SPECIAL REPORT: By Wendy Bacon

Back in Feburary this year, campaigners celebrated as the then shadow Environmental Minister Penny Sharpe announced Labor’s support for a Great Koala National Park (GKNP), stretching along the Mid-North coast from Kempsey to Coffs Harbour.

The purpose of the park, which was first proposed more than a decade ago, is to protect critical habit for the koala and other threatened species.

Koala numbers in NSW plummeted by more than half between 2000 and 2020 due to logging, land clearing, drought and devastating bushfires. A NSW Parliamentary Inquiry in 2020 heard scientific evidence that koalas could be extinct by 2050 unless there are dramatic changes.

NSW is the only mainland state not to have a plan to stop logging of native forests, essential koala habitats.

Hopes raised by Labor’s narrow election win in March this year were quickly dashed. Hope has now turned to anger with 200 people marching in protest in the mid-north NSW city of Coffs Harbour earlier this month and nation-wide rallies.

In Sydney, hundreds marched through the streets of Marrickville to a protest outside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electoral office.

NSW Forestry Corporation steps up logging
When she received a petition calling for a moratorium on logging within the GKNP in June, Minister for Environment Penny Sharpe reiterated her commitment to the Park but confirmed that logging would not stop.

Instead the government-owned, NSW Forestry Corporation (NSWFC) has stepped up its logging inside the proposed GKNP, including in areas containing long-lasting koala hubs, carting off huge tree trunks and leaving devastated land in its wake. These operations are losing millions each year.

The campaign consists of a network of local community groups, such as the Friends of Orara East Forest, some of which conduct weekly vigils; the Belligen Activist Network and the Knitting Nannas, as well as larger environmental groups such as the National Parks Association.

It is supported by the NSW Greens, Animal Justice and some Independent MPs including MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich. Further north, the North East Forest Alliance has taken legal action to stop the NSWFC logging 77 percent of the Braemar forest, part of the proposed Sandy Creek National Park where koalas survive despite long standing koala communities being reduced by 70 percent in the 2019/2020 bush fires.

On June 28, a broad-based group of MPs and NGOS advocating for the park held a press conference calling on politicians across all parties to support a moratorium on the ongoing destruction of the GKNP and immediately start to work on transition plans for timber workers and development of the Park, including with local First Nations people.

But Minister Sharpe reiterated her intention to allow logging to continue.

A few days later, logging began in the Orara East and Boambee Forests, both of which are inside the Great Koala National Park. Vigils and petitions were clearly not working.

Civil disobedience begins
On July 7, three HSC students on school holidays locked on to heavy machinery and a full barrel of cement in Orara East Forest. At the same time in Boambee Forest, two Knitting Nannas locked onto heavy machinery. Another protester occupied a tree. In all, logging was delayed by 10 hours.

Seventeen-year-old Mason said: “I’m here on behalf of myself and my 14-year-old brother. The rate at which our government is auctioning off natural forests is frightening, and I feel powerless to do anything about it.

“We’ve tried protesting, and we can’t vote, which is why we feel driven to take this action against these machines ripping our trees down. The government can stop this and we just need them to take notice.”

The three students were arrested but released from custody with cautions and no charges laid.

On the same day, two Knitting Nannas Christine Degan and Susan Doyle were arrested in the Boambee State Park. Both are veterans of vigils and protests aimed at stopping logging and for action on climate change.

In desperation, they took a further step. They slept overnight in a home near the perimeter of the State Park.

Before day break, Degan and Doyle and supporters walked up a steep hill, using torches to find their way through the bush to the logging camp. There they were met by an angry security guard who burst into an aggressive tirade, accusing them of being terrorists.

While two supporters calmed him down, the two women were locked onto equipment. There they sat in two small beach chairs in drizzling rain and cold for eight hours until the NSW police arrived and arrested them.

The two friends were released on condition that they did not contact each other, except through a lawyer, or go near any forests were logging was underway.

Earlier this month, they were each fined a total of $500 for entering and refusing to leave a forest.

Battle moves to Newry Forest
A vigil camp is now in its third week in the Upper reaches of the Kalang River where other sites have recently been made “active” for logging.

Nearer the coast, the the battle front has moved to the Newry Forest near Belligen. For nine months in 2021, the community had joined the local Gumbaynggir elders in a blockade that successfully delay logging operations.

Although Newry is  a core part of the GKNP, the NSWFC approved 2500 hectares of the forest for logging in May this year. In July, the listing went from “approved” to “active,” leading the Bellingen action group to organise a workshop to upgrade their direct action tactics.

On July 31, local Gumbaynggirr Elders, Traditional Custodians and supporters established a peaceful protest camp on sacred land within the forest. They were met with armed police and steel gates preventing the public from entering the forest.

A Gumbarnggirr spokesperson told the National Indigenous Times that the NSW Forestry Corporation (NSWFC) was endangering koala and possum gliders that are their totem animals.

“The values of Newry to the Gumbaynggirr people are precious, priceless and absolutely irreplaceable. …There is a desperate need for these appalling industrial logging operations to be stopped or we simply won’t have koalas left and priceless and irreplaceable Gumbaynggirr values and cultural heritage will be destroyed.”

Gumbaynggirr elder arrested after locking on
On the second day of logging, two younger protesters locked onto machinery. On the third day, Wilkarr Kurikuta, a Ngemba, Wangan and Jangalingou man, locked-on to a harvester.

“I’m here for my old people and my sister, a proud Gumbaynggirr woman, to exercise my sovereign right to protect country,” he said.

He told the NSW government that it should expect resistance until an end is put to the destruction of his people’s land and waters. He was violently removed, charged and held overnight in a cell.

The next day, two more young people locked onto industrial logging machinery in Newry Forest, again halting logging. They were arrested, charged and released. Logging had so far been disrupted on six days.

On August 2, Greens MP Sue Higginson moved a motion in the NSW Legislative Council to confirm the NSW government’s intention to protect critical koala habitat, noting that the Newry State Forest was “identified for protection in 2017 as having three koala hubs” and that a three-day survey had found five threatened plant species, evidence of koalas and high quality habitat for threatened koalas, the Glossy Black Cockatoo and Greater Glider.

She described the “industrial scale logging operation” as happening under “martial law”.

“The community on the front line are not doing this because it is fun or because they want to, or because they dislike forestry workers or police,” she told Parliament.

“They are doing it as an act of hope in the democratic process in which they believe — the genuine hope that they will be seen and heard and that their actions will lead to political outcomes that protect this forest, which the government has promised to protect but is currently destroying.”

Labor opposed the motion with the Minister for the Environment Sharpe moving amendments which removed any reference to the factual core of the motion described above. Her amendments were passed with Liberal National Party support.

A reduced anodyne motion recording commitment to protect the koala was then passed.

In her response Penny Sharpe referred to “internal work” being done to proceed with the Park. She said she was working closely with the Minister for Forestry Tara Moriarty.

This will further concern forest campaigners because in Moriarty’s speech in support of Sharpe’s amendments, she supported the current logging operations as being done in line with sustainable ecologically sound forest management, with the NSW Environmental Protection Authority ensuring compliance with all policies.

This is the very issue that is being contested by the movement to save the forests. It suggests that Moriarty may not accept the findings of a recent NSW Auditor-General’s report which found that both the NSW Forest Corporation and the NSW Environmental Protection Authority were insufficiently resourced, trained and empowered to enforce compliance and that NSWFC’s voluntary efforts did not extend to satisfactorily ensuring contractors do not breach regulations and policies.

This issue is already before the courts. The North Eastern Alliance, which has previously taken successful court actions during the 34 year period it has been campaigning to protect forests, is arguing that the NSW Land and Environment Court should set aside approvals to log sections of the Braemar and Myrtle Forests further north at the Sandy Creek State Park which is also a proposed national park in the Richmond Valley.

The NSWFC has agreed to halt logging in these forests which are home to koalas and more than 23 threatened species, until the case is decided. The Alliance will be represented by the Environmental Defenders’ Office.

Alliance President Dailan Pugh, who has 44 years experience in protecting forests, said that “Myrtle and Braemar State forests are both identified as Nationally Important Koala Areas that were badly burnt in the 2019/20 wildfires, killing many of their resident koalas.

“Despite this, recent surveys have proved that most patches of preferred koala feed trees are still being utilised by Koalas. Logging of more than 75% of the larger feed trees … that koalas need to rebuild their numbers will be devastating for populations already severely impacted by the fires.”

The Environmental Defenders’ Office is arguing that the logging operations are unlawful for several reasons: because the operations are not ecologically sustainable, because Forestry Corp failed to consider whether they would be ecologically sustainable, and because the proposed use of “voluntary conditions” is in breach of the logging rules.

NEFA is asking the court to declare the logging approvals invalid and to restrain NSWFC from conducting the operations.

Pugh said: “We have been asking the NSW Government for independent pre-logging surveys on State forests to identify and protect core Koala habitat and climate change refugia, and protection of Preferred Koala Feed Trees (select species >30 cm diameter) in linking habitat. Our requests are falling on deaf ears, we hope this will make them listen.”

While Labor politicians insist that the logging is consistent with protecting biodiversity, the situation looks different to campaigners on the ground. Degan describes seeing crushed casuarinas which provide habitat for the Glossy Black Cockatoo when she visited the Newry Forest for the first time in four weeks.

“It’s just a vast area with trash that’s a metre deep, that no footed animal can get across. I couldn’t get across and I’d break an ankle or shoulder falling over. There’s no way that animals on foot could traverse that debris that’s left behind. It may be regrowth native forest but after 50 years it provides substantial decent habitat.”

Down in Hobart, another forest activist Collette Hamson is spending three months in prison because she broke conditions of a suspended sentence. Before she went to prison she said:

“The reason I commit these offences [is] because I am terrified of the worsening climate crisis. I am not a menace to society, yet here I am facing a jail term . . . I am not giving a finger to the entire judicial system, I am standing up for the forests, for takayna, a safer planet and if that makes me a dangerous criminal then I think we are going to need bigger prisons.”

Labor plans lengthy consultation
While the Minister for Environment Penny Sharpe may be able to remove any mention of protests in a parliamentary motion, it is another thing to deal with the wave of civil disobedience that is likely to continue until native forest logging is halted. Sharpe says that A$80 million has been set aside for GKNP and planning is underway.

City Hub asked the Department of Environment to confirm that no consultation was yet underway and on what date one consultation would begin.

A National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesperson replied, stating that development of the park “will be informed by expert scientific advice, an independent economic assessment of impacts on jobs and the local community, and an inclusive consultation process with stakeholdes . . .

“Consultation with stakeholders will occur in the future, with specific timings still to be determined.”

This lengthy process could take most of NSW Labor’s term in government ending in 2027. Unless logging is halted while planning occurs, the proposed National Park along with threatened species it is supposed to protect could be decimated before it arrives.

Wendy Bacon was previously professor of journalism at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and supported the Greens in this year’s NSW election. This article was first published by CityHub on August 15 and is republished with permission.  Wendy Bacon’s investigative journalism blog.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea yesterday intialled a defence cooperation agreement with the United States amid day-long protests against the signing by university students and opposition MPs.

The agreement was signed by PNG Defence Minister Win Daki and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

A statement by the US State Department said the signing, when it comes into force, “will serve as a foundational framework upon which our two countries can enhance security cooperation and further strengthen our bilateral relationship, improve the capacity of the PNG Defence Force and increase stability and security in the region”.

The US will publish the contents of the document when it enters into force as provided by US law, the statement declared.

Protests and demonstrations were held at four universities — the University of Papua New Guinea, University of Technology in Lae, Divine Word University in Madang and at the University of Goroka.

The UPNG protests spilled out on the streets last night stopping traffic.

Opposition Leader Joseph Lelang cautioned the government not to “sacrifice Papua New Guinea’s sovereignty” in the haste to sign international agreements with other nations, whatever the motivation.

In ‘crosshairs of China’
Former prime minister Peter O’Neill said the government was putting the country squarely in the “crosshairs of China and the United States” in their struggle for geopolitical supremacy in the region.

The US government will work with Congress to provide more than US$45 million (about K159 million, or NZ$72 million) in new programming as PNG and the US enter a new era as “partners for peace and prosperity in the region”.

The US will provide an additional US$10 million (about K35.3 million) to implement the strategy to “prevent conflict and promote stability” in PNG, bringing total planned funding to US$30 million (about K106 million) over three years.

Blinken and PNG Prime Minister Marape also signed a comprehensive bilateral agreement to counter illicit transnational maritime activity through joint at-sea operations, the US statement revealed.

“This agreement will enable the US Coast Guard’s ship-rider programme to partner with and enhance PNG’s maritime governance capacity.

Marape said before the signing that the agreement would not encroach on the country’s sovereignty.

“The US and PNG have a long history, with shared experiences and this will be a continuation of that same path.

Generic SOFA in 1989
“PNG signed a generic SOFA [status of forces] agreement with other countries in 1989 and today with the signing of the defence cooperation and the maritime cooperation (ship-rider agreement) it will only elevate the SOFA.

“And this cooperation will help build the country’s defence capacity and capabilities and also address issues such as illegal fishing, logging and drug smuggling in PNG waters.”

Blinken said the agreement would help PNG mitigate the effects of climate change, tackle transnational crime and improve public health.

“We are proud to partner with PNG, driving economic opportunities and are committed to all aspects of the defence and maritime cooperation,” he said.

Republished with permission.

Story: US and PNG strike new defence pact https://t.co/dfGDTCd52j

— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) May 22, 2023

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Solomon Islands’ environmental authorities have highlighted the need to protect the forests from logging following a recent report on new distributional sightings of the blue-faced parrotfinch, or Erythrura trichroa.

The bird revealed its existence on Malaita and Makira islands and the report, published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology on 4 August 2020, was based on fieldwork done between 2015 and 2018 by a team from the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico in the United States.

The report expands the known distribution of the species beyond Kolombangara and Guadalcanal, two of the Solomon Islands where it had previously been recorded, and signals the need to protect the country’s rainforests from the threats of commercial logging.

Jenna McCullough, one of the scientists involved in the study, said she hoped this information could contribute to an increased understanding of the evolutionary history and diversity of avian life on the Solomon Island archipelago.

Lead author Lucas DeCicco said he hoped the report would provide information that local communities could use to bolster efforts to conserve land for future generations.

“Many areas of the Solomon Islands are under threat from mining and forestry development, including areas on Malaita and Makira where we found blue-faced parrotfinches,” said DeCicco from the University of Kansas.

However, logging operations has been allowed by the very landowners who had allowed the scientists to study the bird on their land in Malaita Province.

When people do not see a large enough payout from conservation, they are willing to switch to something that is more economically lucrative, hence the support for mining, researchers say.

“Now they have switched to logging,” noted one of the report’s local co-authors, Dr Edgar Pollard.

There is currently a logging operation in Hahorarumu Uru conservation area on Malaita where the parrotfinch was sighted and studied in 2015 that puts its population at risk.

Providing validation
Dr Pollard said such scientific research verified and supported the need to protect these areas by showing there were still new species and important findings to be discovered.

It is very difficult to secure support for conservation work if there is no scientific evidence of the existence of biodiversity or different species, he said.

“So, we encourage our young people to engage in scientific studies, and a strength of this particular study was the collaboration of local and international scientists, which I believe is critical,” Dr Pollard added.

“Hopefully in the future we will be able to see more local scientists leading such studies.”

Dr Pollard founded the Mai-Maasina Green Belt (MMGB), which is focused on establishing the necessary infrastructure and supporting research and training activities to encourage rural communities to adopt a green approach to development.

“I want to also note that though these findings may be new to the world of science, they are not new to the local peoples that have stewardship over these species,” he said.

The vital role of birds
Birds are important for the environment as they are the key dispersers of seeds and pollinators for plants.

“Therefore, in a country with high deforestation we must look after our birds who play an important role in helping our forests recover,” said Dr Pollard.

Josef Hurutarau, deputy director of conservation at the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM), said the report provided useful information given the need to understand the conservation status of the Solomon Islands’ flora and fauna.

“In conservation programs at the national level, it is our aim to know exactly the distribution and population of species, especially those that are endemic, threatened and near extinction in the Solomon Islands,” Hurutarau said.

Given limited resources and capacity within the government, Hurutarau said the ministry was working to improve its database of such endemic birds and set baselines to help direct its efforts and priorities.

In the case of Malaita and Makira, the MECDM now considers them among the country’s key biodiversity areas (KBAs), and Hurutarau said the ministry wanted to ensure effective conservation programmes were initiated.

The MECDM is also anticipating donor funding will become available to put toward a project for targeted areas, such as terrestrial-integrated forests, to be declared under the Protected Areas Act 2010.

“This would really help maintain key habitats and forest areas for these species and protect them from threats from logging and subsistence farming,” said Hurutarau.

“We will continue to encourage the efforts of researchers who can contribute to understanding our flora and fauna,” he added.

A need for new research
The first resident commissioner of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, C.M. Woodford, first found and collected the blue-faced parrotfinch on Guadalcanal Island in 1887. Then, in 1969, the species was found on other islands within the geographic Solomon Islands – first on Bougainville in 1969 and then on Kolombangara in 1974.

Despite this rich history of exploration focused on the archipelago’s birds, the authors of the recent report said knowledge of the avifauna native to the Solomon Islands was poor.

The scientists engaged in the study were from the University of Kansas, the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, and the University of New Mexico. They partnered with Ecological Solutions Solomon Islands and local guides from Na’ara village on Makira and Waisisi on Malaita.

Biological surveys were conducted on Malaita in 2015 and Makira in 2018.

McCullough said the results of the study suggest there are limited genetic differences between the different parrotfinch populations across the Solomon Islands.

“Other studies have shown that there is genetic differentiation across island populations in many bird species, so this is notable for the lack of genetic differences.”

Much of the research McCullough’s larger lab group has been doing is to compare patterns of genetic similarity or differences of island birds across the Solomon Islands and greater Melanesia.

DeCicco said the report also presents the first information regarding the molecular relationships among the Solomon Island population of this species.

“Our discovery of two new populations of Blue-faced Parrotfinches highlights the need for continued biodiversity work in the region for both conservation and research,” DeCicco noted.

Priestley Habru is a Solomon Islands environmental journalist and contributor to Earth Journalism Network. This article is republished under a Creative Commons licence.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Gulf Province is only six hours away from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s capital city, and is one of the most least developed provinces in the country.

Its main town, Kerema, is in a sad state. The market has closed, forcing locals to sell their fresh fish and garden food in an open sports field. The BSP Bank closed after a robbery, forcing locals to withdraw cash from Chinese shops in town.

I haven’t been to the hospital or the police station yet, but the town is littered with outsiders who have come to town to buy betelnut.

I think its time the town authority sat down and really looked into mapping out the town area and rehabilitating existing infrastructures. There must be laws also governing the influx of betelnut buyers to protect the locals’ interest.

The provincial government should also help find and establish markets for fish with buyers outside of the province, because Gulf definitely has a lot to offer in the fisheries sector. A market for cocoa should also be set up.

Despite having various projects like logging in the province for years, Gulf has little to show in terms of development.

People still walk for kilometres out in the villages to access basic services. There is no sea ambulance, many times pregnant mothers give birth at home – some die, and for them it is an everyday experiance.

No local jail
In terms of law and order, Gulf, despite been a province of its own, doesn’t have a jail. Detainees and remands are transported back to Port Moresby’s Bomana Jail. An expensive exercise.

People take advantage of this, knowing that only the serious cases will be prosecuted.

There are a lot of educated Gulf men and women in the country, yet, we are tolerant. We see, we complain but we do nothing.

Most choose to turn a blind eye to the state of their province and live in luxury in Port Moresby.

I say this, with a lot of shame, because I am honest enough to admit that I have never been home, never written about my province, and today I have come.

And I want to write.

It’s time to tell Gulf stories.

Rebecca Kuku is from Uaripi Village in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf Province. She is an occasional contributor to Asia Pacific Report, a content contributor to The Guardian (Australia) and to the PNG Post-Courier. This article was first published on Scott Waide’s My Land, My Country blog and is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Oro Governor Gary Juffa has welcomed a joint investigations team, led by Papua New Guinea’s Office of Immigrations and Citizenship Authority, to the province, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

The team, comprising police national fraud and anti-corruption directorate and Immigration officers, would visit several logging sites in the province to carry out spot checks to see if compliance measures are being met by logging operators.

These checks may include asset registration, visa compliance and logging permits and other compliance measures.

Juffa met with the officers on arrival in Popondetta on Tuesday.

He welcomed team leader John Bria and assured him of the support of the provincial government in the course of their investigations.

Juffa assured the Minister for Immigrations and Citizenship Authority, Wesley Nukundj, that the Oro government was ready to support the investigation and any related efforts in the province.

“Border security and border management efforts are not only restricted to the international borders, as immigrations and other relevant national government agencies have enforcement responsibilities throughout the country,” Juffa said.

Such investigations ‘essential’
“Such investigations are essential as government laws and policies must be enforced and those affected must be compliant with our immigration and border security laws.”

Juffa, who fought against illegal logging activities in his province, said he was relieved that a team has finally arrived.

“The management and administration of border security and border administration laws and protocols at the designated international entry and exit points are fundamental, however it is important that border security laws are enforced throughout the country to ensure that all foreigners are compliant with our border security and immigrations laws,” he said.

“Those found to be abusing our laws must be dealt with accordingly so effective enforcement becomes a deterrent to would-be abusers of our immigration laws and protocols.

“It is important during the global covid-19 crisis, that we, as a nation, must ensure that foreigners in the country have legitimate documents that confirm and authenticates their residency and business status in the country, and conducting lawful business in the country.

“While we welcome genuine business, and business people to contribute to the development of our country, all foreigners remain our guests, and as such must conform to our laws, and respect our constitutional laws and our people.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

COMMENTARY: By Tarcisius Kabutaulaka

Since the late 1980s, the logging industry has dominated the Solomon Islands economy.

For nearly three decades, it has accounted for about 50 percent of the country’s foreign exchange revenue. In 2018, round logs account for 70 percent of Solomon Islands total exports.

Eighty percent of that is exported to China.

READ MORE: Logging ravaging the Solomon Islands’ forests

In terms of log production by province in 2018, Western Province accounted for the largest share (32 percent), followed by Isabel Province (17 percent), Choiseul (16 percent), Guadalcanal (11 percent), Makira (9 percent), Malaita (6 percent), RenBell (4 percent) and Temotu (4 percent).

Billions of dollars worth of logs have been harvested and exported from Solomon Islands.

However, we have not seen positive impacts on the livelihoods of our people and the economy of our country. In fact, the positive impacts have been negligible, and in many cases the industry has had adverse social, political and economic impacts on our societies and nation.

Undisputed owners
Why is it that indigenous Solomon Islanders are not benefiting as they should from a resource in which they are the undisputed owners?

Perhaps there are many reasons for this. But one structural issue is the formula used to distribute revenues from logging: 60 percent to logging companies, 25 percent to the state and 15 percent to landowners.

So when landowners fight among themselves over logging revenues, they are effectively fighting over only 15 percent of the value of their forestry resource.

Small share
In many cases, the share paid to landowners is much smaller because logging companies deduct the expenses incurred during the timber rights hearing process.

Also, the 15 percent is shared between the licensee/middleman and the rest of the landowning groups. If there are disputes and lawyers are involved, then that is another layer of expenses that landowners carry.

Consequently, based on this state-imposed formula, resource owners are robbed right from the beginning.

Dr Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka is an associate professor and director of the University of Hawai‘i’s Center for Pacific Islands Studies. He is a political economist who has written extensively on development and governance issues in the Pacific Islands, with a focus on Solomon Islands. This brief comment was originally on his Facebook page and is republished by the Pacific Media Centre with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Scott Waide in Lae

A group of customary landowners in Papua New Guinea has regained access to their land following a significant legal victory against supporters of a Malaysian logging company.

Seven people from Pomio in East New Britain have been barred from entering their land for the past six years after a restraining order was issued against them in 2012.

The landowners include Paul Pavol Palusualrea and Nobert Pames who have been vocal against “land grabbing” and widespread deforestation in the remote district.

The National Court in Kokopo set aside the restraining orders after finding that there was a lack of evidence.

The landowners were represented by lawyers from the Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR).

“We are happy to have won the case for our clients who are from the forested
communities of West Pomio, whose resources have been exploited through SABL. They are now able to move freely on the land that is rightly theirs and continue the SABL campaigns of ridding the logging giants,” said lawyer Everlyn Wohuinangu.

Oil palm plantations
The Pomio District is the site of a controversial Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) where large tracts of rainforest have been logged and replaced by oil palm plantations.

-Partners-

The dispute over the logging and land grabbing triggered the six-year legal battle between the landowners and local companies sponsored by the Malaysian logging company.

The court victory is also important for customary landowners in other parts of the country who are battling multi-national loggers.

“The restraining orders were nothing more than intimidation of local people,” said CELCOR director Peter Bosip.

“It stopped them from accessing land to grow food and to hunt.

“There has also been instances of police intimidation and intimidation by other parties.

“Other landowners should see this and stand firm in pursuing recognition of their rights. This was, simply, a suppression of their constitutional rights.”

Scott Waide is deputy editor of EMTV News based in Lae, Papua New Guinea. This article was first published on his blog My Land, My Country and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Scott Waide in Port Moresby

Over the course of the past month, Oro Governor Gary Juffa has been at the forefront of a crackdown on illegal loggers in Collingwood Bay of Oro Province.

The operation has gathered a lot of public support from people who have been subjected to various injustices, including company workers and landowners.

Up to 16 foreign workers have been arrested. Police have also impounded machines and other equipment.

READ MORE: Governor Gary Juffa speaks out against ‘criminal logging cartels’

“They were in fact quite relieved that we got to them,” Juffa said. “Apparently, they had not been paid.”

According to the Oro Governor, the Forest Minister cancelled permits to the operation.

-Partners-

However, the operation is still continuing with logs being shipped out of the province.

Theft of resources’
Juffa has also hit out at the PNG Forest Authority for its complacency:

“Our investigations reveal that PNGFA is negligent in its efforts and has been facilitating the theft of our forest resources for decades.

“It is complicit in the transnational crimes being committed and those who process the paperwork are in fact accomplices.

“PNGFA is, in fact, failing miserably, in its mandate and is in fact assisting transnational criminal cartels steal our forest resources. What is the point of an organisation we pay for with our taxes to serve transnational criminal cartels and sell us out?”

Collingwood Bay was one of the first areas marked as a Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL). Landowners protested and took the matter to court and won.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

OPINION: By Gary Juffa

In the ongoing saga of stopping illegal logging in Papua New Guinea’s Oro province, our facts reveal that the PNG Forest Authority is failing our people.

A network exists whereby a few corrupt public servants in both Oro and the PNG Forest Authority have helped facilitate fraud and theft of resources worth millions. This network exists in every province where there is illegal logging occurring.

In Oro we have identified those involved and they shall be dealt with.

Meanwhile, our investigations reveal that PNGFA is negligent in its efforts and has been facilitating the theft of our forest resources for decades, it is complicit in the transnational crimes being committed and those who process the paperwork are in fact accomplices.

Despite all the government rhetoric about stopping illegal logging such as the SABLs and being concerned about the environment, the truth is, that this government entity, designed and created for the purpose of protecting PNG interests – PNG resources –  is in fact failing miserably in its mandate and is assisting transnational criminal cartels steal our forest reources.

What is the point of an organisation we pay for with our taxes to serve transnational criminal cartels and sell us out?

-Partners-

Pretext and fraud
Every month, shipments worth millions leave our shores – forest resources obtained under pretext and fraud, leaving behind destroyed landscapes, polluted waterways, and miserable landowners who have either been fooled or contemptuously mistreated and intimidated by corrupt elements of the public service and police.

But we can stop it.

Yes, you and I.

If we know about it and do nothing, we too are complicit.

I am doing something about it. I need you to stand with me and demand that the PNGFA and its Chairman, David Dotaon,a and its minister, Douglas Tomuriesa, and its entire department act to stop these crimes against Papua New Guinea and our people and protect our forest resources.

How?

Immediately review all licences granted to logging and you will find:

• They are illegally granted via fraudulent processes and corrupt public servants;
• The so-called landowner companies don’t represent our landowners at all;
• All machinery is unregistered – it can all be impounded;
• All foreign workers are without permits – they can be immediately detained until deported with the cost being met by the company, and their companies fined and banned from doing business in Papua New Guinea ever again;
• Significant environmental damage to waterways and reefs and logging on gradients that are in contravention of the permit restrictions. Your sister agency, the conservation Environment Protection Authority, will at this stage be brought in to inspect the results, and fine and ban the company from any future agriculture or forest development projects.
• That tax evasion and transfer pricing mechanisms have allowed the company to evade paying for decades. At this stage, the IRC and Customs can be brought into carrying out these audits and raise assessments and commence recovery and prosecution action. They can use the double tax treaties to recoup any taxes due.
• Significant evidence of corruption involving many public servants and landowners. They can be referred to the police fraud squad for arrests and prosecution.
• Much of our resources have been stolen and, as this is a crime, the principals of these companies can be charged and prosecuted when you lay the complaint. You can also seize properties as proceeds of crime.

Engage army and police
You can engage the army and the police to shut down all such operations and seize and auction all machinery.

If they sue us, so what? They are running illegal operations of a transnational criminal nature and they will lose in court.

Finally, some of the proceeds can be used to compensate genuine landowners.

And if you can’t do this, ask me. I will do it. For free.

Just give me the resources and let me select a team of great, patriotic policemen, soldiers; Labour, Migration, IRC and Customs officers, state lawyers – and watch.

The mandate of this forests department besides protecting Papua New Guinea interests at all times is to develop clever innovative strategies to use our forest resources in a sustainable manner.

There are options whereby the vast forest resources that provide us such a rich life do not need to be destroyed. We don’t need to destroy our forests so that we can progress.

Illegal logging in Oro province … “We don’t need to destroy our forests so that we can progress.” Image: Gary Juffa/FB

Sustainable alternatives
At a time when the world is facing a global warming disaster, we can do our bit by preserving our forests and finding alternative means of income using forest products in a sustainable manner.

Yet after 40 years, we have silently and meekly allowed pirates to raid our shores and accept a few measly kina in compensation.

For each shipment worth about K6 million (K2.6 million), we accept less then K100,000 (NZ$43,000). Where is the common sense in this? For each forest cut down, thousands of species of flora and fauna are devastated and some may never recover.

We are destroying our natural home so we can live in an unnatural home … in pursuit of money and material goods so we can be “happy” because someone who we thought was more educated and civilised told us so.

But we will never be happy in this endless pursuit of the unnatural, living in an unnatural world where unnatural leaders make unnatural decisions that cause us more misery – naturally. We are only chasing illusions of happiness.

Certainly if we continue to allow this, if we are thinking, intelligent patriots, as we so often like to tell one another, then we are truly failing ourselves, our nation and our future.

It can be done  – it just needs all of us to rise up and do it together.

Gary Juffa is an Opposition MP in the Papua New Guinean National Parliament and Governor of Oro (Northern) Province. This commentary was first published on his Facebook page.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Rapacious logging cartels feature in PNG’s Northern Province Governor Gary Juffa’s speech. Video: Café Pacific

By David Robie at Te Papa

Northern Province Governor Gary Juffa made a blistering attack on politicians who are “selling out” Papua New Guinea to foreign cartels with an open door policy over extraction industries, but offered some good news too.

Speaking at the Second Pacific Ocean Climate Conference at Te Papa Museum in Wellington this week, he cited the 3600 sq km Managalas Conservation Area collaborative project between the Rainforest Foundation Norway (RNF) and local landowners as an encouraging pointer to the future.

It has taken more than three decades for the area to be declared at Itokama village last November 29 by Juffa and the Environment and Climate Minister John Pandari.

The conservation region, known as the Managalas Plateau, in Juffa’s home province is the largest to be declared in the country and has expansive tracts of primary rainforest.

The conservation area will protect the plateau from large-scale encroachment from the logging, oil palm and mining cartels while protecting the sustainable and traditional forest lifestyles of the 21,000 local people, said Juffa.

However, as one of just five opposition MPs in PNG’s 111-seat National Parliament, Juffa was highly critical at the conference about the current political system and rampant corruption in the country.

He said most Papua New Guinean politicians, once they were elected to Parliament, no longer represented the interests of the people who had voted for them.

Jumped sides
An example was how quickly opposition MPs, such as the Pangu Pati, jumped to the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill government’s side after the general election last July.

O’Neill was reelected as prime minister by 64-40 votes in August and his ruling People’s National Congress has now decimated the opposition. Twenty one parties are represented in Parliament.

The logging cartels did their best to unseat Juffa and put up six candidates against him because of his outspoken opposition to the extraction industries.

“When I was a customs officer I had some amazing experiences combating this particular group of characters,” he said.

“Papua New Guinea had introduced a new policy in 1995 as a shift away from the West towards Asia. But really it was an effort to try to open the doors to the cartels that were hell bent on coming in to rape our rainforests.”

Governor Juffa on the opening up of Papua New Guinea to the Asian logging cartels and mining companies. Video: Café Pacific

Juffa has currently turned to working more closely with local politicians and landowners in an effort to educate leaders in a more productive way of helping their people life a sustainable lifestyle.

The governor is a prolific user of social media in Papua New Guinea to get his message across to the public and in a Facebook posting this week he said:

Land PNG’s security
“Land is Papua New Guinea’s only true security [and] is once more for sale.

“Sadly the colonised mindset is enthusiastically embracing the scam … forgetting the terrible record of the government in protecting state land from theft and fraud.

“The corporate pirates are now attacking your future. You will be owned – and a landless people.”

Juffa criticised the lack of media – and coverage – at the conference, and also the shortage of climate activists and absence of West Papuan human rights advocates.

He suggested the organisers might prioritise such “frontline” activists for the next conference in two years time.

Governor Gary Juffa on the “absence” of the media. Video: Café Pacific

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz