Papua
New Guinea: Woodlark’s islanders demand a halt to oil palm plantations
The 85,000 hectares territory of Woodlark
Island in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay Province is almost totally
covered by dense lowland rainforest -- lowland dry forest
on the eastern side and dense jungle on the western side
--which is home to several endemic species. Woodlark Island holds
unique ebony species which include dark/black, grey and grey/black
varieties, - there are no other forests of this type in the world.
Most of the 6,000 island’s inhabitants
depend on the available natural environment as well as the marine
resources, doing gardening --they mainly plant yams, taro, sweet
potatoes, and bananas- as well as fishing and hunting --that play
a smaller, though important, role in their diet.
Now the island faces the threat of being
swallowed by a proposed 60,000 hectare oil palm estate, which
is part of a project by the Malaysian-based company Vitroplant
Ltd. The project also includes the building of an oil palm methyl
ester plant in the province’s capital city of Alotau. Woodlark
will feed the plant with the palm oil beans grown in the extensive
monoculture oil palm plantations to be
converted into biodiesel for domestic consumption and export.
The oil palm plantation establishment
will be situated on approximately 60,000 ha. Most of the project
would be developed on governmental land and the rest as village
oil palm, i.e. oil palm on customary land.
The company has submitted an application
for an Environmental Permit which is still pending of awarding.
According to the application, they have stated that all necessary
requirements had been fulfilled, including consultation with the
landowners.
However, George Laume, from CELCOR INC.
Friends of the Earth-PNG, received reports
from concerned people from the island regarding the major palm
oil project and recently he gathered that there is still lack
of consultation and communities are opposing this development.
Last month’s Jeremy Hance report (1)
said that “according to the islanders, they were never consulted
regarding the plans until after the government had already granted
the lease to Vitroplant Ltd.” Dr. Simon Piyuwes is an island born
medical doctor who has become an advocator of the struggle against
the oil palm plantation. Hance quotes Piyuwes’s “several reasons
why Vitroplant Ltd.’s plans are unacceptable to the islanders.
He states that the logging would destroy the island’s endemic
ebony, cause extinctions of rare species, and threaten marine
life by waste from the project. Not only does he foresee environmental
disaster, but also disintegration of the native culture, stating
that the company’s plans would bring ‘socially unacceptable behavior
on the island’. And that all the islanders would eventually be
threatened with ‘starvation’ since ‘there will be no space for
gardening and hunting’. Dr. Piyuwes admits that while there may
be some economic and infrastructure benefits to the island, he
believes the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.”
A project heralded by its promoters
as crucial to the island’s development, is perceived by many as
a threat for Papua New Guinea. Recently, more than one hundred
islanders and supporters traveled to the Milne Bay provincial
government headquarters in Alotau, to demand a halt to the palm
oil project and claim their land back.
They know that the Vitroplant project
--that implies logging-- will cause the
waters to become turbid. This, in turn, will imply the death of
coral reefs fringing the Island for lack of sunlight. The reefs
and fishing grounds, fishery nurseries (mangroves) as well as
food producing areas for the island will be affected. Hunting
and foods gathered from the bush will be lost. The people
of Woodlark Island will become dependent on imported, processed
food for their sustenance and will be forced to work on oil palm
plantations to survive.
Oil Palm is labor intensive and the
current population of approximately 6000 will not be able to bear
the load of an oil palm plantation of this scale. A work force
will need to be imported on to the Island to meet the demand of
labor further exacerbating social and environmental pressures.
It has been suggested in the environmental
plan that this will bring employment to other Papua New Guineans.
Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries
in the world with more than 850 different
spoken languages. This means there are many cultural differences
within relatively small distances. An introduction of outside
groups will place immense pressure on the local population.
Growing from the grassroots, a halt
to oil palm plantations may change the course of the country.
Building on the awareness, determination, and drive of Woodlark’s
islanders, that change could be realised.
Article based on information provided
by George Laume, CELCOR INC. FoE-PNG, e-mail: glaume@celcor.org.pg,
www.celcor.org.pg, and
(1) Biofuels versus Native Rights: Planned logging of Woodlark
Island for biofuels opposed by islanders and scientists, Jeremy
Hance, special to mongabay.com. November
12, 2007,
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1112-hance_woodlark.html
