Official: Forestry Act weakened

The National National

By JINA AMBA
THE Forestry Act 1991 is 30 years old and has been weakened by many amendments, a workshop was told.
The Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights, Forest for Certain: Forest for Life (Forcert) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), in partnership with USAID’s Lukautim Graun programme, hosted a three-day forestry workshop in Port Moresby.
Pamela Avasi, from Forcert, said under the Act, PNG’s forests were disappearing fast, with unsustainable harvests and extensive forest clearance having been allowed.
Avasi said the Act had failed to meet the needs of rural communities, respect their rights and ensure free, prior and informed consent.
Participants shared examples of human rights abuses associated with the current forest management operation. Participant Bonny Newai, a landowner from Manus, shared his experience of being arrested and locked up over a fight for rainforests.
Newai said there was no proper monitoring and enforcement of the logging code of practice.
Workshop participants stated that the Forestry Act 1991 had not been successful in regulating the forest industry but was outdated as the national and international contexts had changed, including:

  • TIMBER and non-timber forest product markets were demanding independent third party legality and sustainability certification;
  • FORESTS were increasingly being managed for payment for ecosystem services, including for carbon sequestration and storage (REDD+); and,
  • STRONGLY growing focus and investment worldwide in sustainable landscape management and restoration.