Publication Thumbnail

Wipim Tapila (Western Province)

View Publication

The sustainable timber yield principle has been complied with. Almost all of the forest (98%) is classified by the Office of Environment and Conservation as “fragile”. The gross loggable area is overstated in the FMA document by an estimated 75,000 ha, resulting in a large over-estimate of the annual sustainable cut and creating landowner expectations which cannot be met. The gross loggable area may also not have taken account of forest losses due to fire. The potential sustainable annual cut is too small to support a conventional stand-alone log export project, although log export will not be provided for if this project is developed as an extension of TP 1-06 Oriomo Wimare as directed by the PNGFA Board. The right of the PNGFA to implement conservation set asides (and the consequences) has not been bought forward into the Project Guidelines.