***********************************************
PAPUA
NEW GUINEA RAINFOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS
Loggers
on Notice: Shape Up or Ship Out
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
1/9/97
OVERVIEW,
SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
The PNG
government has asserted that loggers which do not comply with
government
policies concerning downstream processing could have their
logging
permit terminated within the next six months.
The following Post
Courier
newspaper article relates that 90% of logging companies depend upon
exporting
unhewn logs as their primary source of revenue. Apparently, the
government
will close down companies which do not work towards in country
processing. The PNG government needs support to follow
through on this
commitment,
in order that sound forest policy moves from proclamation to
implementation
(as has happened frequently with government promises to
clamp
down on logging).
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
/*
Written 7:32 AM Jan
9, 1997 by drobie@pactok.peg.apc.org in
igc:reg.newguinea
*/
/*
---------- "371 FORESTRY: Loggers told get real" ---------- */
Title
-- 371 FORESTRY: Loggers told - Get real or ship out
Date --
8 January 1997
Byline
-- Peter Niesi
Origin
-- Niuswire
Source
-- Post-Courier (PNG), 8 January 1997
Copyright
-- Post-Courier
Status
-- Unabridged
-------------------
(Editor's
note: The following story was splashed as the front page lead.
The
rival paper, The National - owned by the Malaysian logging company
Rimbunan
Hijau - used a brief version buried on Page 2 - today. There was
no
mention of Rimbunan Hijau).
LOGGERS
TOLD: GET REAL OR SHIP OUT
By
Peter Niesi
LOGGING
companies which fail to comply with the Papua New Guinea
government's
policy of promoting and establishing downstream processing
could
have their permits terminated within the next six months.
Commerce
and Industry Minister Nakikus Konga issued the warning yesterday
amid
what seems to be a general blatant disregard of the government's
policy
by foreign-owned logging firms.
Many
logging companies, under operation agreements with the state, are
supposed
to encourage downstream processing such as sawmilling of timber,
woodchip
milling and veneer plants.
Minister
Konga did not want to mention names, but said there were logging
firms
which had not complied over the past few years.
Executives
of Rimbunan Hijau - the largest timber company in PNG - in 1993
publicly
agreed in the presence of then Prime Minister Paias Wingti and
Forest
Minister Tim Neville to set p a K150 million downstream processing
plant
outside the National Capital District.
But to
date, this has not been done.
Another
example cited specifically by Minister Konga involved New Britain-
based
Open Bay Timber's non-replacement of a woodchip mill that was burnt
down.
For
years the firm did nothing to replace it, he said.
Mr
Konga said that the main problem is that 90 per cent of large timber
companies'
operations revolved around exporting large volumes of
unprocessed
logs to overseas markets at the expense of establishing
downstream
facilities and feeding logs to them.
He
warned that there would be no hesitation in closing down timber
companies
if they do not implement agreements with the state to build and
promote
downstream processing facilities at areas where they log.
Mr
Konga will be liaising with Forest Minister Andrew Baing to ascertain
the
level of lack of downstream processing promotion by the logging firms
before
reviewing their operating permits.
At a
press conference yesterday, Minister Konga said that the main problem
was the
inadequate policing and called for cooperative efforts between the
Forestry
and Commerce and Industry departments to clamp down on those firms
that do
not comply.
"The
government may demand timber operators to initiate downstream
processing
within six months or face the cancellation of operating
licences,"
he said.
Cabinet
before Christmas approved in principle the establishment of a
plywood
industry in Gulf Province which was submitted by the Kikori-based
Turama
Forest Industries.
The
factory is expected to commence operations by the year 2000 which means
also
that Turama would cease exporting raw timber simultaneously.
Incentives
approved by Cabinet for the plywood factory include:
* A
five-year tax holiday.
* Duty
exemption on export of processed plywood.
* Granting
of pioneer status.
*
Import duty exemption in approved processing equipment, spare parts and
consumables
for the first two years of operations.
He also
expressed dismay that despite incentives in timber agreements to
import
machinery at reduced tariff for downstream processing facilities,
hardly
any logging firm was using these provisions.
He
warned that if this practice is not corrected, sustainable economic
development
will decline drastically, contributing to further unemployment
and
general decline in economic growth.
###RELAYED
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