UPDATE ON EFFORTS TO PROTECT THE FORESTS AND PEOPLES OF MADANG
PROVINCE FROM MULTI-NATIONAL TIMBER MINERS
Released by Wau Ecology Institute, Momase Rainforest Campaign &
Asples Madang, Citizens for a Better Environment
The campaign has been long and trying. The defeats have
outnumbered the victories, yet after 2 years of intensive
campaigning by a small army of Papua New Guinean
activist/volunteers, NOT ONE OF THE 5 NEW TIMBER AREAS TOTALLING
OVER 233,000 HECTARES SCHEDULED TO START YEARS AGO HAS COMMENCED
OPERATION.
The task before us is to lay to rest once and for all the
development plans of Madang Province which depend on the
wholesale clearcutting of the province; and in its place,
substitute a vision of development which is owned, controlled and
meaningfully benefits the local peoples of Madang Province.
Below is a short brief on the status of three of the new projects
which have been the targets of extensive educational campaigns as
well as the existing operations of JANT company of Japan, which
you may remember has been repeatedly shut down by blockades.
RAI COAST--60,000 HECTARES; STATUS--DELAYED INDEFINATELY
The Rai Coast Timber Rights Purchase Area (TRP) operation's
Environmental Plan had been conditionally approved in early 1991,
clearing the last hurdle for the operation to commence. The
condition was that the foreign developer, Saban Pty Ltd of
Malaysia, needed to undergo the long process of negotiating a
water usage permit from the Department of Environment and
Conservation. This was the direct result of lobbying by WEI and
Asples Madang to DEC which raised the issue of damage to the Rai
Coast's rich fishing grounds (both river and sea) from a clearcut
on very steep mountainous slopes.
While the efforts to get the water permit dragged on, 15
landowners from the area were lucky enough to have the
opportunity to take part in the Momase Landowners Conference held
in the Gogol-Naru as an Earth Day event in mid-April. Out of all
of the groups which took part, the Rai Coast contingent perhaps
benefited the most in that landowners from Umboi-Siassi Island in
Morobe Province, who also attended the conference, had just
kicked out Saban Pty Ltd (under a different name) from their
forests. Testimonials of gross ineptness in logging practices
devastating the land, as well as failure for royalties to be
paid, painted a far different picture to the landowners than the
companies promises of easy riches.
The effect on the Rai Coast landowners was electrifying.
Immediately upon returning to their area; the 15 person team,
armed with educational materials including videotapes, booklets
and posters provided at the conference, did a two week walking
patrol to every village and house line in the entire Timber Area.
Simultaneously, the landowners began efforts to find finance for
the purchasing of wokabaut somils (small, portable sawmills).
The landowners complain that on many occasions they have come to
Madang Provincial offices such as Business Development and
Forestry to ask for technical and financial assistance in
developing a local timber project. They would like to model it
after the Bau project in Morobe Province which is managed by
Village Development Trust in Lae, and to date has sent six
shipments of sustainabily cut timber (or as close as now
possible) to England; which at K400 per cubic meter (compared to
K4 under the Saban Pty Ltd agreement) has made the Bau landowners
K36,000 in half a year.
While the rich, Asian, multi-nationals receive all of the time
and attention they desire, often the local people's efforts to
make appointments are delayed indefinately, and when time is
found, no assistance is forthcoming.
Concerns over the Rai Coast TRP were not new. For some time
landowners had complained that the landowner company, Rai Coast
Holdings, was a puppet of the area's National Member of
Parliament. Indeed, its board had few actual landowners on it.
The new concerns of environmental destruction was just too much
for the landowners to bear.
After the project had been in operation for only a matter of
weeks, the landowners shut down the project. They simply said
pack up or your equipment or it will be torched. At this point
the loose association which constitutes an alternative landowner
group demands that the Timber Permit be withdrawn immediately
from the non-representative Rai Coast Holdings "Landowner Group."
Madang Provincial Forestry officials have stated that there is
little chance the project will commence in its current form. At
the end of this brief is a list of addresses, please raise these
questions when writing letters:
1.) What measures does the Department of Forests take to insure
that landowner companies do in fact represent the landowners?
2.) On such a steeply sloped area (mountains raising to 14,000
feet within 20 kilometers from the coast); how can the more
sustainable development option of local fishing be sacrificed for
a one time, quick raping of the vital forests which hold the soil
in place?
3.) Why hasn't the Rai Coast been considered as a Conservation
area in that it is one of the last places in Madang Province
where the natural forests come right down to the ocean, and is
known for its abundance of rare plant and animal life?
4.) Why does the Madang Provincial Government vehemently oppose
all other development options that the landowners wish to pursue?
They desperately want to cut their own timbers with wokabaut
somil, yet their iniatives are being blatantly blocked. Why
can't the government serve its citizens as well as it serves
foreign investors?
5.) As a sidelight, there are as of yet unconfirmed allegations
that the equipment that was brought to the Rai Coast was the
EXACT SAME BULLDOZERS, TRUCKS, ETC. that had just been THROWN OUT
OF MANUS ISLAND because of the court case between the Provincial
and National government. If there any truth to these claims?
Attempts to find out in Madang Province have yielded no comment.
Please call upon the National and Provincial Department's of
Forestry to investigate. If true, this means that illegal
operations which are removed by legal action from one portion of
PNG simply pack up their personnel and equipment and move to
another Province.
JOSEPHSTAAL--100,000 HECTARES; STATUS--HAS LOST ITS FINANCING
The Josephstaal campaign has been the hardest fought effort by
Madang activists. After the initial negotiations were done
without landowner participation, and thus were declared invalid,
the government and Kosmo Corporation of South Korea came right
back at it, using all means to get the barest appearance of
legitimacy in its negotiations with the landowners.
After 1 1/2 years of intense campaigning, the project agreement
nonetheless was signed in June of 1991. This was a low point in
the Madang Campaign, where a lot sweat and tears on our part
seemed to have been wasted.
However, recent reports indicate that we have every reason to be
optimistic. When the project agreement was signed, the
government gave Kosmo company 6 months to submit its working plan
and environmental plan. This was 3 months ago, and as of yet the
company has not submitted either. One would think that given the
fact that the company expected to be in operation nearly 2 years
ago, that these plans would have been prepared long ago, simply
waiting for the project agreement to come through before their
submission.
The reason for the failure of the operation to clear these last
hurdles before operating has become clear. Because of the
intense negative publicity that Josephstaal received during its
long renegotiation (and possibly the numerous blockades of
existing operations having shown that Madang's population is not
as easily exploited as believed), Kosmo Corporation has lost its
financial backing from banks back in South Korea. NO FINANCE, NO
PROJECT.
Government sources reveal that the company is desperately trying
all avenues to find new bank financing, but if unsuccessful in
three months, the signed project agreement becomes invalid. NOW
IS THE TIME TO ONCE AND FOR ALL PUT TO REST THIS ATROCIOUS
PROJECT. Important points to raise in letters would include:
1.) Why is a company that so clearly is willing to break PNG
laws (when initially negotiating, was not a registered company
and thus was illegal; also, negotiated without landowner
involvement the first time) allowed to continue efforts to enter
PNG? At a certain point, does not a companies actions show that
it is incapable of acting in a responsible, legal manner?
2.) 1/3 of the 100,000 hectares is to be used for chipping
hardwoods to make paper, one of only a few such wasteful uses of
hardwoods in the world. How much more of Madang's precious
resources will be used to make low value products such as
cardboard boxes?
3.) Clearly the Madang Provincial government will stoop to any
level to get the project through. This includes issuing the
timber permit directly to Kosmo Resources, effectively stripping
the landowners of their land rights. It has been reported and
confirmed by numerous people that the Kosmo company officials are
often seen driving around in Provincial members vehicles and have
ready access to phones in the Provincial government building.
After such suspicious closeness between the Madang Provincial
government and the Kosmo company, why has their not be an inquiry
into allegations of bribery by the Korean company of Madang
Provincial Government officials?
4.) Why would Madang Province want a company to set up business
that at this late point in its establishment is unable to come up
with capital to start operations? Obviously, this company is a
fly by night operation with little experience in logging.
LETS FINISH THEM OFF!
GOGOL-NARU--10,000 HECTARES REMAINING--LOGGING CONTINUES
The JANT campaign has been a two edged sword as far as evaluating
whether it has been a "success." JANT is still operating which
by a hard edged, environmental perspective, would seem to
preclude claims of success. However, in many other far less
tangible measurements of "success" the campaign has sent ripples
far beyond the Gogol-Naru TRP.
The gross, neo-colonialist, 17 year pillaging of the Gogol-Naru
signifies all that is bad in the clearcutting of tropical
forests. The nearly complete evading of corporate taxes, the
fact that landowners still live in bush houses with no sign of
material development, the meagre reforestation being heralded as
a sign of corporate responsibility; the 5, 10 feet by 10 feet
health clinics which are made of bush materials and have no
medicine being heralded as major aid posts, the death of 6
employees with no compensation, the near slavery wages of working
6 or 7 days a week for 10 hours all for K40 a fortnight; all
cried out, indeed, pleaded for a campaign.
The JANT campaign never had as its goal to save large chunks of
rainforests from indiscriminate destruction. With about 10,000
hectares remaining, if we were simply looking to save rainforests
there are many other TRP of 1/2 million hectares that have not
been campaigned against.
Rather, the campaign originated as a partnership with the
landowners' own well developed movement to gain greater economic
benefits. There was never any doubt that the environmental
movement was the junior partner in what in many respects is a
question of human rights.
Environmentally speaking, the JANT campaign set out to make an
example of JANT, to show the inadequacy and dangers of numerous
proposed projects in Madang Province and throughout PNG which
closely parallel the terms of JANT's operation. Thus, the
campaign sought to shatter the false hopes that are being held up
innumerable unscrupulous timber companies as the means for Papua
New Guineans to achieve material development they so desperately
desire.
There is no better way to show the hollowness of companies
promises of easy riches then to show the complete failure of JANT
to provide a meaningful increase in the Gogol-Naru peoples
standard of living; and indeed, when you factor in the tremendous
environmental losses of clean water, free timber resources for
personal use, loss of game and fish, and infertile soil; that for
most of the Gogol-Naru landowners, conditions have actually
worsened.
By these standards, the hundreds of stories in the newspapers, on
the radio, on TV; not only in Papua New Guinea, but all over the
world have shown the moral bankruptcy of JANT's Gogol-Naru
operation. The tremendous increase in awareness concerning the
adverse effects of clearcutting within Papua New Guinea; and even
more importantly, the increased willingness of landowners to
simply shut down operations which are not fulfiling their
promises; we believe, can partially be attributed to efforts to
link the projects to the granddaddy of them all, JANT.
Do not get us wrong. A just and sustainable solution is sought
in the JANT negotiations which after more then a year of
stalling, will start soon. However, increasingly it appears the
Gogol-Naru landowners have decided to let the last 10,000
hectares be clearcut for a bit more money. And who can blame
them? There is certainly no assistance from any quarter,
certainly not the Provincial government, for the pursuit of any
other alternatives.
As with the Rai Coast, there is strong interest in setting up a
wokabaut somil program to sustainably manage the remaining
forests. Indeed, the Gogol-Naru landowners are a step ahead in
that the already have one wokabaut and a leading businessman, Mr.
John Boiso, has enough to buy 2 more and has stated his
willingness to do so if technical assistance and markets can be
found. Initial discussions whereby these wokabauts would be
contracted to various landowners wishing to cut a bit of forest,
with the landowner and wokabaut somil owner splitting the timber,
have been held.
Yet, a village based program does not emerge from a vacuum. Once
again the plans have gone no where because of a complete
indifference on the part of the Provincial forestry department to
aid any timber project that does not "think big".
The tragedy in the initial discussions leading up to negotiations
is that the only options being offered the landowners by the
Madang Provincial government is either let the company stay on
slightly with slightly better financial terms, or kick them out
and lose the jobs (however poor paying they may be, they are
rightly seen as all they have).
Hopes that the contract will be significantly better then the
.60t/cubic meter for chipped hardwoods are doubtful. When
Provincial forestry officers are asked if the new contract will
meet the requirements laid down by the New Forestry Bill, the
reply was that it was unlikely since they still have not received
a copy of the bill with the numerous amendments added during
passage.
The much touted National Forest Department initiatives towards
landowner participation, increased benefits to the landowners,
and increased Non-governmental organization involvment leading to
increased options for landowners seem to be a long way from being
implemented in the provinces. So far indeed, that if the first
draft of the new agreements guidelines is any indication, it
looks as if JANT will squeak through with an equally undemanding
contract.
The document which lays down the initial guidelines for the new
contract is amazingly vague. Under the section, Environmental
Management, is a two sentence statement which assures
"appropriate environmental measures" must be undertaken. Nothing
is said on what measures, or how they will be applied.
Despite the general pessimism displayed thus far, there are
plenty of new developments that need to be followed up on.
Primarily, as of August 11, 1991, JANT's 20 year contract
expired. The company continues to operate on the basis of a
grace period granted to it by the Provincial government without
consultation with the landowners. This is possible because the
company, not the landowners, is the holder of the timber permit.
The timber permit will expire in June of 1992.
As it became apparent that even the fact that the contract was
expired did not mean the company must stop operation, the
landowners were enraged. Cutting that is occurring as you read
this article is done with no legal document giving landowner
consent. In a series of emergency meetings by the top landowners
it was planned that at long last there was grounds for a court
injunction to shut down JANT and force it to bargain in good
faith. Funds were scraped together to pay for legal counsel, and
the lawyer was flown in from Port Moresby for a series of
meetings with landowners in villages to attempt to have the court
injunction be truly representative of the landowners wide ranging
concerns.
The court injunction was taken out and waiting to be heard when
JANT and the Provincial government made their counter offense.
Two weeks ago, the legal counsel having just left after filing in
court and the court injunction hanging over the JANT company as a
fatal blow, the top landowners of the Gogol-Naru as represented
by GONA (Gogol-Naru Landowners Association) were invited to
Smuggler's Inn, the luxury Madang resort, for a night of free
drinks, food and lodging as the guests of the Madang Provincial
Government to, as a Provincial Forests reprentative put it, "sort
out the review."
In the absence of their legal counsel as well as their usual
advisors from Asples Madang, the landowners were wined and dined
into the late hours of the night, until such time as they chose
to sleep in their luxury hotel rooms.
In fact, the night was far from free. During the evening, the
landowners agreed to withdraw the injunction. They also promised
to allow the negotiations, promised since the initial blockade in
November of 1990, repromised after the second blockade in May of
1991, to be moved back yet further, to September 13. JANT has
until then to make their new proposal and in the meantime
continues to operate without a contract.
There has emerged a wide rift within the Gogol-Naru landowner
movement, with many landowners that are not privy to such
luxuries feeling that their interests are being sold out. We can
never forget that ultimately, the decision concerning JANT's
future must and will be made by a consensus of landowners.
However, at this crucial point, numerous questions can and must
be raised. We urge the following in letters:
1.) As with the Rai Coast, the Gogol-Naru landowners desire and
are actively pursuing options. They even have some of the
resources to make this a reality, with three wokabaut somils a
possibility. Why are appeals for technical and marketing
assistance completely stonewalled by government officials? To
date, few if any Madang Provincial Forestry officer has been
assigned to aid landowners develop their timber resources
independent of foreign-owned and controlled iniatitives. Why is
this?
2.) The rhetoric from the National Department of Forests
concerning their desire to work closely with Non-governmental
organizations, particularly in the creation of alternative
development options, is in harsh contrast to the complete lack of
cooperation in Madang Province. Why are organizations such as
Asples Madang and Wau Ecology Institute, which seek to find
options which empower landowners to own, control and benefit from
their bountiful forests, treated as criminal activities?
3.) Why will JANT and the Madang Provincial government only hold
binding, decision making discussions with the Gogol-Naru
landowners when they do not have legal representation or other
advisors of their choosing? This is not the first time that JANT
and the Provincial government have patiently waited until lawyer
expenses become so high that the lawyer must depart, only then to
negotiate on the spur of the moment major issues with the
landowners.
4.) Who paid for the night at Smuggler's Inn? The Madang
Provincial Government as claimed, or the JANT company? Is this
the proper venue for such major decisions to made? Who initiated
this last minute flurry of discussions?
To the environmental community which is concerned about
protection of rainforests, the current battle surrounding the
JANT renegotiation will not conserve much rainforest. Thus,
attempts to stop JANT from obtaining additional timber
concessions (stopping the disease from spreading) are of the
utmost importance.
BIGES--9,000 HECTARE JANT EXTENSION; --EFFORTS TO HAVE NAMED A
TRP HAVE STALLED INDEFINATELY
You may remember that JANT currently hopes to expand into two new
timber areas. The first is Biges and the second is South Naru,
8,000 more hectares. Faced with limited resources, Asples Madang
and Wau Ecology Institute have of the two so far only been able
to patrol the Biges TRP, though with great success.
A month ago, word reached Asples Madang that JANT officials had
begun a hard nosed, persistent campaign to push the Biges
landowners into having their area named a TRP. Indeed, in one
week a meeting where the issue would be decided was to be held.
With great haste, a four day patrol of the area by a group of
Gogol-Naru landowners, to speak of their difficulties with the
company, and Asples Madang activists was organized. Little
documentation on the patrol has yet been done, however, it is
known that at the meeting the landowners refused JANT's offer and
stated that at the present time they had no intention of
declaring their area a TRP
This patrol reflects the realization within the Madang
environmental community that the dispute between the Gogol-Naru
landowners and JANT company may have reached a point where it is
now time for the landowners to make a decision based on their
needs and their increased awareness of environmental issues.
Further work, if resources were available, on the possibility of
setting up a wokabaut somil program may be appropriate. However,
with so little government cooperation or interest in the idea;
such efforts at a certain point start to closely resemble beating
ones head against the wall. Only when National forest policy
rhetoric become Provincial for policy reality will such work be
feasible in Madang Province.
Now, all efforts must be put into helping other landowners under
pressure from JANT to rethink their options. A course of action
as to how letters may aid this campaign will be formulated at a
later stage.
If there is anything we have learned, it is that timber
negotiations which are pursued in secret; with little knowledge
by, or visibility within, the wider population, are much more
likely to be biased against the landowner's and environment's
interests. For example, purely on the basis of making
Josephstaal a high profile TRP, we have managed to give financial
institutions second thoughts about the risks of such an
investment.
Though a strategy of letter writing will not in and of itself
insure the future of Madang's people and forests, it is one
portion of a wider educational and empowering strategy. Please,
take the time to write letters raising some of the questions
brought up in this update and others you may have. This appeal
will be sent out both within PNG and internationally. It is our
hope that the majority of letters will come from within PNG, and
that groups such as MEF and PNG Trust which have extensive
grassroots networks can mobilize these individuals to take a few
minutes and help us put an end to the threat hanging over Madang
Province's future.
Also, please feel free to condense this information into smaller,
more easily read action alerts as you see fit. The addresses
are:
Mr. Jack Genia The Times
Minister of Forestry Attn.: Editorial
The Department of Forests P.O. Box 1982
P.O. Box 5055 BOROKO
BOROKO Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea Fax: (675) 25 2579
Fax: (675) 25 4433
Post Courier
Mr. Andrew Ariako Attn.: Editorial
Madang Premier P.O. Box 85
P.O. Box 2018 PORT MORESBY
Madang Province Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea Fax: (675) 21 2721
Fax: (675) 82 2407
Mr. Michael Somare
Mr. Rabie Namaliu Minister of Foreign Affairs
Prime Minister Central Govt. Offices
P.O. Box 6605 P.O. Wards Strip
BOROKO WAIGANI
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea
Fax: (675) 27 6629 Fax: (675) 25 4467