PNG ecotbnber hits the Australian market

E cotimber produced sustainably by forest communities in Papua New Guinea has hit the Australian market.

At a launch in Sydney mid-November, representatives from WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) called on Australian timber consumers to buy PNG ecotimber as an alternative to rainforest timber from

damaging industrial logging operations.

Kilyali Kalit from WWF in PNG said the ecotimber was the first to reach the Australian market bearing the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) stamp of approval.

The FSC is an internationally recognised system of certifying timber that takes into account the economic, environmental and social importance of forests. The FSC system establishes forest management performance standards that are

independently audited, giving consumers

the confidence that the timber they are buying is “good wood”. The PNG ecotimber now available in Australia comes

from a community-run project in West New Britain, a PNG Government initiative funded by the European Union. Trained community members produce timber using a portable sawmill that is set up within the forest.

To meet the strict criteria of the FSC, the area to be logged is divided into a number of clearly marked coupes of 5 to 20 hectares each. Before logging takes place, a full inventory of the area is undertaken. Cutting of small trees and seed trees is not allowed and trees to be logged are carefully selected so that when they fall, they do not damage nearby seedlings or create large gaps in the canopy.

Industrial-scale logging has been ravaging PNG for the past two decades.

WWF says large-scale industrial logging has caused unacceptable damage and that

community forestry is the superior

alternative. “The number of trees cut in an industrial logging operation in one week would sustain a community sawmill for several years,” Kilyali Kalit said.

“Community forestry is not only better for the environment, it also returns most of the wealth to the people living off the forest resource.

“The premise behind ecoforestry is that customary landowners will care for their forest, whereas foreign-owned logging companies do not. Community forestry provides landowners with an income from the forest, enabling them to say “no” to foreign loggers.”

The global market for FSC-certified timber has grown dramatically in recent years. The FSC has certified over 17 million hectares of forest worldwide. In PNG the certified forests cover an area of 4,310 hectares. As yet, no Australian forests have been certified under the FSC system.

So far, more than 25 cubic metres of timber from the EU-sponsored project in PNG has been exported to Australia in four shipments. For the first time, Australian consumers can choose “guilt-free” hardwood timber by specifying or purchasing FSC-certified timber. ■