by Brock McCarty, Greengrants Intern
The rain forests of Papua New Guinea (PNG) are considered to be among the world’s richest in biological diversity. An estimated 700 distinct languages are spoken by its people, and 97 percent of its land is held in customary ownership by clans or kinship groups rather than individuals – a right that is protected by the constitution. More than 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas and depends on swidden agriculture, collection of wild food from plants, and fishing and hunting to meet basic needs.
Despite community ownership, logging companies threaten the forests of PNG. Fueled by international demand for tropical hardwoods and aided by government corruption, these companies (most of them based outside PNG) have ignored forestry regulations and pursued environmentally unsound and socially destructive harvesting practices. Following a two-year independent study of the logging industry that cited “pervasive forest crime”, the Forest Act of 1991 was passed as an attempt to reform the industry. This, too, has proven to offer little protection to PNG’s forests and the people who depend on them.
The recently established Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR) has taken up the cause by working for sustainable forest management, more effective laws and enforcement, and protection of the property rights of traditional indigenous communities. CELCOR currently represents more than 300 landowners in the corridor between the provincial centers of Kiunga and Aiambak, helping them battle a destructive road-building and logging operation on their traditional lands.
The Kiunga-Aiambak Road Project is a good example of how the logging industry operates in PNG. The road was proposed as a development project linking the two towns, but from its beginnings in 1995 it has been little more than a bid to extract huge amounts of timber from isolated highlands in the center of the island. When the local contractor for the project obtained authority to log along the roadway, it subcontracted to Concord Pacific, a Malaysian company with a poor environmental record and the capacity to quickly take advantage of this backdoor opportunity to circumvent logging regulations and the rights of indigenous communities.
In 1999, PNG ceased issuing logging permits as part of a newly negotiated World Bank loan package. In response to international pressure from groups such as CELCOR, the World Bank demanded another independent review of the forestry sector before this ban could be lifted and before PNG could receive the final three payments of its loan package. In 2001, a World Bank-appointed team completed this review, siting numerous examples of continued government corruption, breaches of national policies, illegal logging and exploitation of local landowners. The team’s audit of the Kiunga-Aiambak Road project confirmed that the logging company did not represent or sufficiently consult with local communities and was, in fact, 50 percent foreign owned. It confirmed that the company was avoiding royalty payments and that landowners had been harassed and threatened by gun-wielding loggers and police. By this time, the proposed road was still 15 miles from Kiunga and was little more than a poorly maintained path through the forest.
In December 2001, CELCOR filed a claim with the World Bank Inspection Panel – an independent forum for people directly affected by bank-funded projects – on behalf of the communities along the path of the Kiunga-Aiambak Road. In this claim, CELCOR cited numerous examples of similar “development” projects that were in direct violation of the logging industry reforms tied to the World Bank’s loan package. Despite this evidence, the Bank released the second payment of the loan in July 2002. Without continued pressure from CELCOR and other international organizations, it is likely that the final payments of PNG’s loan will be released and that the communities of the Kiunga-Aiambak area will continue to suffer.
Communities in PNG benefit little, if at all, from the logging of their forests. For every $12 million of cut timber, they receive an incomplete or poorly constructed building – meant to house a school or health center – worth less than $4,500. This is poor compensation for the environmental and social costs of logging. With the clearing of large tracts of forests, the local communities that depend on these resources confront an uncertain future as clean water supplies are lost, traditional building supplies and medicines disappear, and hunting grounds vanish. Jerry Iawe, a tribal elder from Aiambak says, “Now when I see my bush I cry. We used to have sago, pigs, cassowary, big trees everywhere. We used traditional paint from the bush. Now Aiambak is very different, I cry for my village.”
In all, CELCOR has received $15,000 from Greengrants to continue the fight against illegal logging in the Kiunga-Aiambak area. With funds from its first grant, CELCOR was able to obtain legal assistance in preparing claims with the Inspection Panel. In the two grants that followed, funds were used for multiple activities: hiring a temporary staff member to coordinate advocacy campaigns with other organizations; sending a representative to meet with World Bank officials; and translating the Inspection Panel’s legal manual into local languages.
In 2003, the courts overturned the original Deed of Settlement and declared the road project to be illegal. A pending suit by the affected landowners seeks major damages from the companies for the loss of their timber and for human rights abuses by enforcement personnel hired by the company. While the battle against illegal logging in PNG is far from over, CELCOR’s ability to bring the tools of public interest law to PNG helps ensure oversight, improved transparency, and a more just system for the people and communities that have shared these forests for generations.