Logging/steries

By Craig Skehan

A GOOD deal of mystery surrounds plans for a huge increase in logging on some of Vanuatu’s remote islands. And this comes at a time of increased regional focus on an urgent need to avoid economic pitfalls and environmental degradation. A Malaysian group of companies, Delta/Premier/Parklane, was reported earlier this year to have been authorised to cut more than 70,000 cubic metres of logs annually on the islands of Erromango, Malekyla and Santo. This compares with a current cut per year by all existing loggers of less than 25,000 cubic metres. There were suggestions that large-scale export of raw logs was to be allowed, overturning previous insist ence on value-adding, at least to the point of producing sawn timber.

While the Delta/Premier/Parklane group had reputedly signed logging agreements with anumber of island landowner representatives, others claim

ing traditional land rights objected. They

said they had been left out of nego tiations. In August, a quarantine row erupted over the arrival of two barges carrying hundreds of tonnes of heavy

equipment for logging. Large amounts of

soil, and vegetation were aboard the vessels and, after much fuss, the barges were ordered to leave the country.

In September, three government min isters - Finance Minister Willie Jimmy, Natural Resources Minister Paul Telukluk and former Forestry Minister Onneyn Tahi went to Malaysia to discuss future logging operations in Vanuatu.

Their trip was at the invitation, and apparently at the expense, of Delta/ Premier/Parklane. The ni-Vanuatu Ministers visited the Malaysian state of

Sarawak, where clashes between loggers and indigenous Penan and Berawan people have attracted world attention. A principal of Delta/Premier/Deltalane,

Ting Jack Sang, was previously involved

in Solomon Islands logging operations where disputes arose over environmental and financial issues.

The Vanuatu government was plan ning to re-examine Ting’s Vanuatu plans in the wake of the Malaysian trip. On September 13, the day the ministers returned to Vanuatu, Willie Jimmy told Radio Vanuatu that company officials in Malaysia had been open in answering the ministerial group’s questions. Jimmy said Delta/Premier/Parklane was “clean and honest” and that allegations made against the company were based on

jealousy.

Earlier this year, there were reports of divisions in cabinet over how Ting’s group should be allowed to proceed. And there was evidence that prime minister Carlot Korman was not entirely happy with some decisions made by Tahi when he had responsibility for forestry. Per haps significantly, Tahi was moved to another portfolio in a recent ministerial reshuffle.

If the Delta/Premier/Parklane deal goes ahead, key issues will icluse whether raw log exports will be allowed, the size of the total cut and the level of environmental safeguards. Another hot issue is whether the government will scrap reported agreement by the former forestry minister to allow a big reduction in company payments to a reforesation fund.

Other companies from Malaysia, Singapore and the People’s Republic of China have expressed an interest in beginning logging operations in Vanu atu. And there have been reports that a number of Asian companies have been looking at buying-out the owners off already-established Pacific Veneers which has a sawmill on the main island of Efate and logging operations on Erromango. This opens up the prospect of one of the new companies being able to make use of already negotiated logging agreements and export licenses.

The latest issue of the Port Vila based, environmentally oriented Logging News

points to regional examples of disputes

arising from logging companies giving gifts to selected traditional landowners and it notes, for example, there had already been logging related clan ten sions and alleged attempts at intimi dation.

Logging Mews criticised the practice of allowing logging company employees to keep record of the species of trees cut and log measurements. For example, Kauri logs had been recorded as the less valuable species, Melektri. “The com pany hides these logs at the bottom of the log heap to make it hard for people to check,” the newsletter said. Another practice cited was that of transfer pricing to maximise profits with a parent company and then claiming that the subsidiary had lost money and could not meet infrastructure development and

other obligations.

For the past five years the Vanuatu Department of Forestry, with Australian

Will foreign logging interests keep in check degradation of the environment?

aid assistance, has been compiling a national forest inventory. Recently a report of a study group found that a “national allowable cut of around 25,000 cubic metres should be considered”.

And a meeting of the South Pacific

Regional Environment Program

(SPREP) recommended that all member countries, including Vanuatu, review

sustainability of forestry practices to protect the viability of remaining forests and linked agricultural systems. Vanu atu’s own National Conservation Strat egy notes that even current logging operations are not being conducted on a sustainable basis.

In neighbouring Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, problems in

the logging industry, including many

involving Malaysian firms, have ranged from alleged kick-backs to politicians to serious soil erosion in water catchments and damage to marine ecosystems. Many Asian countries have moved to restrict exports of raw logs because of increasing environmental costs. Companies are travelling further afield to look for new native forest areas. As forest resources at home shrink and tropical timber prices rise, even relatively small island countries such as Vanuatu start to look inviting.

The challenge for leaders in Vanuatu is to make sure that regional mistakes of the past are not repeated on their home turf. □