Forest management certification in West New Britain province, Papua New Guinea

The main objective of this study was to investigate the experiences of the stakeholders who participated or were affected by the `PNG Eco-forestry Program' forest certification scheme. The move to certification as a sustainable forest management alternative was introduced because from 1992 to 1995 the West New Britain Province and Papua New Guinea were under a lot of pressure from unsustainable conventional commercial logging, mainly controlled by large overseas based timber-mafia logging companies. The `PNG Eco-forestry Program' forest certification scheme was established and funded by the European Union under its STABEX FUNDS in 1995 as the Islands Regional and Community Development Program. The Program has achieved some significant outcomes in securing five project areas certified, covering an area of about 8,360 ha, and two newly established Eco-forestry projects one of which are in their final preparation stage for certification. However, to achieve sustainable forest management through certification, the Program is faced with the need for an eco-forestry policy. The application of the `Eleven Steps' approach to achieve sustainable forest management through certification is limited and faced considerable difficulties for seven main reasons: 1) the issue of not being recognized nationally as a management approach to achieve sustainable forest management; 2) the lack of proper research and awareness on current forest policy; 3) the lack of consideration for both markets for sawn timber and non-timber forest products; 4) the use of outdated forest inventory maps and equipment; 5) the lack of funding; 6) the premature relocation of the Program's head office from Kimbe to Lae, and 7) the lack of improvement in market price for sawn timbers. The results from this study suggested that the process of achieving sustainable forest management through certification was flawed for seven main reasons: 1) there were no ecoforestry policies; 2) there were no appropriate forest management standards; 3) the devaluation of the Kina caused a decline in real (free of inflation) market prices for sawn timber; 4) the lack of markets for non-commercial timber species and non-timber forest products; 5) the lack of funding; 6) the lack of participation by resource owners, and 7) the poor landownership determination processes. In addition, the under-resourced Provincial Forest Management Unit was reluctant to provide resource owners with technical and legal advice on current forestry and policy issues. This also negatively impacted the community's participation in the negotiation processes about their forest resources. The Government should change its approach to forest policies to favor of small-scale forestry operations, and improve the current market prices for sawn timber. The local forest owners will then be better able to move towards sustainability by implementing management standards based on ecological sustainability, using an improved system of certification based on the Eleven Steps process and the findings of this study. Recommendations on policy development and research have been provided.