The Political Economy Of Forest Management In Papua New Guinea

"Recent developments in the political, social, environmental and economic dimensions of forest management in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are described. Subjects discussed include: (1) the landowner-government relationship in West New Britain; (2) a social history of the Hawaiian Local Forest Area, East Sepik Province; (3) the landowners' dilemma in the Buhem-Mongi Timber Rights Purchase (TRP) Area; (4) analysis of the failure of a logging project; (5) the commercial intervention of a Malaysian logging company in New Ireland Province; (6) logging in the Madang North Coast TRP; (7) the historical development of the Gogol Woodchip Project; (8) the prospects for logging on Muyow, Milne Bay Province; (9) export statistics of PNG; (10) the regulation of PNG's timber industry; (11) small-scale community-based forestry and biodiversity conservation; (12) the politics of large-scale timber consumption in Japan; (13) the economics of sustainable development in PNG; (14) biophysical parameters for the sustainable utilization of PNG's forests; (15) conservation and appropriate resource management strategies in PNG; (16) incentives for rain forest conservation in PNG; and (17) a comparison of nature conservation in Irian Jaya (Indonesia) and PNG."--pub. desc.

This report provides an overview of the context for REDD+ in Papua New Guinea. It describes the main drivers of deforestation and degradation, the institutional and political economic context within which REDD+ is being developed, and maps the evolution of a national REDD+ strategy and associated policy and legislation during 2008–2012. It highlights the opportunities and challenges of developing policies that can provide climate-effective, cost-efficient and equitable REDD+ outcomes for Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea’s system of customary land tenure provides both enormous opportunities and challenges for REDD+. Gaining the free, prior and informed consent of customary landowners who own the forests that REDD+ initiatives are designed to protect and developing equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms will be a key challenge. Corruption and a lack of transparency and accountability within the government are significant problems for the country to overcome. Political instability and capacity constraints within the public service also pose challenges to the smooth and steady development and implementation of REDD+ policies. While there appears to be a growing national discourse around good governance and anti-corruption, a complex political economy has thwarted many previous attempts at forest policy reform in the country and REDD+ is likely to face significant opposition from those who currently benefit from the unsustainable exploitation of the country’s forests. But the outlook for REDD+ in Papua New Guinea need not be pessimistic. Many different stakeholder groups including government agencies, civil society organisations, donors, private sector actors and research institutes support the concept of REDD+ in Papua New Guinea. Despite some early missteps in terms of broad stakeholder engagement and national ownership over the policy process, the government has shown genuine progress in developing a transparent and accountable governance structure that can, and is, incorporating the perspectives of multiple stakeholders. Occasional Papers contain research results that are significant to tropical forest issues. This content has been peer reviewed internally and externally. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) CIFOR advances human well-being, environmental conservation and equity by conducting research to help shape policies and practices that affect forests in developing countries. CIFOR is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. Our headquarters are in Bogor, Indonesia, with offices in Asia, Africa and South America.

The Pacific is the last major world region to be discovered by humans. Although small in total land area, its numerous islands and archipelagoes with their startlingly diverse habitats and biotas, extend across a third of the globe. This revised edition of a popular text explores the diverse landforms, climates, and ecosystems of the Pacific island region. Multiple chapters, written by leading specialists, cover the environment, history, culture, population, and economy. The work includes new or completely revised chapters on gender, music, logging, development, education, urbanization, health, ocean resources, and tourism. Throughout two key issues are addressed: the exceptional environmental challenges and the demographic/economic/political challenges facing the region. Although modern technology and media and waves of continental tourists are fast eroding island cultures, the continuing resilience of Pacific island populations is apparent. This is the only contemporary text on the Pacific Islands that covers both environment and sociocultural issues and will thus be indispensable for any serious student of the region. Unlike other reviews, it treats the entirety of Oceania (with the exception of Australia) and is well illustrated with numerous photos and maps, including a regional atlas. Contributors: David Abbott, Dennis A. Ahlburg, Glenn Banks, John Barker, Geoffrey Bertram, David A. Chappell, William C. Clarke, John Connell, Ron Crocombe, Julie Cupples, Derrick Depledge, Colin Filer, Gerard J. Fryer, Patricia Fryer, Brenden S. Holland, E. Alison Kay, David M. Kennedy, Lamont Lindstrom, Rick Lumpkin, Harley I. Manner, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Nancy McDowell, Hamish A. McGowan, Frank McShane, Simon Milne, R. John Morrison, Dieter Mueller-Dombois, Stephen G. Nelson, Patrick D. Nunn, Michael R. Ogden, Andrew Pawley, Jean-Louis Rallu, Vina Ram-Bidesi, Moshe Rapaport, Annette Sachs Robertson, Richard Scaglion, Donovan Storey, Andrew P. Sturman, Lynne D. Talley, James P. Terry, Randolph R. Thaman, Frank R. Thomas, Caroline Vercoe, Terence Wesley-Smith, Paul Wolffram.

Since its original publication by the International Institute for Environment and Development in 1999, Policy That Works for Forests and People has been recognised as the most authoritative study to date of policy processes that affect forests and people. Providing a thorough analysis of the issues, options and factors that determine different outcomes and bolstered by a major annex containing tools and tactics, the book offers clear and practical advice on how to formulate, manage and implement policies appropriate to different contexts. These are policies that result in real improvements in the governance, use and economic benefits that can flow from forests to those who depend upon them. This book is essential reading for policy-makers, forestry practitioners and academics and students in all areas of forest policy, management and governance.

There is a vast literature on the principles of public administration and good governance, and no shortage of theoreticians, practitioners and donors eager to push for public sector reform, especially in less-developed countries. Papua New Guinea has had its share of public sector reforms, frequently under the influence of multinational agencies and aid donors. Yet there seems to be a general consensus, both within and outside Papua New Guinea, that policy making and implementation have fallen short of expectations, that there has been a failure to achieve 'good governance'. This volume, which brings together a number of Papua New Guinean and Australian-based scholars and practitioners with deep familiarity of policy making in Papua New Guinea, examines the record of policy making and implementation in Papua New Guinea since independence. It reviews the history of public sector reform in Papua New Guinea, and provides case studies of policy making and implementation in a number of areas, including the economy, agriculture, mineral development, health, education, lands, environment, forestry, decentralization, law and order, defence, women and foreign affairs, privatization, and AIDS. Policy is continuously evolving, but this study documents the processes of policy making and implementation over a number of years, with the hope that a better understanding of past successes and failures will contribute to improved governance in the future.

On a remote island in the South Pacific, the Lavongai have consistently struggled to obtain development through logging and commercial agriculture. Yet many Lavongai still long to move beyond the grind of subsistence work that has seemingly defined their lives on New Hanover, Papua New Guinea, for generations. Following a long history of smaller-scale and largely unsuccessful resource development efforts, New Hanover became the site of three multinational-controlled special agricultural and business leases (SABLs) that combined to cover over 75 percent of the island for ninety-nine-year lease terms. These agroforestry projects were part of a national effort to encourage “sustainable” rural development by tapping into the growing global demand for agricultural lands and crops like oil palm and biofuels. They were supposed to succeed where the smaller-scale projects of the past had failed. Unfortunately, these SABLs resulted in significant forest loss and livelihood degradation, while doing little to promote the type of economic development that many Lavongai had been hoping for. It is within this context that We Stay the Same grounds questions of hope for transformative economic change within Lavongai assessments of the inequitable relationships between global processes of resource development and the local lives that have become increasingly defined by the necessities and failures of these processes. Written in a clear and relatable style for students, We Stay the Same combines ethnographic and ecological research to show how the Lavongai continue to survive and make meaningful lives in a situation where their own hopes for a better future have often been used against them as a mechanism of a more distantly profitable dispossession.

This book provides an extended analysis of how resource extraction projects stimulate social, cultural and economic change in indigenous communities. Through a range of case studies, including open cast mining, artisanal mining, logging, deforestation, oil extraction and industrial fishing, the contributors explore the challenges highlighted in global debates on sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and climate change. The case studies are used to assess whether and how development processes might compete and conflict with the market objectives of multinational corporations and the organizational and moral principles of indigenous communities. Emphasizing the perspectives of directly-affected parties, the authors identify common patterns in the way in which extraction projects are conceptualized, implemented and perceived. The book provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the human environments where resource extraction takes place and its consequent impacts on local livelihoods. Its in-depth case studies underscore the need for increased social accountability in the planning and development of natural resource extraction projects.