Fishy business. The Social Impact of SST.pdf - Act Now!

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esponsibility goes beyond financial obligations to shareholders. A number of British companies,fore example, have struck up partnerships with NGO’s that lend their ‘brands’ to these companiesin return for social or environmental monitoring. British American Tobacco (BAT), for example,has brought in consultants of all kinds to manage ‘stakeholder dialogues’ with health officials,farmers, office workers and others in the many developing countires where they operate. Theseare voluntary dialogues, and clever marketing strategies as well. In part, too, they are attempts tofend of more invasive government regulations (of the sort known to France and Germany, forexample---because only recently have publicly traded companies in the UK been forced todivulge financially material environmental and social risks). The questions such voluntarymeasures raise are really that of control, and language. Corporate social responsibility is beingdefined by these companies, just as is the term ‘stakeholder’ ---meaning who exactly constitutes astakeholder in an enterprise? (Would Wewak residents suffering from SST’s odour be consideredstakeholders, for example?) These processes are now being systematized by major corporations inthis emergency CSR movement. We have only to recall what philosopher Michael Foucault saidabout organization being a form of social control to wonder whether this work should be left tothe companies themselves.Again, this is a positive step. But it may also be a dangerous one. In a recent article on the CSRmovement by law professor John M. Conley (Conley 2005), ExxonMobil’s 2003 company reportis cited as an example of controlling corporate responsibility away in a form of Adam Smithspeak.The report says, “’Our activities and those of others in private industry deliver economicbenefits and help advance worthwhile societal goals.’” As Conley notes, the report goes on toexplain in the rhetoric of engineering that ExxonMobil’s “’wider involvement in society’ will begoverned by ’hard analysis, the rigorously applied management systems’ that mark its coreendeavours. ‘Soft’ critics need not apply.”This recalls the interview our team had with Ian Boatwood of SST, who, in response to aquestion about how they give back to town, said simply,Well, we employ a lot of people. A tuna factory like this, there are multipliers out there. Wedo half a million plus business in town, we generate all our own power here, we don’t usethe town supply…we are using water for the town supply, though. We throw revenues backto the Water Board and wages going out into the business communities, we inject moneyinto the community, we get involved in some sponsorships.When we asked if this meant sporting sponsorships, he said, “No, but I mean we get involved inthe community as much as we can. Our cafeteria buys supplies locally…so it’s…some of thelocal businesses in PNG we buy a lot of parts from.”v. RecommendationsWhere there are no regulations in place, some sort of the principles of best practice shouldapply, so that companies actively seek out community consultation, create the means ofdebating issues with the community, and act in a timely manner to redress identified grievances.WWF has already suggested independent monitoring for environmental and social impacts, andwe especially endorse their suggestion that “a clear framework be set up for responding tonegative social trends with costs to be met jointly by the company and government agencies.”170
The WWF consultant also notes that SST’s E nvironmental Plan and Management Planpromises that “South Seas Tuna Corporation will carry out a baseline economic survey of itsemployees at the time of their recruitment. This survey will help with long term monitoring(Section 9.3.4 p.9.9)”and that“The South Seas Tuna Corporation will work wtih the Wewak Town Council, the East SepikProvincial Government and the relevant Utility Managers in a co-operative manner to help themimprove the infrastructure of Wewak.(Section 9.3.4 p.9.9).”•WWF’s Wewak office then volunteered to assist local level and provincial government toestablish mechanisms for both of these things to happen, reaching out to form a kind of CSRpartnership unique to PNG (see the WWF report excerpts above). Among their concerns at thetime, which remain concerns for the public today, were whether or not the size of the municipaldump and the town water supply could support the new factory; whether or not privatizing theseservices would be beneficial; and how an independent monitoring authority for environmentaland social impact reporting might operate. “It is important,” says the WWF report, “thatindependent outside individuals and agencies conduct a full social impact assessment and peerreview the proposed monitoring programme, in addition to the OEC peer review the proposedmonitoring programme. It is also important that the OEC and DES provide to the reviewers thecontext within which the proposal and monitoring will take place.”•We reiterate the specific WWF concerns regarding:• wages (as being sufficient to justify the workforce’s absence from a subsistence economy—i.e. as being living wages);•the possible effects of in-migration (which is something already being felt in Madang with RDTuna) and the creation of a pool of unemployed workers; the impact of this factory environmenton the sexual health of employees;•the equable distribution of town water supply (given that the SST EP included a proposed‘plugging of water lost to ground at Moem Barracks’---has this been effected, and is the savingenough to offset the factory demand?);•the need for more refuse disposal services;•the need for permanent and reliable technical expertise to monitor environmental standards forthe waste treatment (including culture control in the oxidation pool), odour control (organicsludge exposure to air) and offshore waste dumping of the facory;•the risk of sharks at the dumping zone;•the risk of overfishing, not just in light of SST, but in light of its expansion and theproliferation of fish processing plants in the province; this refers mainly to the effect ofdeepwater fishing on inshore fish stock required by local fishing operators, but also the MSYand its overall ecological impact, including bycatch yields;171
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Fishy BusinessThe social impact of
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4. Townspeople and market women 158
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More to the point, the contract for
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‘development’ projects will be
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whole concept of MSY; the problem o
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noted most reasonably that the skil
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• That landowners groups be encou
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This project adopted an open protoc
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public figures who had seen RD Tuna
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suddenly costs the government more
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problems of the poor.’ He pledges
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scores of landowner groups who regi
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areas…There were promises of new
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might say today. This is certainly
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During the 1950’s over 860,000 co
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of reorientation of focus and direc
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But it is the provincial government
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title, sensu the Windjammer, is ‘
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Blue Water Tuna is a private PNG co
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9.5.05: The Bismark Fishing Company
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The two landowning clans of Parom g
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ilong mi na long tingting bilong ol
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ol set ups, say olsem 20 or 30 set
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No contact or awareness with Marien
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Los Angeles, CA 90021USATel: 1-800-
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meters out from its original size,
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The Offshore Masters is going to be
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I am not aware of any Environmental
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“Based on the 970 local labour re
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Water Resources Act (Chapter No. 20
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The 26 Local Level Governments in t
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people were made to believe that ne
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Nianguma, so the leaders of the 8 c
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3. That there was a totally unbeara
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p10:p12:73
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p.14:75
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. Marine Ripples articleThe followi
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In general, I feel SSTC has present
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•how the tuna factory development
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Responses to Consent Condition Exce
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“Sometimes while working we are t
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fisheries myself at one stage and f
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N: “Have you sponsored sporting g
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never cleaned fish before, that was
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IB: “Oh sure, but somebody’s go
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Philomena Naura: “The smell aroun
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There is no covering to the oxidizi
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Above: four consecutive pay slips f
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Above is a list of curses said to b
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duties on one of the ships offloadi
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on the side of the fishing vessel.
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The fishery observer told us that i
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Speaking of prostitution on fishing
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and if any major disruptions occur
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Most of us here are very unfortunat
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The husband of the woman employed a
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Thomas Nigints was one of the few p
Page 119 and 120: Did SST place FADs in the sea?The c
Page 121 and 122: doing it, it’s going to be over o
Page 123 and 124: Landowners are also deeply disturbe
Page 125 and 126: places or settlement where they are
Page 127 and 128: in the revenue, so when the opportu
Page 129 and 130: And as soon as they’d finished th
Page 131 and 132: There is no legal case as yet with
Page 133 and 134: owns the land legally and therefore
Page 135 and 136: There is still need to recruit more
Page 137 and 138: In regard to the production, by the
Page 139 and 140: The company invited interested peop
Page 141 and 142: strategy is very well used by forei
Page 143 and 144: employees and those whose work requ
Page 145 and 146: The present Human Resource Manager
Page 147 and 148: working gear? In my section I wear
Page 149 and 150: working for a whole first week with
Page 151 and 152: Serah from Manam island, married wi
Page 153 and 154: stret long mipela ol mama husait I
Page 155 and 156: The supervisors in the plant/engine
Page 157 and 158: The color of the sea has changed. F
Page 159 and 160: Donald Jacob, Catrans fuel distribu
Page 161 and 162: Kapmandu Service station. Did South
Page 163 and 164: Three women involved with roadside
Page 165 and 166: export processing zones and then in
Page 167 and 168: When we asked if this meant sportin
Page 169: then men’s. Usually they’re exc
Page 173 and 174: of a company like SST cannot be pla
Page 175 and 176: East Sepik Governor Arthur Somare s
Page 177 and 178: The cost of the project is between
Page 179 and 180: The National Shipping Page, 1.6.04W
Page 181 and 182: that have similar fish factory set-
Page 183 and 184: Infofish website : PNG: Tuna export
Page 185 and 186: Post-Courier 20.6.05185
Page 187 and 188: Did your application form ask you a
Page 189 and 190: Do you know whether the Provincial
Page 191 and 192: The Provincial AdministratorDept. o
Page 193 and 194: 4. Human Resources registerees, Kew
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Page 197 and 198: Under Spin-Off Business Activities
Page 199 and 200: Finally, Honourable Ministers, Memb
Page 201 and 202: The adverse non-immune (toxic) and
Page 203 and 204: low income) will have an impact in
Page 205 and 206: ed and pink plastic roses are every
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Page 209 and 210: Tuna fisheriesThe management system
Page 211 and 212: • Monitor interactions between th
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Page 215 and 216: This office recommends that, since
Page 217 and 218: commercial industry still deny any
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REPORTER: If you come and you put t
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Berman, M. 1997. Faust, the First D
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Lutkehaus, N., C. Kaufman, W.E. Mit
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