By: Jolie Dietzen, Greengrants Intern
NEW IRELAND ENVIRONMENT MONITORING AND AWARENESS COMMITTEE, ORO COMMUNITY NETWORK, GAVSONKEG WOMEN’S GROUP, OGAYO INTEGRATED CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION, AND AHORA KAKANDETTA PEOPLES FOUNDATION —
Greengrants has provided a grant to each of these organizations to combat the environmental devastation caused by the expansion of palm oil plantations.
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Background: The Role of Oil Palm Plantations.
Palm oil production is an enormous global business. It is the world’s largest fruit crop and the second most-produced vegetable oil (after soybean oil), and its production has doubled in the past decade. Palm oil is widely used as a cooking oil; as an ingredient in many common supermarket products; as a component in soaps shampoo, cosmetics and detergents; and most recently, as a leading potential source of biodiesel fuel.
In Papua New Guinea, palm oil has been a widely-cultivated cash crop since the 1960’s, and it is now that country’s leading agricultural export. Indeed, PNG is the world’s seventh largest producer and the third largest exporter of palm oil, behind Malaysia and Indonesia.
This development of palm oil production has had some benefits for Papua New Guineans. In the Popondetta area, for example, palm oil has been the leading cash earner for farmers. Right now, the demand for palm oil is high in China and India, so prices are strong.
On the other hand, palm oil has a price, particularly when it is produced in a plantation system.
To begin with, the expansion of palm oil plantations has damaged or even destroyed the livelihoods of Papua New Guineans. Initially, palm oil plantations in Papua New Guinea were managed by villagers on lands which they owned without formal title. Farmers would manage small crops, and feed their product into facilities capable of refining and exporting the product. This decentralized model protected local farmers’ investments by enabling them to retain control over their own property and encouraged them to diversify their crops with other valued products including chili, soybean, and vanilla. When farmers planted a large variety of crops, villages could be largely self-sufficient because people could buy and sell excess crops in markets and roadside stands.
As larger companies have moved into the marketplace, the process has become more centralized, creating larger mono-plantations. Indigenous land claims — by some estimates as much as 95% of PNG land ownership is without benefit of a formal land title — have been swept aside as the government awards large palm oil concessions to multi-national corporations.
Greengrants advisor Damien Ase has noted: “Lands are communally owned and shared within and between clans in PNG.” Once the land is converted into cash crop plantation plots, this relationship and ‘ownership’ is permanently changed, thus undermining the communal ownership structure which has sustained PNG for over 50,000 years.”
Residents who choose to work on the oil palm plantations are poorly paid, and unregulated labor practices have led to poor housing and poor health among palm oil laborers, many of whom are children. Farmers who retain their lands can also be affected, as government financial incentives for oil palm growth has led many farmers to engage in growing oil palms and ignoring lower-demanded cash crops with higher income potential. This is risky, as the return on these farmers’ crops is heavily dependent on the world palm oil price level.
Another consequence of the growth of the oil palm plantations in Papua New Guinea is widespread deforestation. Often the plantations are planted on what had formerly been untouched rainforests, which are burned, leveled and cleared. According to a study by the Friends of the Earth, “Research has shown that when primary tropical rainforest is converted to oil palm plantations, 80-100 per cent of species of mammals, reptiles and birds are wiped out. The resulting monocultural plantation is a ‘biological desert.'” Remaining portions of the rainforest are fragmented, making them more susceptible to illegal settlements, hunting, logging, and slash-and-burn agriculture. Roadways also hinder or even halt migration patterns, further threatening some species.
Deforestation also leads to soil nutrient depletion and to sedimentation of rivers and streams, which in turn both magnifies the clean-water challenges local communities already face and harms coastal reefs and fisheries. Pollution is also a major problem, as plantations are dependent on the use of fertilizers and pesticides, the restrictions on the use of these substances are few, and there often are no buffer zones between the plantations and vulnerable coastlines and rivers. Untreated palm mill waste is often released into rivers and the soil further worsening the pollution problem.
The loss of forest lands is particularly tragic in a country like Papua New Guinea, which is renowned for having the world’s third largest rainforest and an estimated 5% of the world’s total biodiversity. Although it covers only one-tenth as much land area of Australia, PNG has as many bird and plant species as its neighbor, and has more orchid species than any other part of the world. Its extensive rainforests, mangroves and pristine coral reefs have led it to be termed “a global hotspot of biodiversityî by organizations like WWF.
The PNG Government’s Role in Developing the Palm Oil Industry
PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare has described the oil palm industry as “a silent achiever which is now the leading vibrant, dynamic industry with reputable status in the country, because of its professional managers, and board of directors, who have the vision for the nation, and to make it the biggest ever industry for the country in the 21st century.”
The government supports plantation expansion in nearly every province of PNG. In April of 2002, Livestock Minister Muki Taranupi announced plans for tax incentives on the oil palm sector designed to encourage growth and boost production. The plan also includes import duty reduction, government sanctioned tax credits to oil palm estates, and the reduction of import duties on agricultural equipment.
This development has also been encouraged by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other international finance institutions. In November 2001, the ADB approved a Technical Assistance Loan to fund an agricultural feasibility study of the “Nucleus Estate Smallholder Scheme,” a plan in which a central company and plantation contracts small farmers to supply them with oil palm fruit.
Missing from this process have been the voices and opinions of both the small landowners and the original, communal owners of the lands involved.
Greengrants Helps Small Farmers to Oppose Current Policy
Funding from Global Greengrants has helped to give a voice to small farmers and villagers whose lives are being harmed by large-scale palm oil plantation practices, and whose voices have yet to be heard by the global community.
In 2004-2006, Greengrants provided grants to several groups in Papua New Guinea that are dedicated to the plight of the local people directly affected by oil palm plantations. Those organizations are teaching communities about their legal rights to be involved in the decision-making process about where plantations will be placed and in what manner.
The success of these programs is starting to show. For example, funds received from Global Greengrants have enabled the New Ireland Environment Monitoring and Awareness Committee (NIEMAC) to increase community awareness of the negative impacts of oil palm development and unsustainable logging, and to increase communication between complementary organizations in the region. NIEMAC has in turn worked with the Gabsonkeg Women’s Group on empowerment training programs and pilot projects. NIEMAC has also held “Palm Oil Awareness Education Programs” in two villages, each of which educated about 50 participants about how to make informed decisions regarding the use of their land, forest resources, and other natural resources. NIEMAC believes that as large companies take control of the palm oil industry, indigenous peoples must diversify their crops to continue efficient subsistence agriculture.
The creation of Oro Community Environment Action Network (OCEAN) was also made possible by the funds received from Greengrants. These resources enabled OCEAN to begin promoting a community-based sustainable resource management program and mobilizing the people of Oro Province to address the logging and oil palm issues affecting them and their livelihoods. OCEAN recently submitted a public notice, which it and other community based groups published also published, that details the community’s disapproval of the government’s attempt to usurp local land for unsustainable logging practices. OCEAN also works with larger and more established NGOs in PNG such as the Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR), Partners with Melanesians (PwM), and Conservation Melanesia (CM) to achieve these ends.
The Gabsonkeg Women Group has been successful at establishing a community-driven land-use planning program that facilitates gender equality. Since logging and forestry are predominantly male activities, many of the decisions being made regarding the development of the village’s forest resources are being made by men, and incomes earned are primarily received by the male residents. In collaboration with the local Village Development Trust (VDT), the women’s group has conducted small-scale sustainable forestry courses, resource awareness workshops, and business training courses. Also offered are field training and advocacy initiatives designed to assist village communities in better managing their resources, improving their quality of life, and developing long term income sources as an alternative to unsustainable development options.
Greengrants has also provided a grant to the OGAYO Integrated Conservation and Development Association, to support environmental awareness and community enterprises that are alternatives to oil palm plantations and other large-scale development. Finally, in 2006 Greengrants assisted the Ahora Kakandetta Peoples Foundation in establishing a local resource center focusing on pollution from oil palm plantations.
The attitude of the PNG government is not going to change overnight, but these programs to educate local communities on their rights and options are already leading to demands for greater responsiveness and transparency by the PNG government, and by the multi-lateral agencies which support it. And, as experience has shown, this is a key step in ensuring that the people most affected by environmental degradation have a voice in the future of their lands, their livelihoods, and their environment.
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Greengrants Grants:
2006: $5,000 to the Ahora Kakandetta Peoples Foundation
2005: $3,500 to The Oro Community Environment Action Network
$5,000 to The Gabsonkeg Women’s Group
$3,000 to OGAYO Integrated Conservation and Development Association
2004: $3,500 to The New Ireland Environment Monitoring and Awareness Committee (NIEMAC)