Rape of tropical forests

Press, 3 February 1981, Page 13

Rape of tropical forests

Bv ALASTAIR < MATHESON in Port’ Moresby > The earth’s dense tropical rainforests, habitat of - ; so mahysrare and valuable species of .flora .and fautia,? .face a grave, threat from a new logging technique. A Although much of thi. rainforest belt encircling the globe on both sides o the Equator is in danger the most immediate prob • lent is ‘ in the;- forests >o> - - jSouth-East. /Asia,'" .. th,/ , 'source, of; so ’many . valu- ■ able hardtVoodiy ' Papua New Guinea is one country where the ■ new technique, known as.. ■l“clear felling” or It ss po- ' litely.' as;' ‘‘cut-and-run,”. isy. denuding: vast Jareas : .ob « ■:luxuriant‘. vegetation ~ as'. multinationals and other ■> foreign companies' exploit i- their concessions and fail to honour'undertakings to ; replant ■ Other countries also •suffering from "total log-. - ; .ging/’ . ...which - ; removes “every .single , tree t< feed . . the\ insatiable appetites of ' wood-chip ‘ plants, includethe: Philippines and parts , of Malaysia and Thailand, while in South America the immense forests of the Amazon have also fallen victim to this' modern technique. / The. result is that not only are some very rare and valuable hardwood trees, which take about 100 years . tdi reach full growth, ending up as wood pulp for the paper mills of Japan and elsewhere, bii’t the large bare . patches resembling lunar

landscapes rapidly degenerate into wasteland? ?, - Contrary to earlier opinions, tropical fbrests -xon-'i sist of very fragile ecdsysttms, .with soil which soon mses its productivity .once it is no. longer, nourished jy. humus from- decaying plants. and other vegeta-ton.-found in the aamp doom of the typiqal troical rainforest. * On a flight to. the. New jiiihea, port of. .Madang, ihe - crosses theT'once-inj-penetrable? Gogol- . Valley, . \vlier;e the formerdense forest.is now ripped-into' long swathes of barren wasteland as all the trees have been stripped and fed into the nearby wood chip plant of Jant, -Ltd, the local subsidiary of a colossal • Japanese paper manufacturing company. . Attempts to elicit, information in Madang about ’this “wood harvesting”Triydustry.? were .politely; 'rejected by- 5 Ideal and Australian officials. Their obvious embarrassment was due to the fact that, contrary to all the promises given when extraction of timber by clear began in (971, the amount of replanted land bears no relation to. what was originally agreed. . . : Most stretches /remain bare, 'stripped of every vestige ' of vegetation by this indiscriminate ' process, since selecting individual trees for cutting down is considered too expensive and time-con- , suming., ; Papua New Guinean

officials describe as frightT ening • the rate at which -,giant bulldozers, crawl :. through the dehse forest, ' often linked .to yone -an-' , other with huge loops of heavy . chain,' ' uprooting , everything-in'their path. Lociil people, who had at first welcomed the logi ging project jinking it would bring roads and much development to this economically,stagnant.- ' area,■■; ...were, soon- dis-; i Hlusiqned they. sav< . fne systematic Tape, of the . land;/ .Oh -.'which they,, .''depended for a living. ’ Thei: .‘fcrops they were : allowed .to' plant on land ' cleared from the forest did [ welf’at first, but since the i’soil ceased to be nourished from the, forest cover yields became lower and lower, while '-the wildlife they , used to trap to supplement..their diet has . also gorie? ’ . . To make matters ?wdrSe, the, agreed logging rate, ; which would have brought about-a gradual change in: conditions. ’■ has been speeded up by technology. ; Indications now are that the entire forest* con- > cession , in the Gogol'Valley will have been worked out by 1984, with' very i few trees to replace those felled. 'A L," ?'■ • ..Meanwhile, huge new concessions- ..have' been .awarded, to ’ other <com- .• panies, mainly ' Japanese ■' arid Australian, to - extract logs by the same process, while others are being i negotiated. ? '.■ ' ' '

T Recently delegates to the World Forestry";, Congress, meeting in neighbouring Indonesia, urged the •/‘wise and sustained exploitation of rain;forests.”. Despite .■ J.ant’s claim that it follows such methods,' - the -company’s tree planting programme, h .by which- fast-growjng eu-T ealyptus will;'replace the felled teak and tropical pine; trees, -has reportedly, fallen far behind schedule. . The Goyernfnent in. Port Moresby: is now taking.' a ; serious’ look at the ; latest developments and' last August Mr Robert-Kor, Minister for Environment and Conservation, —promised there -.would be no further extension i of'-the wood chip industry until the environmental consequences of this in Madang Province could be ascertained,:>; in a special study to be undertaken — .Copyright, LIO.S. ’ >