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PAPUA
NEW GUINEA RAINFOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS
5 New
Timber Areas Put to Tender, 6 Others Already in Pipeline
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
6/9/97
OVERVIEW,
SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
The
following Post Courier story details the tendering of 5 new timber
permits
as well as highlighting the fact that 6 other new forest areas
have
already been approved as Forest Management Areas and are in the
pipeline. The size of the areas approved and timing of
the
announcment
just prior to elections should be noted.
LIST
NOTE
My
apologies to those on the Worldwide Forest lists which have already
received
this list note. I thought an
explanation for the long
absence
was in order. I have just returned from
Papua New Guinea
where I
was a member of the United Nations Development Program's
Environmental
Programming mission which identified 5 year priorities
for
their biodiversity conservation and sustainable development
efforts
(including potential GEF funding). My
position was the
advocacy/
communications/ public relations specialist and developed an
initial
project outline for a very large in country advocacy program.
Now I
have commenced a 3 1/2 month job with the World Bank as a
consulting
forest and natural resource management specialist. My work
will
focus exclusively on natural resource management issues in Papua
New
Guinea. And of course, I continue to
pursue my phd in Land
Resources
at the University of Wisconsin.
It can
not be stated strongly enough: THIS
FOREST CONSERVATION EMAIL
EFFORT
IS EXCLUSIVELY MY DOING AND RESPONSIBILITY.
These efforts are
in NO
way attached to my other affiliations.
Thank you for your
continued
enrollment and support, as this email list reaches 2000+
individuals
as well as over 2 million hits on the archives at
http://forests.org/ Please, continue to submit articles as this
is
essential
to the list's task and conservation impact.
For the
Earth,
Glen
Barry
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: New timber areas to be put on tender
Source: The Post Courier
Date:
6/6/97
Author: Abby Yadi
The
National Forest Authority will soon call tenders for proposals for
the
development of five new timber areas, in addition to six others
that
were approved in 1996.
The new
timber areas are April Salumei (150,620 hectares of net
production
forest area and 5,831,700 cubic meters net resource volume)
in East
Sepik; Ioma Block Five (46,000 ha;
1,855,364 cubic meters) in
Oro;
Wipim Tapila (158,553 ha; 2,625,479
cubic meters) and East Awin
(151,197
ha; 4,965,158 cubic meters), both in
Western province; and
Cloudy
Bay (50,000 ha; 1,900,000 cubic meters)
in Central province.
The six
others for which forest management agreements have been signed
are the
Josephstaal FMA in Madang; Mukus-Tolo
Block 4 in East New
Britain; Semabo in Western province; Asengseng in West province;
Asengseng
in West New Britain and Hekiko in Gulf province.
The
above 11 are part of the total 16 that Forest minister Andrew
Baing
has given approvals for, with at least four nearing development
stages
following awarding of tenders to developers.
These include the
Marshall
Lagoon and Brown River FMA's, both in Central province and
the
Turama-Kikori-Baimuru and Vailala 2&3 FMA's, both in the Gulf
province.
The
other timber areas still awaiting clearance to go to the tender
process
include Amanab in West Sepik, Mongi-Busega and Buhem-Mongi,
both in
Morobe province.
According
to a National Forest Authority official, the new projects
will be
developed strictly under the forest policy and Forest Act.
"That
is to say that the project developers will be selected as per
the
tendering process. "The Authority
does not allow pe-commitment of
timber
resource by landowners who appoint their own developers and
anticipate
approval by the state," the official said.
Under
the tendering process interested developers are issued
development
guidelines to formulate their project development
proposals
for subsequent evaluation by the PNG Forest Authority.
The
developer is ultimately selected on the basis of its development
proposals
which among other things, highlights the sustainable
development
of timber resource. "The National
Forest Development
Guidelines
places emphasis on the downstream processing of timber
products
through the sustained yield management principles," the
official
said.
Meanwhile
National Forest Authority managing director Guao Zurenuoc
said
this week the National Forest Development Guidelines will soon be
reviewed. He said the review, directed by Forest
minister Andrew
Baing,
will be carried out by the Authority's Policy Planning and
Advisory
Committee.
Mr.
Zurenuoc also said a number of existing projects will also be
reviewed
to have all operations under the policy of sustainable forest
management.
"The
levels of annual harvest for most of the projects are well above
the
sustainable level of cut now applied based on the 35 year cycle,"
Mr.
Zurenuoc said.
To
date, four projects have been reviewed.
These include the Kapluk
project
in West New Britain, operated by Nam Yang Timbers; Jant in
Madang,
by Hosshu/ OJI Pulp & Paper;
Stettin Bay Lumber in West New
Britain
and Open Bay Timbers in East New Britain.
Reviews,
he said will soon commence for the Vanimo Timber project and
the
Wawoi-Guavi project in Western province.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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