Pondo (East New Britain Province)
View PublicationThe sustainable timber yield principle has not been complied with (as a consequence of the resource being very small). The TRP either has expired or will expire soon. The project is not in compliance with the Act in that it is not listed in the National Forest Plan for development. Sensible operational procedures have not been complied with in that
there has been no field volumetric inventory. The gross loggable area and estimated loggable volume appear to be significantly overstated. The estimated sustainable annual cut is insufficient to support either a financially efficient logging project or a conventional stand alone log export project. In the absence of a Forest Management Agreement there is no provision for 10% of the gross loggable area to be set aside for conservation purposes. It may be sensible to conserve this resource for domestic sawn timber supply for this heavily logged province.