Partners in Crime: Malaysian loggers, timber markets and the politics of self-interest in Papua New Guinea

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Executive summary: The Paradise Forests of Papua New Guinea are among the largest and most biologically diverse ancient forests left in the world. The future of these forests, and of the people who depend upon them, is currently at the mercy of an international market whose voracious appetite for cheap timber, furniture and flooring is driving ancient forest destruction. This market, led in Papua New Guinea´s case by China´s huge demand for raw material for furniture manufacture, turns a blind eye to the human and environmental devastation it is causing. Many of the transnational logging companies that currently dominate Papua New Guinea´s forestry industry have moved to these forests after depleting rich forests nearer to home. They come with appalling corporate, environmental and social records. Unsurprisingly, their record to date in Papua New Guinea is no better: promises to local communities are broken while the forest around them is destroyed and good governance is undermined. This report profiles the scandalous Kiunga-Aiambak Road Project as one example of what is going wrong in Papua New Guinea´s forests. It also provides a lens through which to examine the impact on those forests of the international trade in furniture, flooring, cheap plywood and other wood products.Key points

• Rogue industry: the controversial Kiunga-Aiambak ‘Road Project´ has in practice been nothing but a ploy for a Malaysian-owned logging company to access thousands of hectares of Papua New Guinea´s rainforest.
• Politics of self-interest: the project – which has been unlawful from the very beginning has been built on relationships between a number of high-ranking Papua New Guinean officials and Malaysian-born Philip Lee, Concord Pacific general manager.
• Ancient forest destruction: the seven-year project has had extensive and well-documented environmental, economic and social consequences, including the loss of the forest resource itself, the devastation of traditional food sources and the non-payment of millions of kina in revenue owed to local landowners.
• International market demand: the Kiunga-Aiambak Road Project is just one example of everything that is wrong with Papua New Guinea´s forestry sector – one that, like the rest of the industry, is driven by demand from the international market for cheap timber. Despite all the evidence of the scandalous nature of the logging industry in Papua New Guinea, countries such as Australia and China are expanding imports of Papua New Guinea forest products.
• Opportunity for change: given determined community and national leadership together with international support, local initiatives and larger-scale ecologically responsible forest use could work together to reform Papua New Guinea´s defective forestry industry.

Num. pages: 20