RH feats in NZ to guide plantation forestry efforts in PNG
By ANTON HUAFOLO
 NEW Zealand is one of the countries in the world today that is deriving a significant amount of benefits from its vast forest plantation resources.
Researchers such as Tim Curtain of the Australian National University have found that forestry resources, in larger part forest plantations, have helped New Zealand to attain a higher standard of living that it is enjoying today.
Their studies have shown that countries which have introduced forest plantations have not only protected the environment but have also derived gains in increased national revenue and social benefits, and New Zealand is one example.
One of the companies leading the effort in plantation forestry in New Zealand is the Rimbunan Hijau NZ Group, which has a number of forest plantations in the country, contributing to national income, employment, taxes and sustainable forest management practices through raising seedlings, planting, adding value through silviculture (the care of forest resources) and, harvesting and processing of logs.
The group began acquiring land and planting in 1993 through a subsidiary, Ernslaw One.
Today, the company has 108,100 hectares of plantation forests in New Zealand, with a 15-year harvest cycle.
Another subsidiary, Oregon Forestry NZ Ltd, currently supplies seedling stock to Ernslaw One and other privately-owned plantations for planting in support of their operations.
For New Zealand, studies have shown that the transition from the harvest of round wood from natural forests to better-controlled forest plantations ensures natural environment preservation and an increase in forest resources output, including an increase in the country’s export receipts in the forestry sector.
Drawing from New Zealand’s vast experiences, can PNG realise its potential in plantation forestry using a fraction of its landmass?
Curtain, in his abstract Forestry and Economic Development in Papua New Guinea published by his university in 2005, observed: “Interestingly, the share of natural forests in New Zealand’s production of round wood dropped from 6% in 1993 to 1% in 1998, with plantations more than compensating, since total output increased by 50% in that period.
“This is a natural progression that has hardly begun in Papua New Guinea, in part at least because of the difficulty in securing government approval and landowner participation in the required transition, as plantations with their long rotations require long-term leases if investors are to come forward and finance them.”
Can these obstacles that Curtain outlined be overcome?
The Rimbunan Hijau (PNG) Group is working on a forestry and silviculture initiative drawing on the experiences of New Zealand and its plantation programmes elsewhere to ensure that this becomes a reality in the near future, using a fraction of PNG’s landmass.
The company will invest in a programme similar to that in New Zealand, encompassing the identification of plantation sites in PNG in its reforestation efforts, which will include raising seedlings, planting and value addition through silviculture.
In a presentation to PNG government representatives, industry stakeholders and the media on March 16, RH (PNG) executive director Ivan Lu said they had already started the process towards reforestation and silviculture activities in PNG, with plantation forestry high on the agenda.
He said reforestation and silviculture “will contribute to the long-term prosperity of the forestry sector and Papua New Guinea’s economy”.
“We are eager to implement practical reforestation activities on the ground in Papua New Guinea,” he stated.
“Sustainability and climate change have now become global issues which could significantly affect the livelihood of an industry such as forestry.
“It is not only an environmental issue, but a business and economic issue as well.”
The company’s reforestation and silviculture initiative will be in line with government policy in transforming the industry and to ensure sustainable forest management practices in PNG.
Mr Lu said RH would be mobilising private capital to ensure the group’s reforestation and silviculture initiatives in PNG are fully realised.
The company is presently conducting intensive research to see if certain native tree species are conducive at its Wawoi-Guavi timber resource permit area in the Western province.
Based on the outcome of the research, RH will commence planting a forest plantation at a “sizeable” Wawoi-Guavi area and possibly elsewhere in the country in the near future, with sawmilling and processing to be
carried out at its Kamusie sawmill and Panakawa veneer and sawmill plants, also in the Western province.
The project will be supported by a nursery “carrying capacity of 500,000 seedlings in Kamusie designed by experts from Malaysia in consultation with the RH (PNG) Group”.
In terms of benefits to the nation, it is possible to increase significantly the returns from plantation forestry in PNG that would in turn add to national income and gross domestic product from the harvest, processing and export of wood products from PNG.
Forest plantations coupled with downstream processing means that RH has the potential to double its earnings potential for the country to over K140 million a year.
In addition, other benefits RH said that could be derived from its forest plantation development initiative in the country include:
* Eco-friendly sustainable timber production;
* Biodiversity restoration, regulation of stream flows, sequester of carbon and the reduction of run-off or soil erosion;
* The opportunity to participate in the carbon trade which can provide additional revenue to the company and the State;
* Diversification of the local economy with additional opportunities for spin-offs;
* Harvesting and marketing of minor
forest products;
*Creation of employment opportunities;
* Opportunity for those who are landless and others near the plantation sites to plant food crops in the plantation where people would care for their food crops and the trees; and
* Opportunity for landowners to participate to supply the plantation with seedlings, etc, on a long-term basis.
Plantation forestry is not new to PNG.
The PNG Forest Authority’s records indicate that plantation forestry started way back in the early 1960s.
It noted in a report in 2003, there were eight provinces with forest plantations covering 70,000 hectares in total, were planted with various tree species from PNG.
The plantations comprise the Wau-Bulolo (Morobe), Kerevat (East New Britain), Stretin Bay Lumber (Central), Open Bay, Ulabo (Milne Bay), Wahgi Swamp (Western Highlands), Kuriva (Central), Lapeigu and Fayatina (Eastern Highlands), and Gogol (Madang).
Whether some of these plantations’ operations are sustainable and profitable today is anybody’s guess.
But the RH initiative in reforestation and silviculture can be seen as the start for PNG to realise its full potential in the development of its plantation forestry.
Given the benefits are going to be immense from plantation development in PNG; all impediments to achieving this should be looked at and addressed.
The company is prepared to finance its plantation forestry initiate in a big way, but it has to be supported by the National Government with a policy mix that fully supports reforestation in both socio-economic and ecological aspects of sustainable forest plantations operations and land use in PNG.
 
Globalisation and the beautiful game
By DANI RODRIK
HOW does globalisation reshape wealth and opportunity around the world?
Is it mainly a force for good, enabling poor nations to lift themselves up from poverty by taking part in global markets?
Or does it create vast opportunities only for a small minority?
To answer these questions, look no farther than soccer.
Ever since European clubs loosened restrictions on the number of foreign players, the game has become truly global.
African players, in particular, have become ubiquitous, supplementing the usual retinue of Brazilians and Argentines.
Indeed, the foreign presence in soccer surpasses anything that we see in other areas of international commerce.
English Premier League club Arsenal, fields 11 starters who typically do not include a single British player.
Indeed, all the English players for the four English clubs that recently advanced to the final eight of the UEFA Champions’ League would hardly be enough to field a single team.
There is little doubt that foreign players enhance the quality of play in the European club championships.
Europe’s soccer scene would not be half as exciting without strikers such as Cote d’Ivoire’s Didier Drogba (Chelsea) or Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona).
The benefits to African talent are easy to see, too.
African players are able to earn much more money by marketing their skills in Europe – not just the top clubs in the Premiership or the Spanish Primera Liga, but the countless nouveau-riche clubs in Russia, Ukraine, or Turkey.
To be sure, soccer players’ international mobility has increased the earnings gap between stars such as Drogba and Eto’o and their compatriots back home.
This is part and parcel of globalisation: enhanced global economic opportunities lead to wider disparities between those who have the skill or luck to take advantage of them and those who do not.
This kind of inequality is not necessarily a bad thing. It makes some people better off without making others worse off.
But soccer enthusiasts care about country as well as club, and here the consequences of the global mobility of talent are not as straightforward.
Many fear that the quality of national teams is harmed by the availability of foreign players. Why invest in developing local talent if you can hire it from abroad?
England once again provides an apt illustration.
Many blame the country’s failure to qualify for this summer’s European championship on the preponderance of foreign players in English club teams.
The real lesson is that taking full advantage of globalisation requires developing domestic capabilities along with international links.
The benefits of globalisation come to those who do their homework. – Project Syndicate

Note: Dani Rodrik, Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the first recipient of the Social Science Research Council’s Albert O. Hirschman Prize. His latest book is One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalisation, Institutions, and Economic Growth.
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