Forestry

Prime Minister James Marape made the announcement on Thursday, May 25^th, when meeting with Lae’s private sector.

Marape thanked employers for remaining loyal to PNG for the past decades despite the deteriorating business environment.

“Those incentives will be announced very soon, in fact, within the six months going forward before the 2024 budget is brought in,” he stated. “We will announce certain incentives that we will be giving to the manufacturing sector and more so, agriculture, forestry and fisheries based here in our country.”

The stumps were planted in mid-March, during the commemoration of the annual United Nations sanctioned International Day of Forests held at Kuriva Forestry Plantation, an hour’s drive out of Port Moresby.

The Forestry sector takes its hat off to the Grand Chief who, during his term as Prime Minister, led international talks which greatly progressed forestry and climate change initiatives.

In 2002, the Somare-led Government introduced the Export Driven Recovery Strategy to resurrect the ailing economy.

Prime Minister, James Marape, says resource laws will be amended over the next two years to build a solid foundation for the economy.

Prime Minister Marape said some of the policy fundamentals will be put in place, and legislative amendments and laws passed over the next two years before the 2022 National Elections.

Marape said amendments to resource laws will be brought before Parliament.

Current reviews include the Oil & Gast Act and the Mining Act.

The regional meeting, a joint effort of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and hosted by the Government of Samoa, saw participation from Ministers from Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Island, Tokelau, Tonga and Vanuatu, and Heads of Delegation from American Samoa, Australia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Palau, Tuvalu, and Wallis and Futuna.

The Timber Legality Verification System workshop aims to achieve this.

The PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA), NGO’s and Timber Businesses will discuss ways to strengthen the country’s  timber verification system in a 2 day workshop which began On Wednesday in Port Moresby.

“What we intend to get out of this workshop is to have a system that we can use to implement the Timber Legality Standards” explained PNGFA’s Director of Policy & Planning Dr Ruth Turia.

The K80 million was borrowed by the Government to supplement the National Budget.

Tomuriesa said in Parliament today that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch have already given the assurance for the reimbursement of those funds.

He assured that the funds will be paid back to the trust account through the Forestry Department.

Tomuriesa was responding to question raised by Member for Kikori Mark Maipakai on when the funds will be reimbursed.

Picture by Kennedy Bani

The PM made this remark when opening the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries forest ministers meeting in Port Moresby today.

The forestry sector is one of the major revenue earners for the country and illegal logging is also a lucrative industry.        

“There have been abuses in the past, but we are working to create a more sustainable future.

“We are taking a number of significant steps forward in ensuring forestry sustainability.

The government says the revocation came because it understands exemption orders allowing companies to fell timber for uses other than the export of round logs were being abused.

The government says agencies have been mobilised to ensure the revocation of the permits is adhered to.

One of the areas where the issue has impacted negatively is on Mono in Shortland Islands.

Ongoing tensions between landowners and logging companies have resulted in armed conflict that the government says has divided communities and become a national security issue.