Morobe Timber Consortium and people from Labuta (Image: EMTV)
By Nalau Bingading, Customary Landowner and Forest Scientist
Morobe Timbers Consortium Limited has attracted a lot of media recently with claims it has reached some kind of agreement with Wagangluhu landowners of Labuta LLG in the Morobe Province, to set up a Forest Industrial Park on 2,000 hectares of customary land.
Papua New Guinea’s log export volumes are too highand the Forest Authority is failing to comply with the government’s reduction targets. This is according to the analysis of official data published.
Forest Clearing Authorities are being unlawfully used to facilitate large-scale logging operations by foreign-owned logging companies according to a new report published today by ACT NOW!, in collaboration with Jubilee Australia Research Centre.
The new report, which focuses on the Wammy logging operation in West Sepik Province, reveals how a Malaysian logging company has used a Forest Clearing Authority (FCA), intended to allow land clearing for agriculture or other land use projects, as a front to export hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of round logs.
In the last eight years, two finance companies and one equipment retailer have provided financing to at least 15 companies that are logging in PNG’s rainforests, new research by Act Now! and Jubilee Australia reveals.
The National | Letters | By Maus blo Garamut, Madang (May 4th 2023)
SINCE last year, the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority’s (PNGFA) Project Acquisition branch has been working to acquire forest areas in Madang and around the country.
And in this process, the rights of the landowner have been trampled on.
