Posted 2:03 PM by Luigi
The rape of PNG forests

Sexual coercion, corruption and assault are the coin of PNG's illegal logging industry, writes Greg Roberts in The Australian.

Zibe sighs as he explains why he believes he was sacked by Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Michael Somare as the country's environment minister."I trod on too many toes in the logging industry and it's got powerful friends," Zibe says. "I insisted that our industry standards should be no less than those in Australia. I paid a high price for that."

PNG government documents obtained by Inquirer demonstrate how Malaysian logging companies that hold concessions to log eight million hectares of rainforest in PNG are operating in defiance of the country's laws with the blessing of Somare's Government. Port Moresby now faces restrictions on timber imports by Australia and other Western nations, which are increasingly frustrated at PNG's failure to act against unscrupulous operators in the industry.

Zibe says that at the time of his sacking 18 months ago, he was implementing measures to crack down on the corruption, human rights abuses and environmental degradation that have become the industry's hallmarks. Since then, the environment department's enforcement unit has been effectively disbanded. "Now there is nobody watching over what these companies get up to," says Zibe, who remains an MP in Somare's ruling National Alliance Party.

Compliance audits completed by the PNG Government's forestry review team have found numerous breaches of regulations in all 11 projects studied. A report on the Asengseng project, typical of the rest, said loan conditions negotiated between the Government and the World Bank to improve forestry practices were not met. Political pressure resulted in new permits continuing to be issued quickly, in defiance of government policy to log forests on a sustainable basis.

The report said compliance requirements were "typically either trivialised or ignored". The Asengseng project was illegal because it was not mentioned in the national forest plan and there was no legal instrument to record landowner agreement. Three government agencies failed to comply with due process. The audits, the review team's latest, were conducted over 12 months to March last year.

Somare has a long personal association with the loggers. As a director of the Sepik River Development Corporation, he was forced to front a 1989 inquiry into the industry by retired Australian judge Thomas Barnett, who found Somare should be referred tothe Ombudsman Commission for allegedly lying under oath about a logging concession held by the SRDC in East Sepik Province.

The SRDC, which Somare still heads, negotiated a logging deal over the concession in 1991 with Hey Bridge Pty Ltd, in which his son Arthur is a leading shareholder. Arthur Somare was forced to resign in March as PNG's planning minister over allegations of financial impropriety.
Last year, Malaysian company Brilliant Investment took over the SRDC concession. The PNG Forest Board is investigating whether timber permits issued to Brilliant are valid.

Three of Somare's five children are directors of their family company, SAB: Arthur, his brother Sana and their sister Betha, who is the Prime Minister's press secretary. SAB is involved in several logging operations in East Sepik Province.

PNG authorities are investigating allegations of illegal logging in the Morijau wildlife management area in the province. Betha Somare says she knows nothing about logging in the reserve but she declines to comment further on the operations of SAB.

Speaking on behalf of her father, Betha Somare says he had nothing to do with the Hey Bridge negotiations and has no direct involvement with the industry. "He has never profited from a logging company."

She defends the Prime Minister's forestry policies. "The people of PNG want development, but not at any price. His leadership has always guaranteed this."

A confidential National Executive Council minute signed by Somare in 2004 shows how his Government rejected warnings by the World Bank that it would withhold about $30million worth of loan funds because of concerns about logging in the Wawoi Guavi and Vailala logging concessions, both held by Malaysian forestry giant Rimbunan Hijau.

Somare conceded that the issue risked damaging relations with the World Bank and compromising PNG's ability to raise loans. However, the permits would not be revoked because of the "adverse political, social, economic and legal implications", Somare wrote. The loan funds were subsequently withheld.

The Rimbunan Hijau Group is owned by Malaysia's Tiong family. It accounts for 80 per cent of logging in PNG and has an annual turnover of more than $1.5billion. Rimbunan is a big player in the country's economic and political life. Royalties from the group make up 3 per cent of government revenue. Rimbunan owns one of PNG's two main newspapers, The National, which runs a fiercely pro-logging line, as well as its biggest supermarket chain, RH Hypermarket. Somare declared in a recent speech that Rimbunan "must be supported" in the face of international criticism of its logging practices.

The closeness of ties between the Somare Government and Rimbunan is reflected in a 2004 letter sent by Rimbunan managing director James Lau to Forest Minister Patrick Pruaitch. Lau told Pruaitch he had learned of a Forest Board decision to issue a show-cause notice to the company over its Vailala concession. Pruaitch promptly wrote to board chairman Wari Iamo ordering the indefinite deferral of a board meeting planned to discuss the notice, which was never issued.

Documents show how Pruaitch seeks reimbursement from his own department for expenses. A Forest Authority remittance advice records K680 ($279) being paid to Pruaitch as a refund of 2003 club membership fees for the South Pacific Motor Sports Club in Port Moresby.

A memorandum from Wari Iamo to National Forest Service finance controller Robby Louai of the same date shows Iamo sought a refund for the same fees. A report commissioned by the National Forest Service from consultants Quest Investigation International examined spending of NFS money by Pruaitch over four months in 2004. Six different motor vehicles were provided to Pruaitch, including a car worth K3797 for a staff member to "pick up some confidential document". The minister receives travelling and entertainment allowances but he dipped into the public purse - augmented in large part by Australia's $300million a year in budgetary aid to PNG - for such items as a K2426 dinner for "bodyguards". The minister's spending was an "exercise in self-enrichment and double dipping of the public purse", the report said.

Somare ignored the report's recommendation that Pruaitch be referred to police. Pruaitch's office declined to respond to written questions from Inquirer.

Some of the most severe criticism of the PNG Government's handling of the industry comes from its own agencies. A PNG Planning Department report described as "cause for serious concern" complaints in 2004 that Rimbunan used police to silence complaints against logging. Investigators were told that protesters were bashed and their homes were torched.

The closeness of ties between police and the company is reflected in a letter from the Kamusie police detachment to Rimbunan company Straits Marine asking for money to "complete the mission". Rimbunan community relations manager Axel Wilhelm replies that police have never been asked to act against logging opponents. PNG's National Intelligence Organisation claimed in reports on Rimbunan's Turama and Vailala logging concessions that people died after drinking from the Karoa River after fuel drums had been dumped in it, and others fell ill when fuel and industrial waste were dumped in the Purari River. A 2004 report by PNG's Community Development Department said timber workers in Wawoi Guavi were paid less than one kina an hour, worked 12-hour days and were not supplied with boots or helmets.

Rimbunan's 1.5-million-hectare Wawoi Guavi concession has been particularly controversial. A villager from the area, Patrick Pate, points to a scar on his nose as he tells Inquirer he was assaulted recently by unknown assailants after leading an anti-logging protest. "They don't let anybody stand in their way," Pate says.

He claims that locals working for Rimbunan get little out of logging. "They got credit with shops owned by the company, and that uses up all their money." People often sell their daughters to Malaysians in the logging camps for sex. "All the old family ties are falling apart."

Wilhelm replies that the group's 4000 employees are treated well and that logging operations are always conducted in accordance with PNG laws. He says he is unaware of any links between logging-related pollution and deaths or sickness. Allegations of environmental degradation and sexual abuse were made by marginal groups of landowners "coerced by third parties pursuing their own agendas", he says.

In a National Court document, landowner Max Mera claims he was offered K30,000 to drop a 2004 court action against a logging operation by Rimbunan company Frontier Holdings; Mera claims he initially agreed and accepted a down payment of K3000, but changed his mind.

Wilhelm replies that Mera had fallen out with fellow landowners and that Rimbunan never offered bribes, adding: "We hold on record various attempts by marginal groups of landowners and third parties to extort money from the company in exchange for not creating problems."
A PNG Community Development Department report says women employed as domestic servants in the Vanimo concession by Malaysian company Vanimo Forest Products in 2004 were expected to provide sexual favours and were beaten if they refused. Women were forced to insert ball bearings in their vaginas before sex to boost the men's pleasure and had given birth to large numbers of illegitimate children. Fourteen complaints of child sex abuse were lodged against one foreign company employee. The company did not return calls.

Reports of this nature have prompted a Howard government decision to ban the import of illegally logged timber from PNG and elsewhere. Details of the ban are expected to be announced soon. Brisbane-based TLB Timbers imports 17,000 cubic metres, about half of Rimbunan's annual timber exports, to Australia. A TLB Timbers spokesman says there is no evidence any Rimbunan timber has been felled illegally.

International pressure on Port Moresby over the logging issue is mounting, nonetheless. New Zealand's High Court has ruled in favour of the expulsion by the NZ Timber Importers Association of Rimbunan company the LumberBank.

In London, the Wolseley Group has banned the import of plywood from China, the main market for PNG timber. Activists in Australia plan a campaign against the ANZ bank because Rimbunan is a client and the bank provides guarantees for logging companies to secure approval for new projects in PNG. An ANZ spokesman says the bank has raised concerns with Rimbunan.

Anti-logging activists claim the Somare Government is stepping up a campaign of intimidation against them. Eco-Forestry Forum co-ordinator Ken Mondaia says he moves house in Port Moresby every two or three months because of threats. "You don't feel safe when you keep getting visited by police. You are always looking over your shoulder."

An impediment to new logging projects has been removed with recent legislative changes. Instead of having to go through the usual assessment processes, new projects can be classified as extensions to existing logging concessions. That gets around the difficulty Rimbunan had when PNG's Ombudsman Commission concluded that the 800,000ha Kamula Dosa extension to its Wawoi Guavi concession was illegal because it bypassed approval processes.

"A 37-step approval process has been reduced to nothing," says Port Moresby lawyer Anne Kajir, whose stand against illegal logging this year earned her a coveted international conservation award, the Goldman Environmental Prize.

"We've gone from a situation that was very bad to one that is much worse," Kajir says.