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Forestry & Development E-News |
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www.forestryanddevelopment.com November 2006 |
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Forestry & Development E-News is a
new electronic newsletter which reports and comments on regional and
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Australian Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and
Conservation Eric Abetz announced on 2 November
that Australia would not try to ban imports of illegally logged timber products,
stating such a ban ‘would also prevent legal timber coming into Australia',
and that 'significantly, no other country has implemented such a ban'. Greenpeace, WWF and
the Australian Conservation Foundation have lobbied As part of Greenpeace's ongoing campaign against commercial native
forestry in PNG, it claims most logging there is illegal. This has been
denied by the PNG Government and the PNG Forest Industries Association. abetz
said Greenpeace, the Australian Conservation
Foundation and the Green Party renewed their calls for bans on tropical
timber imports. The draft policy paper can be found at
http://www.daff.gov.au/corporate_docs/publications/pdf /forestry/sustainability/international/axe_on_illegal_logging_discussion_paper.pdf. The media release by Senator Abetz can be found at http://www.mffc.gov.au/releases/2006/06131A.html
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ITTO and sgs show little evidence of illegal logging in PnG Recent work by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and SGS suggests illegal logging in PNG is not a major problem.
At the South-Pacific Regional Workshop on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG), held in Port Moresby on 10 and 11 October and sponsored by ITTO and the PNG Government, ITTO analysis showed little evidence of illegal logging in PNG. A key indicator of widespread illegality is under-reporting of exports in export markets compared to reporting in import markets. ITTO found that the trade discrepancies between PNG and its main trading partners are so minor that they can be attributed to the differences in the recording methods. An example of this is the recording of Free-on-Board (FOB) value and Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) value.
SGS, one of the world’s most reputable independent monitoring agencies, monitors log exports for the PNG Government. It reported that in 12 years of monitoring, it had never encountered an incidence of log smuggling.
world bank fails to justify claims about illegal logging in png In September 2006, the World Bank published a report on illegal logging titled "Strengthening Forest Law Enforcement and Governance: Addressing a Systemic Constraint to Sustainable Development". The report claimed that 70 per cent of PNG's timber production was illegal.
This report was immediately seized upon by Greenpeace and CECLOR (the associate in PNG of international anti-forestry NGOs) to argue most logging in PNG was illegal.
No evidence for the claim was provided in the report, which the author conceded when queried. He advised that the Bank had relied on a report by a US consultancy Seneca Creek Associates (which it forgot to cite in the report), which analysed illegal logging for the US timber industry in 2004.
The Seneca Report attributes the 70 per cent claim to a general guess about the level of illegal logging in South East Asia of PNG, and admits not undertaking any empirical analysis of PNG forestry.
The PNG Minister for Forests, Patrick Pruaitch, wrote to the World Bank on 6 October asking for the report to be withdrawn and corrected. The Bank finally replied on 5 November.
It did not attempt to justify the 70 per cent claim, simply stating it accepted the work of others. Rather amazingly, it asserted that the level of unsustainability of forestry is a good measure or illegality. It then pointed to an ITTO study which reported that at least 26.8 per cent of PNG forests allocated for timber production are managed sustainably.
The weakness of the response and its lack of professionalism have infuriated officials in Port Moresby. They consider that the World Bank is continuing to be pushed by attitudes of Greenpeace and WWF on forestry, the reason the PNG Government asked the World Bank to cancel its US$40 million forest facility in PNG in 2005.
wOrLD bank forestry policy undermines growth in png-pngfia Bob Tate, Executive Officer of the PNG Forest Industries Association (PNGFIA), told the South-Pacific Regional Workshop FLEG in Port Moresby in October that World Bank policy had undermined growth in PNG.
Mr Tate said that following inquiries in the late 1980's, new laws and regulations to promote sustainable forestry had rectified the problems of PNG forestry.
Mr Tate said all members of the PNGFIA (which accounts for 85 per cent of forestry in PNG) complied with existing legislation. The industry has also set plans to improve the value of PNG’s forestry reserves by developing value-added downstream processing.
Instead of supporting these developments, Mr Tate said the World Bank had initiated another series of reviews of the industry, fostering the anti-forestry views of green NGOs. The Bank had even demanded that the PNG Government cease issuing new forestry licences until the reviews were completed.
Mr Tate said the Bank’s actions had created a hostile environment to investment in the industry
Although the PNG Government had terminated World Bank forestry programs in PNG, the Bank, according to Mr Tate, was still promoting arguments that there were major problems with forestry.
Mr Tate said the industry was investing heavily in building new downstream processing which would increase jobs and expand the economy.
Mr Tate said the industry was investing heavily in building new downstream processing which would increase jobs and expand the economy.
Full version of Mr Tate's speech can be found at http://www.fiapng.com
Deforestation fears unfounded- us study A study published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has provided an optimistic outlook on global forest levels. "Returning Forests Analyzed with the Forest Identity" provides evidence that Europe, North America and Asia are experiencing increases in forest cover.
The study also shows a positive link between economic development and forest conservation, as all countries with a per capita GDP over US$4,600 are experiencing steady or growing levels of forest cover. Full version of the study can be found at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/103/46/17574
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