Greenpeace launches report, Preserving Paradise: The value of protecting Papua New Guinea’s forests for climate

“Our report questions whether PNG is fit to play the carbon game,” said
Greenpeace forest campaigner Grant Rosoman. “There is huge potential for capturing the value of forest carbon but ongoing destructive logging and
poor forestry governance mean PNG has a long way to go to convince the
world it can protect its forests and distribute funds equitably to local
communities.”

Deforestation is one of the main causes of climate change, accounting
for almost a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. Selective logging is
often thought to have a low impact on the amount of carbon stored in
forests because, although degraded, the forests still exist. However,
the report shows that selective logging also releases a huge amount of
carbon.

“An assessment of one of PNG’s major logging concessions, Wawoi Guavi,
found that the potential value of the carbon is many times greater than
the benefits that can be gained by industrial logging,” Mr Rosoman said.
“In a world where forests are valued to counter climate change, it makes
no economic sense at all to log forests.”

As co-chair of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, PNG has placed
itself in a leadership role within the international debate on carbon
financing for forests. However, PNG’s reputation on forest management is
woeful. No logging concession is able to meet the International Tropical
Timber Organization’s criteria for sustainable logging and none, except
for two community eco-forestry group schemes, are certified by the
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

There continue to be allegations of corruption in PNG – with government
ministers and the powerful and wealthy logging industry both heavily
implicated. A high level of corruption and poor governance has led to
the vast majority of logging being illegal.

The money from decades of forestry in PNG has not filtered back to
forest communities and many still have high levels of unemployment, low
life expectancy, high infant mortality, poor education rates and low
standards of living. They have seen no benefit from logging, just the
deterioration and destruction of their forests and waterways, the two
things that are key to their very survival.

“The forests of Papua New Guinea are the nation’s wealth,” Mr Rosoman
said. “It is a crime against PNG’s future generations to log them
cheaply for wood or clear them for other purposes.”

“The key challenge is not if carbon financing will come, it is a matter
of when,” Mr Rosoman said. “For PNG this will depend on how it will
provide strong forest governance, demonstrate that it can share the
benefits equitably with local communities, and ensure management that
adds up to high quality forest protection.”

If PNG fails, it will not only lose hundreds of millions of Euros from
carbon funds, no doubt delaying its development, but it will also
destroy the incredible wildlife within its forests, destroy the
livelihood of millions of its citizens and continue to damage the
climate instead of playing a role in fixing it.