06/18/00
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
If it is so difficult to log profitably in Papua New Guinea, and the industry is in such dire straights; perhaps the best course of action is to end unprofitable, ecologically destructive industrial logging and create a new forest management model based upon community based, certified timber production. The industrial log-export business model is broken and unable to be fixed. Shortly, there is not likely to be any market for rainforest timbers that are not certified regarding sustainability. It is not surprising that PNG's static non-innovating existing timber industry is failing. It has always failed to bring environmentally benign, equitable development to PNG.
g.b.

Title: Forest industry losing vitality
  THE nation's forest industry is sinking.
Source: Copyright, 1999, Post-Courier Online.
Date:  June 15, 2000

The slide, according to forest officials, is being caused by the loss of more than 2000 jobs after the Government imposed huge export taxes. While giving an overview of the country's forest resources yesterday, facilitator of the seminar series Dick McCarthy said that if the country continued to draw from the industry, then there was no way the economy would be revived.

He said over the past year, there have been very savage tax hits on log exports and globalisation of the industry had contributed to a drastic downward slide.

"If every year we are going to lose 2000 people, then the industry is going backwards," he said.

The loss of jobs is not the only obstacle that has hindered the development of the forest industry.

Mr McCarthy said the distribution of funds to the various provinces for targeted developments is not being injected back into the respective purses to further ensure those activities are carried out.

"One of the biggest issues that we as producers have to deal with all the time is, we are out there doing regional development but any taxes or funds that are collected come to the one big hole here and very little goes back."

There is also confusion over who should take over the responsibility of plantation forestry, a must for any logging company operating in the country.

"That's really a critical issue that all these hardwood industries should really be mobilised to be doing a lot more in terms of reforestation or regeneration of those forests, otherwise the regrowth is not going to be looked after," he said.