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Forestry & Development E-News: December 2009 |
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Forestry & Development (F&D) is an online resource on sustainable forestry. It supports
commercial forestry as a viable source of economic growth which is compatible
with sustainability. |
Contents
Has the World Bank learned anything on forestry?
Earlier in 2009 the World Bank announced the establishment of its Forest Investment Program (FIP). Anti-Chinese sentiment still a
threat E-mails are still circulating in Papua New
Guinea that threaten the lives of Asian-owned
businesses in the country. Greenpeace's
own version of reality in Indonesia Greenpeace recently claimed victory in
Indonesia, stating that its protest actions there had resulted in one of the
country's largest pulp and paper producers being dropped by a major European
buyer. FAO: forest industries are carbon positive A new report from the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) demonstrates that the global forest
industry overall has a beneficial impact on greenhouse gas emissions. A new study published by the Australian
National University (ANU) indicates that agriculture plays a vital role in
everyday life in PNG – but its significance is not appreciated. Medal given for forest credits debunk, but scams live on Two journalists, Ilya Gridneff of AAP (Australian Associated Press) and Natasha Loder of The Economist, were recently honoured for their investigative reports into the scandal surrounding the issuing of carbon credits for forest areas in Papua New Guinea. |
Has the World Bank learned
anything on forestry?
December: Earlier in 2009 the World Bank announced the
establishment of its Forest Investment Program (FIP). Yet a close look at the
Bank's 'new' strategy on investing in forests reveals that it has learnt
little from its previous experiences in developing countries. One
of the clearest failures of the Bank took place in Papua New Guinea. In 1997,
the World Bank initiated a US$40 million loan to PNG. Its chief objective was
to improve forest management in the country. But the goals of the project
were not economic – they were environmental. Forestry & Development recently came across the Bank's cancellation
note on the project. Possibly the most
revealing information in the document is a summary of the project's social
assessment, in which it asked local communities what their development
priorities were. The top three were: establishment of roads, hospital and
medical staff, and a wholesale outlet. Other priorities included a portable
sawmill, an FM radio and a coffee mill. Forest conservation did not appear
anywhere on the list. The disconnect
between the local communities and World Bank staff was given as one the key
reasons for the project's failure. Is
the FIP following the same path? The
FIP's design
document gives very little indication that it
is interested in the development priorities of local communities. Its chief
aim is to assist developing countries prepare for the establishment of REDD (reduced
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation). It refers very
cautiously to forest products, does not mention timber or manufacturing, and
skirts around production and economic benefits. It
is loaded with safeguards for high conservation value forests – an open-ended
term developed by WWF and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for forest
certification. Under current World Bank lending criteria, virtually any
commercial activity in tropical forests that is related to wood harvesting is
prohibited. A
question for the World Bank is: has anyone actually asked PNG's local
communities if they are actually interested in conserving the forests? Or
would they actually prefer to take the monetary benefits and infrastructure
developments associated with forestry operations? It
should also be noted that the World Bank seems to be forming a negative
attitude toward the private sector throughout the process. While the FIP has
stated that it
will engage with the private sector, the documents outlining how it will do
so have not been made available through the Bank's website or through direct
requests. |
Anti-Chinese sentiment still a threat
10 December: E-mails are still circulating in Papua New Guinea that
threaten the lives of Asian-owned businesses in the
country. The e-mails, which are not unlike those that were circulating at the beginning of the year that
prompted a series of riots across PNG, call on the country's citizens to burn down Asian-owned businesses in Port
Moresby. A particular e-mail claims that the violent actions have
the support of the country's main NGOs. Earlier this year
the PNGFIA highlighted the fact that many of the
anti-forestry reports published by CELCOR and Greenpeace in PNG contained a
negative attitude towards Chinese and Malaysian-owned businesses operating in
PNG. Greenpeace was very quick to deny any racist undertakings on their part. The renewed activity from PNG's racist groups has been spurred by the recent inquiry into
the anti-Asian riots. During the inquiry, which was itself surrounded by
controversy, PNG's timber industry was accused
of drug smuggling, arms dealing and human trafficking – claims that have been
dismissed as baseless by well-documented and publicly available research. The forest industry pointed out
during the inquiry that increased foreign investment is a spur to raising
living standards and a path to creating jobs and increasing both vocational
and educational skills. Moreover, lower
levels of unemployment and higher education standards are a clear means to
reducing social tension.
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Greenpeace's own version of reality in Indonesia
1 December: Greenpeace recently claimed victory in Indonesia, stating
that its protest actions there had resulted in one of the country's largest pulp and paper producers being dropped by a major
European buyer. Yet a close look at a timeline of events shows that
Greenpeace hijacked a regular supplier change for its own purposes. UPM, a major Finnish paper producer, had been purchasing
pulp supplies from Indonesia for close to five years. Yet the recent
acquisition of a pulp plant in Uruguay meant that the company's pulp demand could be met from within the company. APRIL was informed of the new arrangement at the beginning of November following
a business decision taken by UPM in October. Despite this, 24 hours after the new supplier
arrangement was made public, Greenpeace hijacked the new arrangement, stating
that UPM had dropped the Indonesian supplier on environmental grounds –
clearly not supported by the facts on the ground. The incident harks back to events at the beginning of
the year when a group of Greenpeace campaigners stormed a boat containing
wood that it claimed was illegal and belonged to Rimbunan Hijau, when neither
was the case. Yet the truth has never stopped
Greenpeace's very effective spin machine.
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FAO:
forest industries are carbon positive
7 December: A new report from the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) demonstrates that the global forest
industry overall has a beneficial impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The draft report, 'The effects of the global
forest products industry on atmospheric greenhouse gases' was published by the FAO at the recent UNFCCC conference in
Copenhagen. The report looked closely at global emissions from the
forest products industry across the board. It found that carbon sequestration
in forest products offset 86 per cent of emissions from all timber-related
manufacturing processes, and half of all processes along the value chain,
including shipping and transport. Net emissions across the entire value chain
are around 467 million tons of CO2 annually. But when displaced emissions
are taken into account, that is avoided emissions by using timber products
instead of high emission building products such as concrete or aluminium, the
forest industry actually goes into positive territory, becoming carbon
positive by 16 million tons. The report concludes that there is potential to
increase this figure by another 130 million tons.
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PNG
dependent on agriculture
1 December: A
new study published by Australian National University (ANU)
indicates that agriculture plays a vital role in everyday life in PNG – but
its significance is not appreciated. The study, 'Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea', notes the disparity in decision-making between PNG's large rural population (81 per cent) and the urban centres,
where most policy decisions are made. According to the study, just four other nations in the
world have a higher percentage of the population living in rural areas. The
report authors also note that more than 1 million households are dependent
upon non-market subsistence agriculture. The report reaffirms two
things. First, that much of the deforestation and forest degradation taking
place in Papua New Guinea is due to subsistence agriculture. And, second,
that any attempts to implement REDD in Papua New Guinea with any degree of
success will have to take subsistence agriculture into account. This will be
much easier said than done.
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Medal given for forest credits debunk, but scams live on
December: Two journalists, Ilya Gridneff of AAP
(Australian Associated Press) and Natasha Loder of The Economist, were recently honoured
for their investigative reports into the scandal surrounding the issuing of
carbon credits for forest areas in Papua New Guinea. The pair received an award from The Prince Albert
Foundation/United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Global Prize for
coverage of Climate Change. Despite the international coverage of the incident in
high-profile publications around the globe, the carbon scam in PNG's forests appears to be going on. SBS Australia, one of the country's national broadcasters, recently ran a four-part investigative report by journalist Brian Thomson
into the ongoing sale of carbon credits to developed world buyers. By Thomson's account, the main protagonists behind the scandal are still
operating in PNG's forests. And all of this is taking place
while Kevin Conrad, PNG's climate envoy, is attempting
to find potential funders for the nation's forests
in at the UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen.
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