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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Huge
Papua New Guinea "Fast-Track" Logging Project Hits Hurdle
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
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Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
5/12/99
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by EE
The
proposed 2,000,000 acre Kamula Doso logging project, located at
the
heart of Papua New Guinea's largest lowland rainforest, has been
shown
to have been approved in a fraudulent manner.
This comes as the
government
continues to "fast-track" some 16 new timber operations
outside
of proper legal procedures.
Essentially, most of PNG's
commercially
accessible forests are being sold off under questionable
circumstances
in a matter of months. It is clear that
a moratorium on
the
establishment of new timber operations, as NGOs have been calling
for,
may be necessary to reestablish proper forest sector governance
in the
third largest rainforest region remaining in the World.
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: `Fast-track' logging project hits hurdle
Source: Post Courier
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: May 12, 1999
ONE of
the Government's ``fast-track'' timber projects has run into a
major
hurdle.
Complaints
from traditional landowners and non-government
organisations
have been found to be true, and much of the paperwork
for the
project has been classed as ``defective''.
Permission
was granted in February for the massive Kamula Doso project
in the
Western Province to go ahead, propelled quickly by classing it
as an
``extension'' of an existing project.
The
approval was granted, sources say, based largely on a submission
from
Environment and Conservation Secretary Dr Wari Iamo.
But the
project paperwork will have to be redone, after the discovery
that
paperwork for 75 per cent of the landowner groups involved in the
project
were ``defective''.
These
revelations came from landowner representatives.
Suliyato
Henderson and husband Stuart claim that many of the landowner
group
signatures were either forgeries or from the wrong people.
A set
of five questions were put to the National Forest Service's
managing
director, Thomas Nen, on Monday.
He
replied in one sentence: ``We acknowledge anomalies in the Kamula
Doso
Forest Management Agreement and are taking urgent remedial
actions
to correct the document.''
Forest
Service officers say the ``remedial actions'', if done
thoroughly,
could take several months.
It
would involve officers arranging meetings in remote villages and
ensuring
that the right landowner representatives were found and
briefed
on the proposal.
However,
some officers fear that the work will be rushed.
The
Forest Authority board approved the concept of granting the
800,000
hectares of Kamula Doso, as an extension of the existing Wawoi
Guavoi
project, despite a recommendation from professional foresters
against
it.
Staff
say there was heavy lobbying before the February board meeting,
from
the Wawoi Guavoi parent company, Rimbunan Hijau, and politicians,
including
Prime Minister Bill Skate and Forest Minister Peter Arul.
The
Kamula Doso project is one of about 16 on a list given to the
Forest
Service by the Government to be fast-tracked for project
implementation.
Mr and
Mrs Henderson say that they know of some of the falsehoods in
arrangements
for incorporated landowner groups involved in the forest
agreement.
They
alleged that people from the landowner areas but not authorised
leaders
had been given free trips to and from Port Moresby in attempts
by
timber companies to influence villagers.
Kamula
Doso has been described by conservation group, the World Wide
Fund
for Nature, as being a part of the single largest tropical
rainforest
outside the Amazon.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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