Moratorium on new PNG logging concessions praised

PAPUA New Guinea landowners in areas set down for logging under the previous Skate Government, can breathe a sigh of relief after the Morauta Government’s decision to impose a moratorium on new logging concessions and review all existing licences, WWF said.

The environmental organisation.

World Wide Fund for Nature, applauded the Government for acknowledging in the recent budget

that corruption is rife in the forestry industry.

In his Budget speech the Prime Minister, Sir Mekere Morauta, committed the Government to introducing an immediate moratorium on all new forestry licences, extensions and conversions and to proceeding with a review of all existing licences.

He said this would “ensure that proper procedures are followed, that logging practices are not carried out in an

unsustainable way, and that landowners get their fair share of benefits from resource use” The coordinator of WWF’s PNG program, Kilyali Kalit said for far too long, logging in Papua New Guinea’s forests had been carried out in an unsustainable way, with landowners being left only the crumbs from the pie.

“The Government must be commended for restoring the log export tax and now, imposing this moratorium on new concessions,” Kilyali Kalit said.

“The next step is to review existing policies and guidelines for sustainable forest management. The current policy is weak because it gives far too much emphasis to the industrial

logging sector, operated by

multinational corporations.

“The Government needs to place equal or more emphasis on ecoforestry or small-scale forestry because it is far less destructive to the environment and returns far more of the benefits to the local

community.”

Kalit said the National Constitution upholds customary tenure and access to natural resources so it was only proper that resource owners be better informed about what is happening to their forests so that they can identify and develop their resources in an ecologically sustainable and socially beneficial way.

WWF believes in empowering resource owners to achieve conservation and sustainable use of their resources. ■