FORCERT qualifies Control Wood Certification
Forest Management & Product Certification Service Limited (FORCERT) qualifies and is awaiting its third issue of Control Wood and Chain of Custody certificates for members in the scheme who have attained the status of pre-certification this year. This certification would mean the members entitled will qualify to harvest and sell timber from their land within the established market for better prices having harvested in compliance and within the ambits of law in this Country.
CELCOR’s Policy Research and Law
Paula Bariamu-Nato, CELCOR
For those readers, who are somewhat new to these series of articles; CELCOR within its reform program in 2010 secured a grant from the European Union to assist, improve and strengthen policy and legislative frameworks in support of biodiversity conservation, environmental protection and protection of communal property rights.
People Empowered to Know their Rights on their Land
A one week “Community Legal Awareness” workshop was held from 7-11 March 2011 at Sek, Alexisafan Madang. The workshop was hosted by Foundation for People and Community Development Inc, (FPCD), a local NGO whose main business is training and capacity building of forest resource owners who want to do forestry on their own land and are interested in meeting the forest management standards and criteria set by the International Forest Stewardship Council for better benefits both economically and environmentally. The workshop was facilitated by lawyers of the Center for Environmental Law & Community Rights (CELCOR) Inc., an NGO that specializes in carrying out awareness in environmental law and community rights.
Commission of Inquiry ordered into SABL
An intensive campaign led by the PNG Eco Forestry Forum (EFF) and its member NGO’s since the beginning of this year was finally rewarded when the Government by the Acting Prime Minister Sir Sam Abal on the 29th June 2011 publicly ordered a commission of inquiry (COI) into the Lands Department and the supposedly fraudulent acquisition of customary land through the granting of Special Agriculture and Businesses Leases (SABL), a process provided under the Lands Act 1996. Also announced was a moratorium on the granting of SABL and Forest Clearance authorities. Subsequently, on the 3rd July 2011, the Acting Prime Minister announced publicly the composition of the Commission of Inquiry, its duration and its terms of reference for its establishment. The COI is given three months to complete its investigations and to provide a report to NEC to be presented to parliament. The inquiry is scheduled to commence on the 12th of July 2011 and is to be completed by end of September.
Court Awards Damages for Environmental Destruction for Illegal Logging
The National Court for the first time in the history of Papua New Guinea has awarded a total of K226, 550,000 claims for environmental damages in favour of landowners in the Kiunga Aiambak area of the Western Province after a court battle that took ten years long. The decision was handed down by National Court judge Justice Cathy Davani on the 21st of June 2011 against a Malaysian logging company, Concord Pacific which caused massive environmental damages in the area.
CELCOR’S Successful Campaign against the Irregularities of the World Bank Smallholder Agriculture Development Project (SADP)
A full investigation was ordered into the project policy irregularities of the Smallholder Agriculture Development Project (SADP) by the World Bank.
Climate Change/REDD progress at EFF pushes for participation and collaboration in 2010 and continuing
THE Climate Change efforts of the Forum and its members are progressing well in the midst of ongoing challenges. Though EFF followed the climate change debate and actions since COP 13 in Bali in 2007, changes to its organization structure to take on board the climate change as a core program happened in 2009. The Climate Change section is now taken care of by two full time staff, the Climate Change Coordinator and the Climate Change Officer.
Successful Conservation, Land Use Planning in the Remote Aldelberts, Madang
By: Francis Hurahura- Director, PNG Forest Program.
Ten years of much toiling and hardship by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) a member of EFF, the Aldelberts Conservation Cooperative Society and the communities in the Almami Local Level Government area, Bogia District , in the remote Adelbert ranges of the Madang Province have been finally rewarded on the 14th October 2010, as the first of their kind in the country to get Fair Trade Certification ( FTC) for Cocoa.
More Training in Preparation for REDD, WWF
By: Oala Iuda, GIS Officer, WWF WMPO PNG
Oala Iuda, GIS Officer for WWF WMPO, was among a number of PNG participants who attended a week-long training workshop on “Methods of Biomass Estimation and Forest-Cover Mapping in the Tropics” sponsored by the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) and the Center for Climate Change Studies (C3S) at the University of Mulawarman, East Kalimantan, Indonesia from the 8 to 12 November 2010.
Mangrove Conservation is Essential, A Teacher Training Syllabus for Schools in East Hiri,, Central Province
By: Steven Gimbo (WWF)
To determine the importance of conserving mangroves and the need for awareness in the sustainable use of mangroves, the World Wide Fund (WWF), a member of the Eco Forestry Forum in collaboration with Motupore Island Research Center (MIRC) of the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and WWF WMPO with funding support from WWF Australia (through AusAID) and WWF UK conducted a study, covering 91 households in 4 Motuan villages within the East Hiri communities of Central Province. This study has paved way for the development of a teacher’s training manual to be used by teachers in schools in the Central Province and hopefully countrywide in the near future.