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Comments and reaction to the report prepared by the Australian Science Media Centre, Monday 2 June 2008 Back to PNG forests Phil Shearman, School of Natural and Physical Sciences, University of Papua New Guinea and lead author of the report. “For the first time we know what’s happening. PNG forests could make a significant contribution to global efforts to combat climate change and it is in PNG’s own interests to do so, as the nation is particularly susceptible to its negative impacts. However, the current state of forest management means that PNG is a distance from being able to meaningfully participate in the carbon economy.” --------- Dr Julian Ash is from the Faculty of Science at the Australian National University and is a co-author on the PNG report. “High quality information on the environment in tropical countries is hard to obtain but essential for good management of resources and to understand such issues as net carbon release from depleted rainforests. This study used satellite images to generate both high-resolution maps of the forests of Papua New Guinea and, more importantly, quantified changes that are taking place. Contrary to the popular opinion that little is happening, rates of change are high and accelerating. To feed a population growing by 3% yearly, associated net deforestation is now 0.7% and fertile areas are in short supply. Commercial logging operations are extracting over 2.6% of the accessible resource yearly and causing the release of about 22 million tons of carbon. These percentages may seem small, but not if you project their cumulative impact over future decades. It takes centuries, not decades, for rainforests to recover from such changes. Over 6% of the world’s biodiversity resides in these forests but little is known about its resilience. Legally protected areas are being degraded as fast as other areas. This report from Papua New Guinea’s leading University is a wakeup call to address the future of their forests. These issues have global impacts and should also galvanise the Australian and international communities.” --------- Professor Rod Keenan is the Head of School of Forest and Ecosystem Science at the University of Melbourne “The forests of Papua New Guinea are important national assets. Ninety seven percent of forests are under traditional ownership by local communities. PNG has one of the world’s most rapidly growing populations and providing for the economic and human development of this growing population, while maintaining forest cover and the many different values of forests is a major political challenge. There are some examples of good forest practices but current operations are not generally environmentally, economically or socially sustainable in the long-term and changes are required to place PNG forest management on a more sustainable trajectory. If managed sustainably, forests can produce raw materials for development of local industries while continuing to provide the many other values that PNG and the global community demand from forests.
This is an important study and the results have been eagerly-awaited by forest managers and researchers for some time. The figures for forest loss and degradation are consistent with previous studies undertaken by CSIRO in the mid-1990s. The report identifies commercial logging, subsistence cultivation and burning as major drivers of forest change. However, in my view, conversion of forest to oil palm and other intensive agricultural crops is a potentially greater threat to forests in PNG in the longer term. Implementation of some the forest management practices suggested could increase the involvement of local people in forest enterprises, reduce forest degradation and impacts on wildlife habitat and carbon stocks while maintaining forest commodity production and subsistence requirements.” --------- Dr
Allen Allison
is Vice President for Science at Bishop Museum in Honolulu, specialising in
the classification, ecology and distribution of amphibians and reptiles.
Bishop Museum has conducted more than 50 major research expeditions to
various parts of New Guinea and Dr Allison has been working in PNG for about
35 years.. --------- Dr Colin Filer convenes the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University. “To understand what is happening to the forests of PNG, we should be careful to distinguish between the processes of deforestation and forest degradation. Deforestation is normally a permanent process of forest clearance and land use change, but the rate of deforestation in PNG has been relatively low by international standards. ‘Degradation’ is much harder to define and measure. We could say that PNG’s indigenous inhabitants have been ‘degrading’ their forests through the practice of slash-and-burn cultivation for thousands of years. In some areas, this practice seems to have caused the permanent conversion of forests to grasslands, but from a broader perspective, this form of periodic human disturbance has probably made a positive net contribution to PNG’s biodiversity values. When people cut down a selected proportion of the trees in a forest -- whether they are local farmers or big logging companies -- they expect the forest to regenerate, and that is what normally happens. By aggregating measures of deforestation and degradation, this latest report seems to assume that degradation is now just a step on the road to deforestation, and the process of forest regrowth or regeneration has come to a halt. Only in that way could the authors arrive at the conclusion that ‘half of PNG’s forests will be gone within 13 years’. This is a gross exaggeration which might serve some rhetorical or political purpose, but anyone who flies around PNG on a regular basis and can be bothered to look out of an aircraft window must seriously wonder how this change could actually come about.” --------- For more information on the Australian Media Centre, go to www.aussmc.org |
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