Papua New Guinea Rainforest Tribe Takes Timber Developers to Court

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

Forest Conservation Archives-- http://forests.org/

PNG Rainforest Information-- http://forests.org/pngforest.html

11/26/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

Following is great coverage by CNN of the forest imbroglio playing

itself out in Papua New Guinea (PNG). CNN blazes the trail with some

excellent coverage first of Indonesia's lawless logging, and now

bringing the level of attention to the PNG forest conservation saga

that it deserves. Media and others must bear witness to the lawless,

corrupt and aggressive practices occurring in forest frontiers. We

need more and better media coverage and civil society activity on

behalf of the last natural forest epicenters; in Brazil, South East

Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, Russia, Canada and elsewhere.

These forest frontiers are undergoing the same boom and bust

deforestation episode that has occurred in all areas where intensive

logging and other habitat conversion occurred. Indigenous forestland

occupants frequently are having their forests stolen from them for

industrial logging. These last large forest core areas are fueling

quite a few of the ecological processes keeping good ol Mama Earth

working. There is an interesting and diverse forest conservation

movement working to protect the last vestiges of natural vegetation.

Join it.

The battle to save forests is a battle for the Earth itself. The

potential costs of losing forests and related hydrological, climate,

water, biological and other ecological systems makes conservation of

natural vegetation the most pressing issue facing humankind and the

Earth. Indiscriminate industrial sacking of virgin forests must not

be tolerated any longer--not in PNG, not anywhere. It is not

acceptable on the basis of biological loss and ecosystem degradation-

-and in all too many places, on the basis of human rights violations.

It is refreshing to see PNG landowners using the courts to protect

their rights to their lands and heritages, and then a media

conglomerate take notice. Lets continue to shine the light and work

to organize on behalf of halting and reversing this destruction.

Media, activists, scientists, bureaucrats, students and other Earth

citizens, will forest conservation into being! power to the people

g.b.

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Title: Rainforest tribe takes battle with developers to court

The Maisin tribe of Papua New Guinea has filed a lawsuit

against a Malaysian development company

Source: Cable News Network, CNN, http://cnn.com/

Date: November 25, 1999

Byline: Gary Strieker

COLLINGWOOD BAY, Papua New Guinea (CNN) -- The Maisin have always

defended their culture and land. In the past they met trespassers with

sharp spears and menacing shouts, but the latest and most dangerous

threat to their way of life has seen the tribe take up a new weapon --

litigation.

Fighting developers who claim they have leasing rights to clear-cut

forests and build a palm-oil plantation, the Maisin filed a lawsuit

that has worked its way up to Papua New Guinea's highest court.

If they lose, the Maisin are prepared to continue the battle, even if

they must use more traditional methods. "If we lose this battle, the

court case, that will not be the end of it," says Benson Gegeyo, a

Maisin elder. "We will fight to the last man."

Their fight is for a rainforest stretching inland from the coast of

Pacific island the Solomon Sea. Within the nations forest's canopy,

the Maisin clear patches for their crops and hunt wild animals for

meat. From the forest they find building materials, medicines, and

fresh water.

"The forest is our livelihood. It's also our inheritance that our

Maisin landowner forefathers have passed on to us," said John Wesley

Vaso, a Maisin landowner.

That rich inheritance that could be lost in an instant. "Just

overnight at the stroke of a pen, to change it and to forfeit the

whole entire inheritance, to us it seems totally unjust," Vaso said.

Under Papua New Guinea's constitution, tribes like the Maisin are

legal owners of their traditional lands. But a development company

owned by Malaysians claims it has a valid lease and permits to clear-

cut the forest, and establish the plantation.

The project would be an economic boon to the area, creating hundreds

of jobs, according to an attorney for the developers

They would be "jobs in the long term for the planting of the oil palm,

and then its maintenance and ongoing harvesting," Greg Sheppard says.

The Maisin say they never signed away their land and that the lease is

invalid, with inadequate signatures. The company denies the charge.

The Maisin convinced the Papua New Guinea courts to stop the project

until there is a final decision on the case.

Tribe members say they are against any big logging or plantation

project. "We do not believe they are true development. They are

destructions to our life," Maisin community leader Sylvester Moi says.

The Maisin are not categorically against economic development. They

want jobs, but not at the expense of their forest or their way of

life. They would rather profit on a small scale, selling tapa cloth

and betel nuts, without losing control of their land.

"We are the rightful owners of the land. We have the right to make

decisions as to what is to happen to our land," Moi says.

The Maisin won the latest round in court, but the final outcome of

their lawsuit could be months away -- and they have almost exhausted

the money they raised to pay their legal costs.

Environmentalists consider the case a crucial one. Conservationists

say timber and plantation companies often use devious methods to

obtain rights on tribal lands. But if the Maisin win this case, more

tribes might follow their example and take other struggles to court.

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