Papua New Guinea - Fern

The Bank has shown a troubling unwillingness to support any type of forest management other
than industrial log exports. The World Bank's proposed PNG Forestry and Conservation project
initially won support from PNG environmental organizations because it promised to develop and
implement much needed alternative forest management practices. The project was to support
development of policy, legislation, regulations and guidelines to legitimize forest management of
different types, scale, ownership and levels of processing. These essential elements have now
been removed from the World Bank project, just prior to final approval. The new forestry
project does little to protect biodiversity while entrenching and expanding industrial log exports
at a net cost to the country.
Barriers to Ecologically Sustainable Use of Biological Resources
The voice of Papua New Guineans working for meaningful forest conservation that includes
ecologically rigorous community based forest management and protection is not being heard. In
contrast to destructive large scale export logging by overseas companies, small and medium
scale operations have been shown to provide greater financial returns to local communities, bring
new skills and provide a simple means to achieve the sustainable management of forest
resources. Forests provide the basis of livelihood and cultural life for 80% of Papua New
Guineans. Working with national and international environmental organizations, hundreds of
PNG forest communities are developing and implementing creative and sustainable ways of
harvesting forest resources without destroying the forest. Known collectively as "eco-forestry,"
these community-based alternative forestry programs promote viable economic development and
forest and biodiversity conservation at the same time.
Eco-forestry encompasses a variety of activities that both preserve and sustainably use forest
resources, bringing as much economic and social benefit as possible to local communities.
Under eco-forestry management plans, communities carry out economic development projects in
specific areas, giving strict preservation to surrounding forests. Eco-forestry can include such
activities as fruit and butterfly collection, rattan and medicinal plant harvesting, scientific
research and eco-tourism. Community-based timber production makes use of small-scale
portable sawmills that can be carried through the forest and used to mill timber on-site where a
tree is felled. Such low-tech logging can be done with minimal environmental impact, bringing
forest communities the benefits of employment and new skills, and serving as a catalyst for other
local enterprises.
These examples of truly "sustainable forest management" are virtually impossible to pursue in
PNG because of sectoral policy weighed towards commercial logging for log export. In spite of
their importance for PNG forests and forest peoples, eco-forestry projects are largely ignored in
PNG forestry policy, planning and financing. Despite an active and capable civil society
working to support biodiversity conservation and promote eco-forestry and other alternatives, the
government and World Bank refuse to make these activities as legally valid as industrial resource
extraction. The Forestry Act, regulations and guidelines, as well as Forest Authority processes
and structures, must be updated to legitimize and make fully accessible small-scale eco-forestry
management.
Ironically, the World Bank recently supported the production of a document entitled “Forest
Strategies for Community-Based Forestry and Conservation in Papua New Guinea”, which
14