Australia Aid Money Training PNG Foresters

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>> AUSTRALIAN AID MONEY GOING TO TRAIN PNG FORESTERS 


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                    GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>> AUSTRALIAN AID MONEY GOING TO TRAIN PNG FORESTERS 
 
SYDNEY, 2 March, 1995 (GP) Australia is planning to channel
millions of dollars into forestry human resource development for
Papua New Guinean forestry officers instead of taking measures to
halt the alarming rate of logging in the country, according to
four PNG environmental campaigners touring Australia.
 
Following a meeting with Pacific Affairs Minister Gordon Bilney
in Canberra this week, representatives of the Big Bush Bugarup
Tour said Australia was wasting its money by propping up the pro-
logging PNG Government with hundreds of millions of aid dollars
every year.
 
According to Gabriel Molok, a PNG environmentalist from the East
Sepik Council of Women, the Australian International Development
Assistance Bureau (AIDAB) was proposing to spend $11 million on
PNG forestry training to log the rainforests. This type of
training will only take effect after several years, meanwhile
funds for alternatives to large scale logging remain scarce.   
"Our forests are being logged at such a rate by Malaysian
companies that they will be gone within our generation," Molok
said. What is the point of lengthy training of new forestry
officers? This is yet another example of inappropriate aid from
Australia to the PNG Government.
 
"We suggest that the Australian Government links its aid to PNG
to a raw log export ban."
 
Molok said people on the ground in PNG were not seeing the
results of the annual $327 million being pumped into the country
from Australia.
 
"While our people are without schools and hospitals, the forests
will continue to be under threat," Molok said. "Australian aid
needs to be channelled into projects which are run by local
communities for local communities. It should not end up as budget
support for a misguided government."
 
The group also met with the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade which is finalising work on a code of conduct for logging
companies operating in the South Pacific. There has been no
consultation about the code with local communities, NGOs and PNG
groups remain sceptical that it would make any real change to the
current situation.
 
 
"Australia's priority should be ensuring that Papua New Guinea
finds alternatives to large scale logging rather than coming up
with a code of conduct which in effect, legitimises logging
operations," Molok said.
 
The Big Bush Bugarup Tour has been supported by a coalition of
Australian groups - Australian Council for Overseas Aid,
Community Aid Abroad, Greenpeace, Brisbane and Sydney Rainforest
Action Groups, Rainforest Information Centre and Worldwide Fund
for Nature.
 
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Elisabeth Mealey at Greenpeace: 02-2114066
or Matthew Jamieson - tour coordinator - 018-173598 or Garrick
Martin and Alex Ryan at Sydney Rainforest Action Group - 02-
2612104.