PNG Forest Future Set by Secret Pre-election Deals

By Bob Burton

CANBERRA, Australia, June 7, 2002 (ENS) - The fate of the third largest rainforest in the world may be decided in a series of secret deals before Papua New Guinea’s June 15 general election, according to environmental groups.

Since Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta first announced the election on April 4, controversy has raged over a series of extraordinary decisions affecting millions of rainforest hectares.

Much of Papua New Guinea is still covered with forests. (Photo courtesy Embassy of PNG in the Americas)

“Illegal permits may later prove very difficult to overturn," said Eco-Forestry Forum spokesman, Tim King. "If nothing is one the last remaining scraps of forest will very soon be allocated."

In the last few days, it has been revealed that in December 2001 the controversial Malaysian owned logging company, Concord Pacific, gained a new logging permit, bypassing the procedures specified in the Forestry Act.

The permit allows the company to log three kilometres (1.86 miles) on either side of an 831 kilometre (516 miles) long road corridor.

While the six kilometre wide strip is attractive in itself, the real prize is the 2.7 million hectares (5.68 millon acres) of forests in eight unallocated logging concessions that straddle the road corridor.

PNG’s forest industry is no stranger to controversy. In 1988, Justice Tos Barnett headed a Royal Commission into the forest industry and was scathing in his findings. Logging companies, he warned, “are now roaming the countryside with self assurance of robber barons; bribing politicians and leaders, creating social disharmony and ignoring laws in order to gain access to, rip out, and export the last remnants of … valuable timber.”

Local PNG man approves of the Greenpeace demonstration against Concord Pacific in May. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace/Davison)

The real value of the arterial road lies in the network of vein-like tracks into the commercially valuable forests.

According to Prime Minister Morauta, a review undertaken for the World Bank in 2000 on the allocation of PNG forest concessions found that the Concord Pacific project did not comply with legal requirements.

In the statement issued after the Greenpeace protest, Morauta said the project “should never have occurred.”

“I have a strong personal commitment to the forestry reforms and to a responsible and sustainable industry that benefits all Papua New Guinean’s, especially resource owners,” Morauta said.

The Prime Minister directed Attorney General Francis Damem to intervene in a court case scheduled for May 17 to challenge the legality of the project. Despite the direction to Damen, no lawyer from the Attorney General's department appeared, and the case has now been adjourned indefinitely.

King believes the government is happy to let the case slide. “If the institutional or political will was there it could be back in court next week,” he said.

In April, Michael Ogio, who is minister for forests and deputy prime minister appointed an acting managing director of the PNG Forest Authority without following the required procedure. Stunned by the appointment, Morauta wrote to Ogio on April 25th stating the appointment of David Nelson “failed to follow required legal procedures” and would probably be overturned by a legal challenge.

At the core of the controversy, valuable rainforest wood (Photo courtesy Greenpeace/Davison)

On May 29, the National Forest Board successfully took legal action against Ogio, gaining a stay in the appointment of Nelson. Morauta told the media that he was "delighted" at the legal action of the National Forest Board and the defeat of his own deputy prime minister.

Frustrated by the inaction of Morauta in making headway on other issues, new groups like the feisty landowner support group Forest Watch have taken to using the Internet to spread scanned copies of leaked industry and government documents throughout the country, revealing the latest pre-election logging deals.

“If you feel angry about the lack of government action on illegal logging in Papua New Guinea, write to the newspapers and to the Prime Minister, and make sure the candidate you vote for in the election is committed to closing down all illegal logging projects,” Forest Watch, urges in an email bulletin.

With over 3,000 candidates vying for only 109 seats - many endorsed by more than one political party - swaying a few handfuls of voters may well tip the scales against candidates seen as unresponsive to landowners' concerns.

The Eco-Forestry Forum worries that the decisions they know about may only be the tip of the iceberg. King said, “It is frightening to think what else might be happening but will only emerge long after the election."