Source: Post Courier

Letter of the Day

SABL stands for Special Purpose Agriculture Business Lease.

The acronym SABL speaks for itself.

Any educated person would reason, without having any prior knowledge of the concept, that such a lease has something to do with agriculture, and not forestry.

However, it seems that in recent months the PNGFA has been going on a promotion spree, making positive statements in the media about agriculture projects under SABLs that they have visited with the Forest Minister.

This is despite the government revoking many of the SABL leases around the country after the Commission of Inquiry into SABLs.

It also makes one wonder whether the Department of Agriculture and Livestock has now come under the PNGFA, and the promotion of agricultural activities is now a function of PNGFA.

Forestry is not only about cutting down of trees and making wood and its byproducts out of the trees that have been cut down. Rather forestry is a multidisciplinary profession that embraces biology, conservation, hydrology, environmental science and many other natural and social science disciplines.

Therefore the objective of forestry should be to promote responsible and morally upright forest management activities in this country.

Forestry should promote activities that enhance management of our forests in a manner that is socially, economically and environmentally responsible.

However, for the PNGFA to promote an activity like SABL that is socially, economically and environmentally irresponsible shows how sick the forestry profession is in this country. It goes to paint a bad picture of the profession just because of a few rotten apples, but most forestry officers earn their bread and butter through honesty.