Around two thirds of Papua New Guinea’s 600 islands are covered in forest. A vast array of plant and animal life, including many endangered species of trees and other plants, mammals, reptiles and birdlife that are found only in PNG live in its forests. Around 95 per cent of PNG’s forest lands are owned and managed by customary landowners (tribal clan groups). Villagers live traditional lives with strong connections to the land. Forests provide them wood and other materials for homes, food and medicines.
Papua New Guinea’s forests are also a valuable source of export income. Over the past 30 years 25 – 30 per cent of PNG’s forests were logged, mainly by international logging companies. Illegal or unregulated logging was common before the PNG Forest Authority developed guidelines for sustainable production, logging and reforestation to achieve sustainable forest management.
Logging
International companies have logged forests for high value kwila, rosewood, walnut, black bean and red cedar. They have used heavy machinery to select mature trees. The condition of the remaining ‘cut over’ forests varies depending on how much timber was extracted and the quality of the logging. The trees remaining could include those too small to have been worth harvesting, as well as lesser-known species.
Many communities sold logging rights for small payments and the enticement of improved access to other places through the roads and bridges built to transport logs. In some cases logging companies also built schools and health centres for villagers but these facilities were often ill-maintained after the logging was completed. Logging companies were not legally bound to reforest the logged area and villagers have had to make use what remained of the forest.
Taking advantage of cut-over forests
Local communities are assisting the research project charting growth rates to help plan for sustainable forest management.
Julian Fox
With an increasingly large area of cut-over forest there has been pressure to find ways communities can make better use of the remaining forests. The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) for the past four years, has been working with the PNG government, PNG Forest Research Institute and communities in the north central provinces of Madang and Morobe to identify effective forest management strategies and income generating enterprises.
The project team from the University of Melbourne has surveyed the region’s forests to identify tree species and their growth rates to help develop sustainable forest management and harvesting strategies. Data has been collected from satellite and radar images and measurements from sample plots. The information gained from the forest surveys will also be useful for mapping carbon stocks in PNG forests which can inform strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from logging and forest degradation in the future.
Future outcomes and empowering villages
Villagers undertake small scale eco-forestry to earn valuable income.
Julian Fox
Strong international demand for sustainably harvested and fair trade timber has been identified as a particularly good opportunity for PNG communities to generate income. Wood for local construction and furniture manufacture and mushroom harvesting also provide income.
In Yagi village, near Madang, landowners are milling their timber for export, after receiving Forest Stewardship Council certification. Australian businesses have offered a 20-40 per cent premium for sustainably harvested, Fairtrade-certified timber from PNG forests.
Plans for sustainable forest management may be used by villagers to develop a business case to attract investment in the industry and improve village infrastructure, such as roads.
By empowering villagers to recognise the resources and values in their forests and to manage their own forests sustainably, profits from timber products and the sale of other forest commodities go directly to the communities who produced them. Communities are no longer caught in the short-term export logging dilemma for income, but receive smaller but ongoing income from sales of forest products and the future of their forests is in their own hands.
References:
ACIAR Partners Magazine: http://www.aciar.gov.au/files/node/10942/PMg%20Mar-Jun09%20Part10.pdf
ACIAR: http://aciar.gov.au/project/FST/2004/061
Papua New Guinea Forest Authority: http://www.forestry.gov.pg/site/index.php
University of Melbourne, Forest Science http://www.forestscience.unimelb.edu.au/research_projects/ACIAR_Projects/PNG_Project/index.html
| 
Print View
