Landowners see red over Polye’s carbon cowboys

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Landowners in the Kamula Doso region have reacted angrily to comments made by Deputy Prime Minister Don Polye in support of proposed voluntary carbon scheme (VCS) deals.
Paul Sasae, chairman of landowner company Wawoi Temu Holdings Ltd and chairman of the Dawasi ILG, had publicly criticised the proposed carbon deals, saying that PNG’s “carbon cowboys” have acted fraudulently, and that the carbon projects would deprive the local communities of  the ability to use land for food and forestry.
He also said that the deals would prohibit payments to local communities for two years. 
“The carbon project asks us to halt all forestry and agriculture for the next 40 years,” Sasae said.
“The ‘sky money’ that foreign non-governmental groups (NGOs) talk of so eagerly will not come to the people who need it most.
“With no way to grow or buy food, what are we supposed to eat?”
Sasae said that his community’s situation had become more desperate since the cancellation of the Kamula Doso FMA.
According to him, the cancellation was driven by a group of Western activists – not the wishes of local communities.
The Kamula Doso FMA was first proposed in 1997 and has been the subject of a long-running legal battle between the PNG Forest Authority and a number of foreign-funded NGOs, including the Eco-Forestry Forum.
Last July, the National Court ruled that the Kamula Doso FMA of 1997 was invalid and that the forests of the area could not be legally logged.
The landowners argued that this decision and the re-appearance of plans to develop VCS projects in the area undermined the express wishes of a community that continued to suffer from economic and social problems.
According to Sasae, the cancellation – and any carbon conservation projects – would have dire impacts on his community’s economic development, prompting more than 50 ILGs to write directly to the prime minister and request to have the FMA re-established. 
In the letter, the landowners had stated that the cancellation of the FMA would effectively mean the loss of a potential 1,600 jobs, local annual royalty payments of K8 million and investment worth more than K100 million, as well as improved local infrastructure.