PAPUA NEW GUINEA CASE STUDY ON FOREST CERTIFICATION

1. PAPUA NEW GUINEA CASE STUDY ON FOREST CERTIFICATION By YATI A. BUN AND ISRAEL F. BEWANG FOUNDATION FOR PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INC.

2. Format of Presentation: • Introduction • Background Information • The PNG Forest Authority • PNG FSC National Working Group • Reaction to Forest Certification in PNG • Forest Resource-owners • Conclusion

3. Introduction • Forest Certification (FSC) began in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1993 with a country feasibility assessment. • First Community group (Bainings) was Certified by SGS in 1994 and certification became a subject of discussion. • There is little or no interest in forest certification amongst the Government and many large scale industry.

4. Introduction (Cont’d) • Certification is important for PNG for the following reasons; A) Forestry in PNG is more like a mining operation B) Forests in PNG customary owned by traditional land owners. C) Unfair distribution of benefits from forest resources. C) There is widespread corruption in the forest industry. D) Unjust circumstances and mistreatment of land owners. • Forest Industry is dominated by companies critical of forest certification. F) Forest resource owners expect benefits from certification. G) PNG has high biological diversity and much traditional ecological knowledge has yet to be documented. • Lessons learned have been incorporated. • More awareness needed in PNG. • FSC is being promoted and developed in PNG.

5. Background. • 97% of land customary owned. • PNG and Irian Jaya (Indonesia) combined has world’s third largest remaining block of tropical rainforest after Brazil and Congo. • Forests under threat from development such as, oil palm, mining and large scale logging. • Total Forest Area of PNG=26.5 million Ha, most of easily accessible areas already logged over. • 22500 ha of community managed forests managed are certified (FSC) supported by funding from EU & B&Q of UK. • Unsustainable harvesting practices.

6. Background (Cont’d) • Market dominated by uncertified round log export. • Large scale foreign owned companies are major players in forest industry. • Timber permit, Timber Authority, Timber License are used to give out logging concessions. • There is a working group in ITTO Standards Development, working on developing standards which began in 2002. • FSC Standards are the most developed standards in PNG and are well organized and have been working since 1996.

7. OUTLINE OF THE PAPUA NEW GUINEA FOREST AUTHORITY NATIONAL MINISTER PNG FOREST AUTHORITY NATIONAL FOREST BOARD National Forest Service DIRECTOR Board Secretariat PEC ADVISORY COMMITTEES PROVINCIAL FOREST MGT COMMITTEES Specialist and Advisory Staff Field Staff • Functions: • Policy planning and legalresearch • marketing • training and education • service advisory committees • technical support and coord. • Forestresource inventory • forest management • Functions: • extensions • monitoring andenforcement • assist province • Planningfield work for: • acquisition • allocation • Service PFMC’s Source: National Forest Policy 1991

11. Conclusion. • Only community groups like Madang Forest Resource Owners Association, around the country interested in forest certification, however they do not have the financial, technical and resource capacity to move forward. • Since logging began in PNG, landowners had always been marginalized in any decision making processes concerning their forest resources. • The government and large logging industries are in a wait and see position and neither support any form of forest Certification Scheme. • NGOs have been supporting Forest Certification (esp. FSC Scheme). in PNG. • FSC National Standards have been developed are in FSC International Secretariat for endorsement. • Most of the logging companies in PNG are Malaysian Companies that supply uncertified markets in Asia. • Only one large scale logging company (Makapa Innovision) is interested in Forest Certification and pursuing it.

12. Conclusion (Cont’d) • There is a need for national awareness campaign • Model projects showing the benefits of forest certification will attract interest. • Access to forest certification by local communities is needed. • Forest certification is unable to address extra money needed for getting certified. • FORCERT system is trying to help address and mobilise producers who cannot afford certification to access it. • Interest in introducing certification and sustaining that interest with economic, and social benefits is important for survival of certification leading to forest management that is economically viable, socially beneficial and environmentally acceptable for PNG. • Certification tool for forest management as current practices has failed and forestry is continually mined.