BRISBANE -- The destruction of Papua New Guinea's rainforests through industrial-scale logging has reached crisis point, according to a group of four PNG forest campaigners who launched an Australian tour here on February 22.
Launching the “Big Bush Bugarup Tour”, the group warned that foreign logging companies, mostly from Malaysia, were now flying into remote communities throughout PNG to negotiate contracts to log the forests. Papua New Guinea is home to some of the last remaining tracts of tropical rainforest in the Asia-Pacific. Experts have predicted that at current trends the forests could be logged out within seven years.
According to one of the tour participants, Gabriel Molok from the East Sepik Council of Women, traditional landowners are being paid a little over $7 per cubic metre for their premium rainforest trees. Most of these logs go to Japan, where they are worth around $800 a cubic metre.
“Development through logging is not real development for us”, Molok said. “The current practices of Malaysian logging companies are not sustainable environmentally or economically. The trees are gone, the resources are gone and the people have nothing.”
The tour takes in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Canberra, Sydney and Cairns. Speakers include: Gabriel Molok, Kena'e Ka'au from Greenpeace, Petronila Pake from the West New Britain Council of Women and Hendrick Asom from the Raun Isi Theatre Company of Wewak. The tour is sponsored by a coalition of groups including Community Aid Abroad, Greenpeace, the Brisbane and Sydney Rainforest Action Groups, Rainforest Information Centre and Worldwide Fund for Nature.
In Papua New Guinea, the group works on awareness raising and information exchanges with the communities which have been approached by logging companies.
“We go to the villages, stay with the people and talk through their problems”, Molok said. “We perform role plays, give out posters, videos and information to the people. Sometimes we draw pictures to show people what the future is like after logging.”
The group is seeking support from Australians for practical alternatives to industrial-scale logging. Less destructive options which can meet the needs of traditional landowners include the production of non-timber forest products such as galip nuts, medicinal plants, craft, ecotourism and sensitive timber extraction by well-managed, community-owned sawmilling operations.
“Australia sends more than $300 million in aid to Papua New Guinea every year”, said Kena'e Ka'au of Greenpeace. “Instead of propping up the PNG government which allows logging and mining companies to rip out our resources, that aid money is needed to support non-destructive community-based projects. Australian markets are also needed for these projects to ensure that village people retain control over their future.”
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