***********************************************

PAPUA NEW GUINEA RAINFOREST ACTION ALERT

Bad Faith and Inappropriate Forest Policies in PNG

***********************************************

Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

8/12/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE

The Individual and Community Rights Advocacy Forum, on behalf of a

coalition of PNG NGOs, has issued the following appeal to the international

community. They are calling for recent inappropriate forest policies to

lead to cancellation of international funding, much of which was sought on

the basis of rationalizing and improving forest management. Following is

the less than a day old call for urgent action exactly as it was received

via fax.

Glen Barry

*******************************

RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

ICRAF

Individual & Community Rights Advocacy Forum Inc.

Box 155

PO University

N.C.D.

Papua New Guinea

Phone: (675) 326 2469

Fax: (675) 26 0273

Bad Faith and Inappropriate Forest Policies in Papua New Guinea

An Urgent Call for Action

August 13, 1996

Overview:

PNG's Parliament recently passed an amendment to the Forest Act (1991) that

gives the Forest Minister effective power to select, appoint, and dismiss

PNG Forest Authority Board members and to change the constituent

composition of the Board (removing NGO representation and increasing pro-

logging representation). This action effectively places the power of

timber concession allocation into the hands of the minister, the People's

Progress Party and Pangu Pati. In taking this action, the PNG government

broke legal agreements with the international community, violating

conditions it agreed to fulfil under its Structural Adjustment Program

(SAP). There is rising alarm among a wide range of citizens, NGOs,

business persons, students and others that this action will initiate the

return of PNG's forest management to the unregulated state described in the

Barnett Report, and undermine democratic processes as well as PNG's long

term security and stability.

Due to this breach, the World Bank has cancelled its SAP loan to PNG. We

suspect, however, that some governments and institutions will be tempted to

continue their support of PNG's SAP, thereby ignoring the issues of

principal and sustainablity contained in SAP forest sector conditions. We

are also concerned that the PNG government may be seeking soft loans to

cover the cash shortage which may eventuate from the SAP's cancellation.

A coalition of PNG groups is therefore calling on the international

community to demand that their governments and multilateral institutions

follow the World Bank's lead by:

1. standing by and enforcing SAP conditions - cancelling affected loans

and grants;

2. officially relaying their grave concern about the current PNG

government's reliability, commitment to sustainability and its citizens

long term well being; and,

3. refusing to consider substitute funding until the SAP forest sector

conditions are fully implemented.

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

This document is a PHOTOCOPY and all recipients should seek permission from

the source for reprinting. You are encouraged to utilize this information

for personal campaign use; including writing letters, organizing campaigns

and forwarding. 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/gaia.html

Networked by:

Ecological Enterprises

Email (best way to contact)-> gbarry@forests.org