VICTORY

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PAPUA NEW GUINEA RAINFOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS

Government About Face; Forestry Act Changes Void

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

10/5/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE

In a major victory for rainforest conservation and the rule of law in Papua

New Guinea, the abrupt changes to the forestry act several months ago have

been ruled as void. We have been following the controversy which

surrounded government efforts to re-centralize forest policy decision

making in the position of the Minister of Forests. Ecological Enterprises,

and numerous other organizations, have been carrying out an awareness

campaign on the issue which appears to have been successful. PNG is now

more likely to meet World Bank conditionalities for loans which had been

deferred earlier because of the regressive forest policy changes.

Congratualtions to all who wrote letters, etc. Following is a photocopy of

coverage by _The National_, the Malaysian owned daily newspaper in PNG.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Forestry Act changes void

Haiveta lists reasons for Govt about-face

The National

September 30, 1996

By HENZY YAKHAM

PORT MORESBY (Sept 30): The controversial amendments to the National

Forestry Act which were bulldozed through Parliament during its July

session will not come into force.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chris Haiveta announced in

Parliament last Friday that the amendments were neither certified by the

Speaker Sir Rabbie Namaliu nor published in the National Gazette.

Mr Haiveta said: "The amendments were not certified by the Speaker to be

published in the gazette so the old forestry law prior to the changes is

still in force."

The announcement has since raised new hopes of the World Bank releasing the

US$25 million (K33m) second tranche of the package to fund the national

economic recovery plan and the Structural Adjustment Program.

A government delegation led by Mr Haiveta left for Washington at the

weekend for another round of meetings with World Bank officials for the

release of the loan.

The World Bank decided not to release the second tranche following the

passage of the Forestry Bill which was introduced and passed after three

earlier unsuccessful attempts by Forest Minister Andrew Baing.

The changes to the Forestry Act, made amidst a lot of criticism, gave

wide-ranging powers to the forest minister including the appointment of the

chief executive of the National Forest Authority (NFA) and board members,

with Cabinet endorsement as a formality.

Condition number 18 of the 27 World Bank conditions stipulates that the PNG

Government must refrain from transferring powers from the Forest Authority

to the minister.

Concerned groups from both within and outside Parliament strongly opposed

the changes because they gave the forest minister excessive powers

undermining the powers of the NFA.

Leaders including Prime Minister Julius Chan have said that the government

will not succumb to outside influences, including the World Bank, when

negotiating issues which hedged the integrity and sovereignty of Papua New

Guinea.

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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. 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

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