BY JIM GREEN
Greenpeace activists blocked the export of illegally logged timber from the Kiunga-Aiambak logging project in western Papua New Guinea on March 12. Volunteers locked themselves onto a barge carrying the timber and also obstructed the crane of the ship, the Hua Yang, preventing the loading of logs at Umuda Island.
"This is modern daylight robbery disguised as a development project", said Greenpeace forest campaigner Bianca Havas. "It is a flagrant example of the ongoing destruction of ancient forests worldwide and the communities who depend on them for their livelihoods."
Havas said the action was taken at the request of landowners in the Kiunga-Aiambak area. Landowners say the logging project has bought them social, environmental and economic problems. They have been harassed and threatened with firearms by loggers and police.
Greenpeace's Brian Brunton said, "The government should seize the assets of Concord Pacific in order to reimburse landowners for their losses". The government should also "reject any application to extend the project, investigate and prosecute those involved in the scandal and permanently revoke Concord Pacific's status as a 'Forest Industries Participant'", Brunton added.
On May 14, the third and final day of the Greenpeace occupation of the ship and the barge, PNG Prime Minister Mekere Morauta released a statement that said the logging project "should never have occurred", adding that it "failed to comply with legal requirements for such a project".
In 1999, the PNG government made a half-serious attempt to halt illegal logging at Kiunga-Aiambak, but it continued unimpeded after timber companies won a court injunction in late 1999. The PNG government did little to challenge the injunction until prompted by the recent protest and the world-wide publicity it generated.
Morauta said the PNG attorney-general had been instructed to join the legal case in support of the government's Forest Authority against Concord Pacific. A court hearing will determine whether the Forest Authority can take action against the project.
Morauta said that authorities will investigate claims of violence and other human rights abuses associated with the logging project. He noted that an independent review last year "specified that the project failed to comply with legal requirements ... and that the timber authority and its extensions should never have been granted". Morauta added that further extensions to the Kiunga-Aiambak timber authority "will neither be permitted nor valid".
Updates on the struggle and a detailed Greenpeace report, Partners in Crime, Malaysian Loggers, Timber Markets and the Politics of Self Interest in PNG, are available at .
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 22, 2002.
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