24% Of Papua's Rainforests Destroyed Or Degraded In Past 30 Years - Mongabay

[hatrack]

Nearly one quarter of Papua New Guinea's rainforests were damaged or destroyed between 1972 and 2002, report researchers writing in the journal Biotopica.

The results, which were published in a report last June, show that Papua New Guinea is losing forests at a much faster rate than previously believed. Over the 30-year study period 15 percent of Papua New Guinea's tropical forests were cleared and 8.8 percent were degraded through logging. "Our analysis does not support the theory that PNG’s forests have escaped the rapid changes recorded in other tropical regions," write the authors. "We conclude that rapid and substantial forest change has occurred in Papua New Guinea."

Deforestation and forest degradation in Papua New Guinea are primarily driven by logging, followed by clearing for subsistence agriculture. Since 2002 — a period not covered in the study — reports suggest that conversion of forest for industrial agriculture, especially oil palm plantations, has increased.

The study is based on comparisons between a land-cover map from 1972 and a land-cover map created from nationwide high-resolution satellite imagery recorded since 2002. The authors found that most deforestation occurred in commercially accessible forest, where forest loss range from 1.1 and 3.4 percent per year. Overall deforestation was 0.8 to 1.8 percent per year, higher than reported by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), but lower than neighboring islands including Borneo and Sumatra. Overall Papua New Guinea's primary forest cover fell from 33.23 million hectares to 25.33 million hectares during the period. 2.92 million hectares of forest were degraded by logging.

EDIT

http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0222-png.html

[JohnWxy]

1. Demand for unprocessed logs drives deforestation - and World Bank and IMF policies.

http://www.wrm.org.uy/deforestation/Oceania/Papua.html



The demand for unprocessed logs from Asian markets is the greatest cause of forest loss in Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is the world's fifth largest producer of tropical logs (PNG Resources First Quarter 1997 ). Most of the world's tropical logs are processed domestically by the producing countries, not so with Papua New Guinea. Subject to Indonesia's re-entry into the round log market, behind Malaysia, Papua New Guinea has been the world's second largest exporter of tropical raw logs (Light, 1997). Japan has been the largest importer of Papua New Guinea's logs, with South Korea being the second largest import market (AusAid, 1997). Other significant importers of tropical raw logs from Papua New Guinea have in the past been Malaysia, Philippines, China, Hong Kong and India.

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China may well become the main destination of logs exported from Papua New Guinea. In March 1998 the China Daily reported that China would decrease domestic harvesting of its timber stocks, and seek to import about 10 million cubic metres of logs by the year 2002. China was seeking to stimulate its housing sector. A separate China Daily report said that Guangdong would expand foreign investment in its timber processing industries. Sixty Guangdong projects in timber processing, pulp, paper-making and fruit orchards had drawn cumulative pledges of $US850 million ( Reuters 22 March 1998).

IMF, World Bank and UNDP

The IMF over the past twenty years in Papua New Guinea has advocated smaller Government. The policy was achieved by no-growth in, and budget cuts to, regulating agencies. Tragically, Structural Adjustment Program policies resulted in the deconstruction of the Department of Environment and Conservation . They impeded the ability of government to directly manage the forests and logging. Both the IMF and the World Bank are supporters of Papua New Guinea's log export trade, and despite the rhetoric to the contrary, by implication, are an underlying cause of forest loss in Papua New Guinea. In November 1998, there was an indication by World Bank officials that the World Bank may be prepared to support a moratorium on new log projects. - there has been no confirmation of this.

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One of the most pernicious World Bank and IMF Structural Adjustment Program policies, indirectly linked with forest loss, is the user-pays principle. The user-pays principle forces rainforest people to pay school fees and fees for health services. Anecdotal evidence from rainforest landholders suggests school fees are a prime motivator for people to sell their timber rights. Another driving force behind the export of logs is the State's demand for foreign currency. Recently, the PNG Kina has been in free-fall. This is partly because it is following the market trends for other regional currencies, and partly because of the loss of investor confidence in the current government.

World Bank and IMF policy insists that countries allow their currencies to float on the market. Small countries like Papua New Guinea then loose control of their currency and become desperate to sell their raw materials, regardless of price or wider impact.

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[tom_paine]

2. 24%? We can do better than that! C'mon team, let's get that up to 50% and 75%

Yaaaayyyyy TEAM!

:sarcasm: :rofl:

[XemaSab]

3. 330+ endemc bird species

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