Amend forestry laws
Copyright, 1999, Post-Courier Online
December 13, 2000
THE Government should amend legislation relating to the distribution of benefits from forestry exports to landowners or resource owners.
President of the Association of Foresters of PNG Gabriel Samol said the Government should also make it compulsory to fund national inventories of PNG’s forestry resource base.
Mr Samol said that while the latter was done on an ad hoc basis, funding should be compulsory, the same as in the government funding of a population census.
He said this would make known what was available and what was not there and what could be done.
Mr Samol was commenting on the review of forestry projects and processes by a team that was appointed under the World Bank’s structural adjustment program, which was presented by team leader Ben Everts in Port Moresby yesterday.
Mr Samol said while there were some areas and processes which needed to be reviewed, the current process should remain.
Mr Everts said 33 identified projects currently “in process” would be reviewed in three batches of 11. He said they had submitted the individual reports on the first batch to the Inter-Agency Forestry Review Committee headed by Chief Secretary Robert Igara.
The projects being looked at are Musa Pongani, Rottock Bay, Mukus Tolo, Kulu-Dagi Timber Area, Trans Vanapa, Wes, Vailala TRP Extension, Kerevat Plantation Forest, Morobe South Coast and Nungwaia Bongos Tas and Amanab Blocks 5 and 6.
The reports on the second group of projects will be presented to the committee by February 5 next year. The projects are East Awin, Josephstaal, Semabo, Amanab Blocks 1-4 Forest Management Areas, Kamula Doso, Ioma Block 5 Project, Aitape East Coast FMA, Middle Ramu Block 1 and East Pangia Tas and East Collingwood Asengseng Consolidated FMAs.
Reports of the third batch are expected to be presented by March 5 next year. They are Rai Coast and Pondo Timber Resource Projects, April Salumei, Cloudy Bay, Tuwapu, South West Wapei, Wipim Tapila, Hekiko FMAs, Collingwood/Wanigela, Aitape Oil Palm and Aiambak-Kiunga TAs.
Mr Everts said the review focused on compliance with requirements of the Forestry Act, policy, regulations, guidelines, plan and procedures while the process was split into planning and forestry issues, legal compliance and landowner issues.
Under planning and forestry, it will cover whether the proposed project was appropriate for forest management purposes and whether the proposed annual allowable cut was within the limits of sustained yield based on current forest management principles. It would also cover whether fragile forests and environmentally sensitive areas had been appropriately considered according to guidelines and whether conservation set-asides had been appropriately implemented.
The set of benchmarks are the provincial and national forest plans, identification of net loggable area, conservation set-asides, determination of sustainable yield and consistency of data.
Identification of net loggable area covers non-forest, logging code exclusions, fragile forests and conservation areas while the determination of sustainable yields covered inventory, adjustment factors and cutting cycle.
Mr Everts said the review looked at whether processes were according to the forestry act, regulations, and powers of the board, delegated powers of the managing director and procedures of provincial forest management certificates.
A compliance checklist covers landowner issues, forest management agreement, development options study, project guidelines, advertisement, feasibility study, project proposals, negotiations, project agreement, environmental plan and timber permits.
Under landowner issues, the review covered whether proper and appropriate dealings with resource owners were undertaken. The set of benchmarks are resource acquisition, evidence of awareness package, ILG process and participation, representative bodies for negotiations and FMA details, including the provincial forest management certificate process.
The review covers whether there is a written approval for the project agreement and evidence of landowner consultation for the environmental plan. The broad review issues are currency and consistency of documents, conflicting procedures, superseded objectives and prescriptions and transparency. The inter-agency committee is made up of representatives of key government departments.