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PAPUA
NEW GUINEA RAINFOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS
Accusations
PNG Forests Minister on Wrong Track
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
1/22/99
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Title: PNG Forests Minister on wrong track
Source: Greenpeace
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to
source
Date: January 19, 1999
Arul on
wrong track: Greenpeace
Port
Moresby/Sydney January 19, 1999.
Greenpeace
rejects the Forest Minister's justification for his letter
to the
Provincial Forest Management Committees, which called on them
to
quickly find developers for timber projects.
Peter
Arul says he has been pressured by landowners groups in certain
areas
to speed up projects.
But the
people of Managalas Plateau and now the Maisin of Collingwood
Bay say
this is wrong. Landowners in both areas
have already
established
successful alternatives to logging and rejected large
scale
logging in their areas. Yet the
Minister's letter seems to have
resulted
in new pressure to develop FMA's on their customary land.
Greenpeace's
Benedict Southworth says the push by Arul is not in the
national
or landowners' interests.
"The
pattern is clear. The loggers have
successfully lobbied the
Skate
government and effectively reduced the export log tax to zero.
The
logs are now flowing out of the country with no income coming in
and
landowners are stuck with a depreciated ten kina a cubic metre
royalty. Now the loggers are putting the pressure on
for more logging
concessions."
Greenpeace
also believes Mr Arul's letter contains an unlawful threat
as the
National Executive Council has no power under the Act to
approve
a timber permit, unless it endorses a decision of the National
Forest
Board and a Provincial Forest Management Committee. The law
does
not allow the NEC to substitute its own decision in the absence
of one
by the board or committees.
"We
call on the Government to follow the right legal processes when
considering
forest concessions for the protection of landowners and
the
forest environment" says Southworth.
For
more details call:
Brian
Brunton on 675- 3260560
Samantha
Magick
Political/Media
officer
Greenpeace
Pacific
Level
1, Old Town Hall
Victoria
Parade
Suva
Fiji
Ph:679
312861
Fx:679 312784
Lafcadio
Cortesi
Greenpeace
Pacific
568
Howard St.
San
Francisco, CA 94105
tel:
w.415-512-9025/h.510-527-2858
fax:
w.415-512-8699/h.510-528-2886
e-mail:
lafcadio.cortesi@dialb.greenpeace.org
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