Greenpeace Report Details Logging Violations In PNG
(Solomon Star)
Greenpeace on Monday released documentation of the many broken promises of logging companies in
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A documentation team visited remote villages for two weeks, filming and photographing life conditions within three large logging concessions.
These were owned by logging companies, Turama Forest Industries (TFI), a Rimbunan Hijau group company and Rimbunan Hijau (RH) respectively.
“The overwhelming feeling relayed to Greenpeace by landowners in the region is that both TFI and RH are stealing their resources,” Greenpeace forest campaigner Sam Moko said.
“And they are exploiting the people, while the Government turns a blind eye,” Moko added.
“There are also serious questions about the legality of their operations and the process in which these logging permits were granted,” continued Moko.
“What we found were many social and environmental problems caused by industrial logging, as well as breaches of the PNG Logging Code of Practice by both these companies,” Moko said.
Local people tell of total disrespect from the company towards them. Examples of these includes the destruction of sacred sites, lack of promised development, withholding royalty payments, logging too close to villages and endangering the food supply.
Infrastructure like roads, airstrips and ports are basic benefits of the logging operation, and usually fall into disrepair once a company moves on.
The schools and medical facilities do not have materials, equipment or medicines. The industry makes over-inflated claims about the numbers of people it employ.
Foreigners do most of the skilled work. PNG nationals are paid a minute allowance for dangerous work, usually done with no safety equipment.
Pay slips obtained by Greenpeace from two RH concessions, Vailala and Wawoi Guavi, shows workers working long hours for very little pay.
What money they do make goes straight back to the company in the form of payment for food and other costs. Many camp workers are brought in from other areas and have no local fishing or hunting rights so must buy goods at the company canteen, which is the only store in the area.
One fortnightly pay slip showed a worker being paid K185.25 (US$71.50) for 114 hours of work. After costs for food were deducted he took home K5 (US$1.93).
Forestry workers are trapped in a debt cycle with logging companies and have no option but to continue working.
Ken Karere, from Vailala, an RH concession, told Greenpeace: “The workload is very big… You have no food. You have to go back to the store and buy food on credit and their prices are very high. All is recorded.
“So once you get paid, all that money goes back towards the credit and you’re only left with maybe K10 (US$3.86). You have to survive on that for another two weeks but after one day that money’s finished.”
How are people supposed to invest in their family’s future on this type of wage?
“This is not gainful employment that benefits PNG’s future, this is induced indebtedness verging on slavery,” Moko said.
“These people work incredibly hard and are still paid well below the poverty line. They don’t even have enough money to pay their transport cost to leave the area.”
Life is also not easy for landowners who live in or next to logging concessions.
Kila Oumabe, a woman from the Beseremen Clan, in the TFI-run Turama Extension, says that it now takes much more time to find food.
“I have to walk six to eight kilometers to find food for my family,” she says.
“It takes all day. Before it used to take two to three hours or half a day. I used to walk out my back door to find the plants and animals to feed my family. Sometimes a woman can’t find anything and comes home at 9 o’clock or midnight and cooks sago only and goes to sleep,”
Lee Mara, of the Porome tribe in the Turama Extension is also concerned that increased siltation in rivers from logging is threatening their future ability to survive.
“Looking at the environment, much damage has been done. Our riverbeds are already rising. We have sandbanks coming up. We are going to run short of fish. Very soon all our fish will be gone,” Mara complained.
Anton David, a teacher from Omati in the Turama Extension, standing outside a basic schoolhouse, said that TFI helped build the school but did not provide educational materials or books.
“Without materials and teacher’s guides it’s hard for me to teach, so I closed the school after three months,” he said.
“The PNG Forest Industries Association (PNGFIA) and Rimbunan Hijau say that they are bringing development to these remote areas but if this is what they have in mind, then they have a disturbing vision for PNG’s future,” Moko said.
The World Bank estimates that up to 70 per cent of logging in PNG is illegal.
Greenpeace believes the figure is as high as 90 per cent due to the fact that many timber licenses are obtained without the proper prior and informed consent of landowners.
The ITTO diagnostic report for PNG in 2007 stated, “The government and industry have not been able to demonstrate integrated, economically viable, ecologically compatible and socially acceptable forest management practices in line with the ITTO Criteria and Indicators.
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“The PNG Government must put in place a moratorium on all logging in PNG until all serious concerns of forest management are addressed, including an immediate investigation into serious allegations of corruption between politicians and logging companies,” Moko said.
“Landowners are suffering while US$40 million allegedly sits in a
“International Governments must urgently restrict the importation of illegal and destructive timber into their countries,” Moko cautioned.
