Community advocacy group ACT NOW! says a new logging operation in Milne Bay Province could be yet another example of a bogus agriculture project being used as cover for a large-scale forest grab.

The new logging operation began on Sideia Island earlier this year as part of the Loani Bwanabwana Integrated Agro-Forestry Project.

Operated by a Malaysian logging company with no previous agriculture experience, the project is promising 36,700 hectares of new agriculture planting, including balsa, cocoa, vanilla and rice.

To make way for the agricultural planting, the company says it will harvest 1.2 million cubic metres of logs over a 10-year period, with 75% destined for export.

ACT NOW says there are serious questions about the authenticity of the agriculture plans and the nature and scale of the intended logging activities. There are also considerable doubts over whether local people have given their informed consent to the project and whether mandatory processes and procedures under the Forestry Act have been correctly followed.

The Loani logging operations have been approved under a controversial type of logging licence called a Forest Clearing Authority. ACT NOW says there are numerous well documented reports of FCA licences being unlawful used to allow large-scale selective logging operations under the guise of bogus agriculture plans.

ACT NOW says it has written to both the PNG Forest Authority and the logging company to raise its concerns and seek their comment, but it has not received any reply.

ACT NOW says the National Forest Board and the Minister for Forests need to step in and impose an immediate moratorium on all logging under FCA licences and to order a full, independent and public evaluation of the projects to establish whether they are genuine and legal.

ACT NOW has published a Briefing Paper on the Loani project based on an analysis of documents submitted in support of the logging licence application. The paper identifies a number of red flags, including:

• No business plan with costs and projected returns from the agriculture projects;
• No detailed map showing the proposed location of the agriculture planting;
• 16,000 hectares of balsa planting which would be a 10-fold increase in PNG’s current total balsa estate;
• 10,000 ha of cocoa despite crop suitability maps showing only 2,700ha of land is moderately suitable and the other 93% marginal or not suitable.

As well as the deficiencies in the agriculture plans, ACT NOW says there are strong indications the project may not have the informed consent of local communities, with only one out of seven clans on Sideia Island giving approval for the project and on Basilaki only 3 out of 12 clans.

It also appears the wrong forms may have been used to verify the consent of landowning clans and many of the signatures were not witnessed by a village court magistrate or land mediator as required under the Forestry Act.

Rather than clearing forest for a genuine agriculture project, ACT NOW fears there is a high-risk the Malaysian company intends to carry out a large-scale selective logging operation.

A Forest Clearing Authority is only supposed to be used to clear discrete areas of forest for agriculture planting or other land use changes. However the documents submitted as part of the FCA application divides the whole of Sideia and Basilaki islands into five logging coupes. Of a gross area of 20,000 ha, the logging company has rights to log 11,855 ha, or 60% of the total area over just five years. In addition, the company has rights to log a further 10,460 ha on the mainland.

This is despite the company’s pledge in its FCA application that it will clear the land for planting in small blocks of 500ha at a time with the blocks being progressively planted and the boundaries of each block being marked out prior to clear felling of the trees.

A recent field inspection has also found evidence that suggests what is intended is just a large-scale selective logging operation, with poor quality road construction suitable only to support short-term logging operations and no access being created to the low-lying and flatter areas that could be suitable for agriculture planting.

There was also no evidence of proper draining and culverts as needed if the roading is to support long-term agriculture and as required in the Logging Code of Practice.

Download the Briefing Paper - www.actnowpng.org/publications/factsheets