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  Channel NewsAsia 1 Mar 06
Corruption destroying largest Asia-Pacific forest

PlanetSave 1 Mar 06
Illegal logging rampant in Papua New Guinea
 Written by Michael Casey

PlanetArk 1 Mar 06
Illegal Loggers Clearing PNG's Forests - Report

JAKARTA - Illegal logging is destroying large areas of forest in Papua New Guinea despite a government crackdown and policies that regulate the practice, global environmental group Forest Trends said in a report on Tuesday.

The group said illegal felling of timber is feeding an appetite for wood in the West and Asia at the expense of local people whose cultures and livelihoods are closely linked to forests.

Environmentalists have long said widespread industrial logging in Papua New Guinea, which lies to the north of Australia, is stripping the region of its rainforests, among the richest tropical forests in the world.

Some environmentalists estimate more than 250,000 hectares (625,000 acres) of virgin forest are destroyed each year in Papua New Guinea, most of which is still covered by rainforests.

Forest Trends said its surveys conducted over a five-year-period showed most commercial forestry operations in Papua New Guinea were illegal and ecologically unsustainable. It said 14 logging projects covering 3.17 million hectares were operating unlawfully in the region. In 2004, these operations produced 1.3 million cubic metres of logs with an export value of $70 million.

"While the PNG government and its regulatory institutions have all the necessary policies, laws and regulations to ensure that sustainable timber production can be achieved, these laws are not being enforced," Forest Trends said in a statement.

"Industry is allowed to ignore PNG laws and, in fact, gains preferential treatment in many cases, while the rural poor are left to suffer the social and environmental consequences of an industry that operates largely outside the regulatory system."

Forest Trends said the sector was dominated by Malaysian-owned interests and was predominantly focused on the harvesting of natural forest areas for log exports. The primary markets for raw logs are in China, Japan and South Korea and many of the logs are processed in China for consumption in Europe and North America, it said.

Forests are home to half the species living on land and a key source of food, building materials and medicines for people. A net 7.3 million hectares of forest -- the size of Panama or Sierra Leone -- was lost each year from 2000-2005, according to United Nations data.

Channel NewsAsia 1 Mar 06
Corruption destroying largest Asia-Pacific forest

SYDNEY : Illegal logging and corruption in Papua New Guinea are destroying the largest remaining tract of primary tropical forest in the Asia-Pacific region, an environmental watchdog warned.

Malaysian interests dominated the multi-million dollar logging industry while much of the timber was processed in China for consumption in Europe and North America, Washington-based Forest Trends reported Tuesday.

Working conditions were described as "modern-day slavery," while forests were effectively being "logged out," the international non-profit organisation said in its report "Logging, Legality and Livelihoods in Papua New Guinea".

The report summarises findings from five independent reviews of the timber harvesting industry conducted since 2000 for the PNG government and the World Bank.

The government of the half-island state off the northern tip of Australia received 30 million dollars in cash revenues from logging annually and official inspections at export only ensured export taxes were paid, the report said. "Thus, official export documentation merely launders the unlawful timber into legitimately-produced exports accepted by governments and retailers worldwide," it said.

PNG's forest industry is mainly focused on harvesting natural forest areas for round log exports, with little plantation production and a limited number of processing facilities. "The sector is dominated by Malaysian-owned interests and the primary markets for raw logs are in China, Japan and Korea," the report said. "Many of the logs are processed in China for consumption in Europe and North America."

Corruption was an underlying theme in the independent reviews, it said. "Corruption has a devastating effect on the living standards in the area as well as the long-term benefits for landowners," said Kerstin Canby, Forest Trend's program manager for finance and trade.

The government needed to support operations which were beneficial to both local landowners and the country or "risks having the international community boycott all of PNG's exports," he said.

The report was released on the day environmental group Greenpeace launched an initiative to establish a "global forest rescue station" in a remote part of PNG to support tribal rights against the logging industry.

Greenpeace volunteers from around the world would live and work alongside local landowners and eco-forestry trainers at the station at Lake Murray in Western Province, the group said in a statement. They would help three Lake Murray tribes establish their rights over approximately 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of tribal territories by identifying, marking out and mapping their boundaries.

"We want to say no to loggers who come in and destroy everything," Kuni clan leader Sep Galeva was quoted as saying. "We want to do small scale logging by the landowners in a way that is sustainable and environment friendly."

Less than one percent of forests in Papua New Guinea had any form of protection and more than a quarter of a million hectares of primary forest were lost each year, Greenpeace said. - AFP /ct

PlanetSave 1 Mar 06
Illegal logging rampant in Papua New Guinea
 Written by Michael Casey

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Illegal logging is rampant in impoverished Papua New Guinea, fueled in part by corruption and the government's failure to enforce its own laws, a conservation group charged Wednesday.

The U.S.-based Forest Trends said that a review of 14 logging concessions over 3.17 million hectares (7.83 million acres) in the mostly undeveloped country found that none could be defined as legal.

Most of the wood in the Pacific islands nation is being logged by Malaysian companies which are exporting it to China, Japan and South Korea, the group found. "Industry is allowed to ignore PNG laws and, in fact, gains preferential treatment in many cases, while the rural poor are left to suffer the social and environmental consequences of an industry that operates largely outside the regulatory system," the group said.

No one from the Papua New Guinea government could be reached for comment.

The findings mirror the trends in some African countries and Indonesia, where international syndicates have teamed up with corrupt law enforcement officers to log vast portions of previously untouched rain forests.

Much of the wood goes to China, which needs the lumber to supply a fast-growing domestic market as well as an export industry that turns the logs into flooring and furniture for European and American markets.

Forest Trends said Papua New Guinea has laws on the books to protect the forests, but the government largely ignores them, doing nothing to ensure logging is sustainable or prevent logs from being illegally exported. It also has failed to act on the recommendations in its own reports on which Forest Trends based many of its conclusions, the group said.

Profits from logging go into the pockets of the loggers and government coffers, with little going to poor local communities, it said.

"Basic rights of the landowners are being ignored, even abused," Forest Trend's Kerstin Canby said in a statement. "There are a few logging operations in the country which are deemed beneficial to both local landowners and the country, but they are lost in a sea of bad operators."

The group recommended the establishment of a fund to help communities fight illegal loggers in the courts while educating villagers about their land rights. It also called for a further investigation into corruption in the industry as well as links between logging companies and political groups.

The environmental group Greenpeace, meanwhile, launched a campaign Tuesday in Papua New Guinea aimed at helping native populations define the borders of their land so they can better fend off illegal loggers.

Volunteers in the coming weeks will work with three tribes along Lake Murray in the country's west to chart out the borders of 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of land, the group said. "This new initiative is part of a global effort to protect the world's last ancient forests," Greenpeace's Asia Pacific Chief Executive Officer Steve Shallhorn said in a statement.

"Unless action like ours in Papua New Guinea is taken worldwide, vast numbers of species of plants and animals will become extinct, rainfall patterns will be disrupted and the global climate will change even faster than it is now," Shallhorn said.
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