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A child stands before the remains of a limestone hill which has been carved away and destroyed by loggers, in the rainforests of the Turama Extension logging concession, near the village of Omati, near Paia, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea.
Enlarge imagePoor forestry governance coupled with illegal and destructive logging is diminishing the carbon value of PNG’s forests and is the major source of its greenhouse gas emissions.
Google map: environmental and community impacts of logging in PNG
Deforestation is one of the main causes of climate change, accounting for almost one-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.
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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.
Videos: See how logging affects communities and workers
An assessment in the report 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.
In a world where forests are valued to counter climate change, it makes no economic sense at all to log forests.
The ability of PNG to meaningfully participate in any future carbon funds will depend on PNG providing strong forest governance, demonstrating that it can share carbon money equitably with local communities, and ensuring management that adds up to high quality forest protection.
