logging industry and to encourage the public servants to come forward and report irregularities. "We believe certain policy legislation and environmental laws have been breached in the process of issuing and granting of logging concessions to areas considered high biodiversity areas," Mr Iko said. He added that logging in PNG had experienced a seven-year period of change In relation to: * The National Forest Plan. * Amendments to the 1991 Forestry Act. * The appointments of representatives to the National Forestry Board. * Process and procedure mechanisms for the issuing of logging concessions. The concessions in question are Tapila Wipim (Western province), East Awin (Westermn), Semabo (Western), April Salumei (East Sepik), Asengseng (West New Britain), Rottock Bay (WNB), Mukus Tolo (WNB) and Buhem Mongi in the Morobe province. ###RELAYED TEXT ENDS### This document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-commercial use only. Recipients should seek permission from the source for reprinting. All efforts are made to provide accurate, timely pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all information rests with the reader. Check out our Gaia Forest Conservation Archives at URL= http://forests.org/ Networked by Ecological Enterprises, grbarry@students.wisc.edu