Govt must crack down on rogue agency
22 September 2021
EDDIE TANAGO
| Act Now
PORT MORESBY – If the government's ban on new logging permits is to be effective, it must be total, and extended to cover all types of logging consent.
Last week prime minister James Marape directed the PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA) to stop issuing new permits and permit extensions so the government can meet its 2025 deadline to end the export of unprocessed raw logs.
It is a move our community advocacy group has supported for several years, but we are cautioning that the ban must include all forms of logging consent, not just timber permits.
If the government is serious about bringing an end to unprocessed log exports then PNGFA must stop issuing all forms of logging consents.
Not just timber permits, but also new forest clearance authorities and timber licences.
In 2020, more than a quarter of all exported logs were harvested under authorities and licences.
This percentage could rise quickly if the logging industry is only prevented from accessing new permits or permit extensions.
PNGFA is has a reputation as a rogue agency that has repeatedly found a way around restraints imposed on the logging industry.
This includes ignoring deadlines for an end to log exports and avoiding sustainable harvesting targets.
While Act Now support the prime minister’s call for an end to round log exports by 2025, any ban on new logging consents and extensions must be comprehensive.
It will also require very close policing to ensure it is implemented.
In 2020, Act Now, Oakland Institute and Jubilee Australia published a major report, From Extraction to Inclusion, emphasising that the export of unprocessed natural resources was a reason why PNG’s reliance on large-scale extraction had failed to deliver promised development outcomes.
The report urged the government to refocus the economy on small-scale agricultural production and greater downstream processing.
As Mr Marape has said, the forestry sector has the potential to make a big contribution to the economy.
But for far too long successive governments have failed to ban raw log exports and moving to downstream processing.
As a nation, for decades we have missed out on jobs, investment in manufacturing and value-adding to our resources because the authorities have acted in league with the foreign owned logging industry to pillage our forests.
The ban on new forest consents and extensions must be comprehensive and implemented without any exceptions.
Recently great to read, but don't know why those in breach of visa rules allowed to merely pay a fine:
'Authority detains eight logging vessels after inspection at Kobe, Gloucester and Bialla WNB' (The National of PNG, 21 September).
THE National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA) detained eight of the 11 vessels it inspected in West New Britain (WNB) early this month.
The authority said in a media statement that the inspections were conducted to clamp down on ship owners and operators who knowingly operated unseaworthy vessels in remote log pods in the province where many logging activities were being carried out.
'Foreigners penalised for Visa breach & logging offences at Vanimo Jaya in Ulamona and Mekar in Bialla, WNB' (The National of PNG, 13 September)
FORTY foreign nationals operating businesses in West New Britain have been penalised for various minor beaches of their visa conditions.
The Immigration and Citizenship Authority during their spot checks there last week collected more than K150,000 in fines and penalties from the offenders.
The spot checks targeted retail, wholesale and logging companies in Kimbe, Bialla town and at logging camps in Ulamona and Mekar.
Posted by: Arthur Williams | 24 September 2021 at 10:54 PM
Report today from Britain where prime minister Boris Johnson mentions four focal points as key to addressing effect of climate change, namely "coal, cars, cash and trees". See:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58657887
While in the focus on coal, some resistance to this kind of message is revealing obstinacy among Australian politicians.
It is mirrored as obstinacy among some cohorts in PNG in the lack of focus (and policing) on trees and the contribution by trees (in forests and alive and healthy) as essential to the welfare of all life on planet Earth.
For PNG trees, conversations need be keener, not only kina....
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 23 September 2021 at 11:46 PM
Policing, policing, policing, and not just watching, washing, and welshing.
Put assets in place for police to get to the point, and not be papered up.
Start a commission with a real achiever at the head, like Governor Juffa. Go Garry.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 22 September 2021 at 07:27 AM