Forestry & Development E-News
www.forestryanddevelopment.com 18 April 2008
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	Australia and PNG sign carbon partnership 6 March 2008: Australia and Papua New Guinea have set up a new carbon partnership to reduce gas emissions from deforestation. Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, and his PNG counterpart, Sir Michael Somare, have signed off on the partnership at a meeting in Port Moresby on 6 March. Details are to be developed. The Howard Government will continue with the strategy of the Howard Government to promote forestry initiatives as part of efforts to combat climate change. Joint Australia/Indonesia/PNG carbon trading markets proposed The idea of bilateral agreements between Australia and Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to create a common market to trade carbon was floated in a report from the “Garnaut Review” which was released in March. This review is assessing what targets Australia should set to reduce emissions over time. It argued a regional carbon market could generate income for rural communities in these countries. They could sell permits generated by ceasing or reversing deforestation to carbon emitters in Australia. The idea is complex and probably impractical. It is also flawed because it rests on the fallacy consistently advanced by anti-forestry Green groups: the commercial forestry sector is the leading cause of deforestation in developing countries. It is a basic fact that most forest is cleared in developing countries to release land for other productive purposes, such as agriculture. Garnaut is advancing, unwittingly or not, the Green agenda to use this device to constrain commercial forestry, an important contributor to economic development in Indonesia and PNG. The Garnaut report should have a development focus, not a Green focus. The most greenhouse-friendly approach to forestry is to promote expansion of renewable forestry. This will increase carbon sinks in developing countries and make strong, positive contributions to global efforts to reduce emissions. This is recognized in the “Bali Mandate” which is the framework within which negotiations in the United Nations are working to create a new global strategy on climate change. .
	In Other News PNG INDUSTRY TO INVEST IN SILVICULTURE 17 March 2008: Rimbunan Hijau, the largest forestry company in PNG has announced that it will make further substantial investments in silviculture and reforestation in Papua New Guinea, in line with the Australia-PNG Forest Carbon Partnership Agreement. The company commenced its silvicultural investments in 2006, when it identified plantation sites and species across the country. The company has also states that the activities will incorporate large-scale community participation in the investments. The company has also stated that its activities will go well beyond paying the current reforestation levy imposed by the PNG Government. LAO FORESTRY UNDER THE GREEN SPOTLIGHT 4 March 2008: A report released by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has released a paper that criticizes the impacts of Laos’ forest industry. The report, “Environmental Impacts of Trade Liberalization in the Wood and Wood Products Sector of the Lao PDR” largely ignores the positive impact of the forest products sector, which now makes up almost 25 per cent of all exports from the country. Green NGOs have consistently overstated the impact of commercial forestry in Laos. The country has large forest reserves. There is deforestation, but the primary cause is slash and burn agriculture practices by Lao people living on mountain lowlands. CLINTON INITIATIVE TEAMS WITH AUSTRALIA TO MONITOR CARBON STOCKS 18 February 2008: The Clinton Climate Initiative has chosen Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) to monitor greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing nations. The NCAS, developed by Australia’s government-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), uses remote sensing, satellite images, greenhouse-gas accounting methods and modelling of environmental changes to monitor and account for emissions from land-based sectors. It is intended to assist developing countries participate in climate change mitigation by developing a monitoring system which recognises sustainable forest management and reforestation within global carbon markets. The joint project between the Clinton Climate Institute and the Australian government will make the technology freely available. Many forest scientists consider that the remote sensing method does not tell enough about the capacity of forests to absorb and emit carbon. This method needs to be joined to detailed work on how various varieties of tree and forest biodiversities absorb and emit carbon. This what the Clinton Initiative funding should focus on. NEW TRADE BANS PROPOSED ON ILLEGAL TIMBER 4 February 2008: The campaign to use trade bans to control illegal logging widens. British MP Barry Gardiner, Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Special Envoy on Forests, has stated that he plans to introduce legislation to subject importers and traders of illegally sourced timber products to criminal prosecution. Gardiner credits Greenpeace with exposing continued imports of illegal timber into the UK – despite the deception and patently political character of Greenpeace’s campaign. Greenpeace sponsored a highly-public campaign to ban timber imports into the UK from PNG, claiming most forestry in PNG is illegal. It is not. The value of PNG timber exports to the UK is also paltry, further underlining the political nature of the Greenpeace campaign. Gardiner’s announcement seems to be part of a global campaign. The US Senate’s recent approved amendments to the Lacey Act, extending penalties for importing illegally obtained wildlife to illegal timber imports. Legislation to ban illegal timber imports is foreshadowed in the European Parliament.
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