The political time-bomb that awaits PNG's new government, in a report by Greenpeace Australia Pacific released today, gives details of how a new type of concession introduced by the Somare government in 2003 called Special Agricultural and Business Leases has hastened the deforestation of the country.
Immediately after he ousted predecessor Sir Michael Somare from the prime ministership last August, the present caretaker prime minister, Peter O'Neill, initiated a commission of inquiry into controversial forestry concessions granted over the previous decade when Sir Michael held power.
The commission's report was completed in May, just before recent elections, and will be tabled in the new parliament. It is believed to include damning criticisms of the granting of a new form of lease for more than 5 million hectares of forest owned by locals under traditional title. With results of the recent election expected this week, Mr O'Neill is almost certain to lead the new government, but with Sir Michael and his party members as part of the governing coalition.
The Greenpeace report says that since 2003, 72 ''special'' leases have been granted, in many cases to Malaysian and other foreign logging companies in alliance with dummy landowner companies or co-operatives. PNG log exports grew almost 20 per cent in 2011 due almost entirely to logging within these special leases, Greenpeace said in the report, titled Up for Grabs....
Jungle clad mountains in Papua New Guinea, shot by Colin Freeman (ColinF), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
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