Critics see REDD over Papua New Guinea carbon schemes

By ILYA GRIDNEFF,

PAPUA NEW GUINEA CORRESPONDENT

August 6, 2010

 

AAP

 

Two carbon trade projects proposed for Papua New Guinea have been hammered by critics who list a litany of inconsistencies, dubious science, legal issues and concerns landowners will be ripped off.

PNG's pilot Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation' (REDD) schemes, which are part of the United Nation's framework for tackling climate change, are in the Kamula Doso forest, Western Province and April Salumei, East Sepik Province.

But documents obtained by AAP show the PNG government does not support the REDD projects and there is a scathing reaction to the Project Development Documents (PDD) that were submitted in July for verification and approval from the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) regulator.

The Kamula Doso venture is led by Nupan, a company run by controversial Australian businessman Kirk Roberts, a former disqualified horse trainer who also ran a Philippines cockfighting business.

Mr Roberts, who is a self-proclaimed "carbon kingpin", has travelled extensively across PNG promising landowners if they stop logging their forests, millions - and potentially billions - of dollars will come via his carbon trade projects.

The April Salumei project is run by the Rainforest Management Alliance (RMA), which did not respond to emailed questions regarding their plans or who they were exactly.

No phone number is listed on RMA's website.

Stephen Hooper is the only name on the RMA site that also lists a connection to Earth Sky, an Australian company previously embroiled in PNG carbon trade scandals and operated by Queensland boilermaker Greg Corby.

The submitted comments to the CCBA show PNG's Office of Climate Change and Development Executive Director Wari Iamo is dead against both REDD proposals.

"The PNG government does not recognise and disavows any partnership, support, endorsement or any form of connection to the proposed projects," he wrote.

Dr Iamo includes legal advice from O'Brien lawyers which equates both schemes to an infamous Pacific land scam from the 19th century.

O'Brien states: "PNG requires extensive legislation to be passed by the parliament before it can implement any system to commercialise carbon sequestration.

"Both projects are legally untenable.

"Until the legal regime in PNG establishes a foundation for such schemes they are little different to a modern day version of the false prospectus for the Port Breton Colonisation Scheme issued by the Marquis du Reys and circulated through Europe in the late 1870s."

World Wide Fund for Nature's Matt Leggett raised concerns that communities within the project areas would suffer.

"The level of community consultation and understanding of the project in the region is insufficient to guarantee the project has ensured free, prior and informed consent of landowners," he wrote.

"The proposal does not adequately recognise or account for existing disputes over land tenure and landowner company representation in the region."

Forest carbon scientist, Sunil Sharma, who worked for Carbon Planet, the Adelaide-based company that recently went bankrupt after investing more than $1 million with Nupan, is also against the April Salumei plan.

"The threat to the forest in the Project Area is not convincing and the PDD contradicts itself."

The only support comes from Theo Yasause, the former head of PNG's climate change office, suspended and under investigation into his dealings with Mr Roberts, including falsely signing carbon deals for Nupan.

"April Salumei will deliver and open the eyes as the vehicle for future development," he writes.

Inap lo kago boi, brukim bus tasol!

By MAVARA HANUA

For the past 100 years, most of our iconic enterprises have been built on a pyramid scheme of bos man and his kago boi. 

From the perched plantations of the Niugini Islands to the cattle valleys of the Whagi Plain, it was all about the kago boi doing loads of work while boss yells every conceivable biological description of the female anatomy, to bring a sense of order.

 No knowledge building, no high end skill transfers, it was all about using our boys and girls as lorries and trucks.  

I’d say not much has changed.

 Ok so we wear trendy clothes, have slick phones and work in air-conditioned offices but guys, we’re still doing so much work for little remuneration. 

We’re still kago boi’ing around. 

But like anything in Papua New Guinea, there are those who are making change in the most PNG way possible: Brukim Bush Tasol.

Several years ago I befriended an influential lawyer who has been a dear mentor to me.  He stands a mere 4, 9 but you knew he was from the bar.

 With a shot gun of a voice and a veneer of nobility, he commanded great respect amongst his peers when he delivered his arguments in court. 

A senior partner in one of PNG’s respected law firms, he had great insight on the daily fights Papua New Guineans endured over the years in the big bad commercial world where the white boys and girls have it all.

 Quite unsurprisingly he’d tell me the web of clienteles that would only exclusively deal with white firms.

  He’d then tell me how they’d farm work out to the folks across the Coral Sea because the black boys couldn’t do shit.

Irrespective of this, they ploughed on and eventually the government, developers and major law firms around the world started working with them. 

I asked him one evening over a glass of scotch, what was his inspiration and he told me the story about his first encounter with his first client. 

He was a typical businessman in the early days of our independence, quite new with business affairs but had shit loads of knowledge on his profession, flying.

 Curious by my mentor, he kept asking him where does he work.

 He indicated the law firm which was a white firm.

 The trailblazing pilot said so you work for these guys.

 If you start your firm tomorrow you’ll get all my work. 

To put into context, this man was making millions just by sitting in his cockpit for an hour. 

His firm was born and over the years, has given my mentor inspiration to go where no PNG lawyers have gone, the world of natural resources and big commercial field.

His weary eyes looked at me and said, our greatest asset is our unpredictability.

“They think just because we have bad body odor, don’t have a dress sense and are woefully untidy, we’re dumb but pikinini, how wrong are they!”

That was what summed up PNG’s persona in the professional world.

 Many of our men and women are insanely intelligent in this great nation of ours.

 From designing industrial technologies in the fields of communications, transport and weapons systems to frontline development in drug discovery for AIDS, TB and malaria, these are our men and women. 

Some manage major mining and petroleum projects around the world while others are formulating dialogue with rouge states that are on the brink of war with their enemies.

Indeed knowledge and the desire to acquire it has become a major investment tool for our people. 

Clans, tribes and families are spending everything so that their children may reach the high echelons of their professions. 

Many die before the first pay and yet they continue.

 Courageous and a sacrifice beyond compression, our people do this every day.

 From stashing away daily sales of kaukau or fish in the markets to fathers selling bottles, they are the backbone of this nation.

Papua New Guineans know their roots and this is why we hate being a kago boi. 

Our families didn’t invest all that money so that carry the trash out when they themselves don’t know how to build a secure firewall using CISCO applications to deter hackers in our major government and financial institutions, to clean the toilets irrespective of the fact that we are able to infuse compounds derived from our genetic materials so as to eliminate the TB bug, to paint the runways, when we have flown the largest airplane in the world or to sweep the floors when in fact we design major highways.

Education is the tool for our security, prosperity and happiness and it is the only way we become mastas of our future and move away from being the kago boi.

New fund for coffee and cocoa growers

Sector to benefit from K67.5m financing from World Bank

 

SMALLHOLDER coffee and cocoa growers around the country will benefit from a K67.5 million (US$25 million) project funded by the World Bank group (WB), The National reports.

The fund was approved under the WB’s productive partnerships in agriculture project (PPAP) of which it aims to improve the livelihoods of rural PNG communities.

The K67.5 million was part of a US$40 million (K108 million) package signed as a concessional financing agreement yesterday between the WB and Minister for Treasury and Finance Peter O’Neill on behalf of the PNG government.

A total of US$15 million (K40 million) of the K108 million (US$40 million) was approved for rural communications Project.

The WB said the funds were purposely for rural development projects in the agriculture sector, particularly coffee and cocoa production by small holder growers in rural communities.

The WB acknowledged that over 80% of Papua New Guineans lived in rural areas that are largely dependent on agriculture for livelihood and that supporting rural populations was imperative to both social development and economic growth.

The bank said PPAP would assist coffee and cocoa farmers in adopting improved farming practices, facilitate relationships between smallholder farmers and agribusiness and provide critical infrastructure for market access.

The project will focus on areas dependent on coffee and cocoa production such as East New Britain, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Jiwaka, and Chimbu and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

WB country director for PNG, Timor-Leste and Pacific Islands, Ferid Belhaj after the agreement signing stressed that improving the lives of rural households was a priority for both the WB and the government.

“These projects will improve the incomes and livelihoods of smallholder coffee and cocoa farmers and provide access to communication services for hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.

 

 

Strike averted

Deal by BSP and workers defuses financial crisis

 

A STRIKE by workers of Bank South Pacific was averted yesterday after the bank agreed in principle to four of five demands by the workers, The National reports.

BSP is a nationally-owned company with more than 60% of market share, and a strike by the workers would seriously affect the financial sector and the economy.

With bank workers walking off their jobs, payrolls may not be processed, branches may close and people will not be able to pay for goods and services as the financial and banking system is brought to its knees.

But ongoing negotiations between the BSP management and union leaders, since a majority voted last week for strike in a secret ballot, took a positive turn yesterday.

According to the general secretary of PNG Banks and Financial Institutions Workers Union Vera Raga, BSP responded positively to four of the five unresolved conditions for which 97% of the workers that had taken a secret ballot had voted to go on strike.

“But the issue on increase on housing allowance is still the sticking point,” Raga said.

“We will continue our discussions tomorrow (today) and we hope to achieve a positive solution for both parties,” he said.

The four that were agreed to by BSP were the inclusion of the union in the redundancy monitoring committee; higher duty allowances to be paid as done in the past prior to 2003; leave fare entitlements to be paid on merits to both male and female employees; and a housing scheme for workers.

Raga said the BSP executive, including deputy chief executive officer Johnson Kalo, were in the meeting discussing the issues.

“We will continue our discussions tomorrow (today) until we achieve the best results for the workers,” Raga stressed.

More than 97% of 1,229 BSP workers who participated in a secret ballot last week agreed to take industrial actions if BSP did not improve their conditions of employment which were agreed to under an industrial memorandum of agreement in 2007.

BSP made a net profit of more than K250 million last year, an increase of 12.6% on the previous year’s K228.3 million.

Banks in the Pacific and the Asia region have made handsome profits in recent times, but have been increasingly criticised for paying little attention to employment conditions of its employees.

 

Bougainville to get K5m yearly

PAPUA New Guinea will continue to support the Autonomous Region of Bougainville with an annual grant of K5 million, The National reports.

Bougainville Affairs Minister Fidelis Semoso said this was agreed to at a special joint supervisory body meeting between the state and ABG last Friday in Port Moresby.

“The K5 million grant will help support the administration of the autonomous government annually,” Semoso said.

The allocation was contained in the Bougainville Peace Agreement signed in 2001, which also included recurrent unconditional grants, until the ABG becomes fiscally self-reliant.

“It costs the ABG K11 million to administer its affairs.

“The remaining K6 million will be derived from the autonomous government’s internal revenue,” he said.

Other topics discussed last Friday included weapons disposal, preparation of the Bougainville Copper Agreement (BCA) review and the restoration and development grant of K15 million from the state.

Bougainville affairs director Ellison Towallom said the next special meeting would be in Rabaul from Aug 23-25.

 

 

US$40m loan targets major rural projects

PAPUA New Guinea and the World Bank yesterday signed two agreements for concessional financing totalling US$40 million, The National reports.

The loan would be used for agriculture and rural communication projects in the country.

World Bank country director for PNG, Timor-Leste and the Pacific Islands Ferid Belhaj and Finance and Treasury Minister Peter O’Neill signed the loan

deals at the Holiday Inn in Port Moresby, yesterday.

Under the agreements, World Bank International Development Association would allocate US$15 million for the productive partnerships in agriculture project (PPAP) while the rural communication projects would get US$25 million.

PPAP would go towards assisting coffee farmers in Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands and Chimbu and cocoa growers in East New Britain and Bougainville.

The rural communication project would be trialed in Chimbu and East Sepik.

Belhaj said the two projects were important in improving the lives and reducing poverty in PNG.

Statistics showed that more than 80% of Papua New Guineans live in disadvantaged and isolated rural communities.

He said the signing of these two projects signified the depth and strength of the partnership between the PNG government and World Bank that was based on trends of respect and trust.

Belhaj said the communication programme would greatly improve access for market and access to information for more than 420,000 rural people. It would also allow for 60 public internet accesses through 60 selected districts outside of the two pilot project areas.

O’Neill thanked the World Bank for agreeing to finance these two major projects.

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