The government’s ambitious plan to establish four regional centres for timber processing and value-adding will fail unless it first puts an end to widespread illegal logging

Major overseas markets have strict rules against importing illegally sourced timber and their consumers demand the highest environmental and human rights standards.

Countries like the United States, Australia and the European Union will not import plywood, veneer, sawn timber or other wood products from PNG unless they can be shown to be from legally and sustainably managed forests.

Unfortunately in PNG, most timber harvesting is done under licences issued in breach of Forestry Laws and with no sustainability requirements.

If the government wants to attract genuine investors to set up timber mills it must be able to guarantee there is a market for the finished products and to do that it must first stamp out illegal logging.

The government must immediately stop all logging activity under Forest Clearing Authority licences until each project has been independently audited and shown to be genuine.

It must also stop all logging in Timber Rights Purchase areas where the agreements pre-date the 1991 Forestry Act.

ACT NOW! is being constantly contacted by communities across the country complaining about illegal incursions into their forests by Malaysian logging companies.

Local communities are the owners of our timber resources and logging should only occur with their free prior informed consent, but the PNG Forest Authority seems incapable of ensuring this most basic legal step is followed.

Until the PNGFA can put our own house in order and ensure Forestry laws are properly followed, then investors like those visiting this week for the EU-PNG Business Forum this week are going to stay away from the sector.

The government must also not try to partner with logging companies already associated with illegal logging operations and must publish basic information about all the existing logging operations, as required under the Forestry Act. This should include all the latest log export data.

Genuine investors and overseas markets will be paying close attention to the government’s own institutions like the Bank of PNG, Internal Revenue Commission and Parliamentary Committees, all of which have spoken out on the high levels of illegal logging, tax evasion, money laundering and political corruption in the forestry sector.

Until the PNG government acts decisively to put an end to illegal logging its plans for downstream processing, value adding and job creation are doomed to fail.

Original source