Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

materials and also habitats for mud crabs, important sources of protein for local consumption and
can be harvested and sold.
Managing forest resources effectively can lead to achieving the long-term goal of poverty reduction
in rural areas. Effective management of forest resources requires stakeholder involvement, including
forest resource owners. The PNGFIA, under its new development guidelines, recognizes the
importance of community forestry in its reforestation program and re-emphasizes the involvement
of landowners and resource owners, but implementation is poor. Effective resource management
(plantation inclusive) on a sustainable basis should be the basis of the forestry sector’s contribution
to poverty alleviation in the rural areas.
Recommendations
The forestry sector has great potential for improving living standards and reducing poverty. However,
government has to create an enabling environment to make this happen. This will require policy reviews
targeting the interests and welfare of forest owners and communities affected, not just the national
interest. The government will have to expand its focus on the overall objective of forestry development
in the country of securing national interest to incorporate the more specific interests of forest resource
owners. The PNGFIA should be given financial autonomy over the revenues generated to improve and
increase their functions to support forestry activities at the forest owners’ level.
Rural communities and forest owners will have to change their attitudes and mindsets to ensure
improvements in their living standards. The management of incomes generated from forestry activities
should include the reinvestment in small-scale business spin-offs following logging. Forests should
be managed for collective benefits and not just for timber. Cultural values of leadership and wealth
distribution among clan members need to be sustained.
The following recommendations are possible ways forward for forestry contribution to poverty
alleviation in PNG’s rural areas:
Review the Concept of National Interest in Natural Resources Development
There is a need for a major policy shift in the forestry sector towards poverty alleviation in rural areas.
The primary focus in the forestry sector is in securing the national interest through revenue generation
for national budget purposes while resource owners and rural communities are of secondary interest.
Funds intended to assist resource owners and rural communities do not reach them as what must be
ensured first are government budget targets financed from the forestry sector.
The GoPNG through PNGFIA needs to shift its focus from general forest development projects to
more specific poverty alleviation projects. The notion of national interest needs to be critically looked
at because national interest must also include the interests of communities affected by each forestry
project. The national interest concept is based on the fact that not all provinces in the country have
equal amount of resources to generate necessary revenues to meet the social-economic obligations and
services of all people. However, this study indicated that provinces with small forest areas are better off
in terms of social indicators than those provinces with large forest areas.
Forestry Sector’s Poverty Alleviation Strategy
It is imperative that all natural resource sectors should have their own strategies for poverty alleviation
in rural areas. Poverty alleviation strategies should be integral components of planning and prerequisites
to government approval of natural resource development in the country. It should not just be a follow-up
activity by the social sectors. In fact, the poverty situation of an area where there are natural resources
like gold, copper, and timber, is always used as the basis to get government and resource owners’
approvals for the resource to be developed.
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