ECOFORESTRY AND TIMBER EXPORT PROGRAM

EcoVitality

Combining Conservation and Development in Poor Countries

Papua New Guinea is an ecologically fertile developing nation with vast forest areas that for many years have been plundered by large international logging companies acting in concert with corrupt government officials. Industrial logging is not, however, the only major cause of deforestation: If village landowners cannot obtain sufficient income from their forest resources, they will often replace the trees with agricultural crops. While driving around East New Britain Province in June, 1999, for example, we saw countless wood piles for sale by the roadsides because the local people have been cutting down their forests to plant cocoa bushes. In response to the economic and cultural priorities of most PNG villagers, the real choice is not between logging and leaving the forests intact: The landowners are going to exploit forest resources in some fashion, and the critical choice is between sustainable forest uses and ecologically destructive practices. In PNG and other poor countries, effective conservation programs must create alternative paths for economic development--- enabling better education, health care, communications, and increased material consumption--- rather than striving only to restrain environmentally harmful activities.

Ecoforestry operations in Papua New Guinea must compete against countless large- and small-scale wood sellers, and these competitors frequently charge lower timber prices because they are not attempting to practice sustainable logging and need not bear the added costs of forest conservation measures. Effective ecoforestry competition in PNG timber markets is clearly hard to achieve because (a) the demand for sustainable timber is uncertain and fluctuates widely, (b) most eco-timber prices are relatively low and are limited by the prices of non-sustainable raw logs and sawn timber planks, and (c) competing timber sources are numerous and widespread. Under these circumstances, there is no reason to believe that a locally-based marketing strategy for sustainably harvested timber can succeed over the long term. Yet, the great majority of NGO ecoforestry programs sell their timber mainly in local markets despite competition from inexpensive non-sustainable timber. This unrealistic approach and its many conservation failures have led to concerns in NGO and International Development Assistance communities that sustainable forestry in PNG may be unattainable. No forest NGO operating in PNG has devoted sufficient attention to this EcoVitality principle:

When EcoVitality first became involved in PNG forest conservation, we had no interest in dealing with timber in any form. Instead, we wanted to promote value-added manufactured wood products that we could import and market in the U.S. Our goal was to enable PNG people to earn much higher economic returns PER tree than they could through the sale of raw logs or sawn timber planks, and thereby to raise their incomes while reducing the pressures for cutting a large number of trees. We offered a selection of nearly a dozen suggested wood products that we thought could be made by local craftsmen and artisans, and we attempted to enter into partnerships with existing forest conservation NGOs that could identify local people with the necessary skills. To a large extent, this EcoVitality program has failed because our inability to find cooperative NGOs and rural people with the required skills and interests. We did locate one craftsman near Rabaul who is willing to manufacture the wine racks we commissioned him to make, but we have not yet found other comparably qualified and motivated PNG woodworkers. Visit http://ecovitality.org/pngwood.htm for further details on this manufactured wood-product project.

While conducting research on cutting boards, one of our proposed products, we found an Australian woodworker who was manufacturing especially attractive bread boards and cutting boards for Australian and European markets. We opened a dialogue with this producer that evolved into a partnership. Robert (Rob) Latham has proven to be a master craftsman, one might even say a "woodworking genius," with an interest in promoting forest conservation in PNG similar to ours. Rob's business in Byron Bay uses salvaged wood, alien transplanted tree species, and other unwanted woods from Australia to manufacturer distinctive furniture as well as the kitchenware products mentioned above. Here are two of his one-of-a-kind tables: the first was made from the root system of a Red Cedar tree and the second from rosewood boards on a root-and-trunk base. For many more wood product illustrations, visit Rob Latham's web site at www.ecofurn.com.au

After lengthy negotiations and a joint visit to several regions of Papua New Guinea, EcoVitality and Mr. Latham devised a plan to give local ecoforestry operations a range of opportunities to produce value-added wood products. Under our plan, NGOs and rural communities may take advantage of any of the following options depending on their capacities and interests:

MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS: PNG woodworkers can manufacture a variety of wood products identified by Mr. Latham or EcoVitality, including wine racks, bed serving trays, picnic tables, bread boards, cutting boards, carved end tables or coffee tables, picture frames, and similar wood furniture or houseware goods. If the local producers can make these goods with sufficiently high quality, we will import the products into Australia and/or America and market them in these wealthy consumer nations. We will also pay shipping, warehousing, distribution, and marketing costs associated with bringing these goods to profitable markets in developed countries.

MANUFACTURED PIECES: With somewhat less effort, PNG producers can cut pieces-to-size based on Rob Latham's specifications, and sufficiently high-quality pieces will be shipped to Rob's Eco. Furniture and Timber factory in Byron bay, Australia for assembly, finishing, and marketing.

VALUE-ADDED TIMBER EXPORTS: Mr. Latham has agreed to use his contacts in the Australian woodworking industry to import and market sustainable timber from PNG, assuming commercially-desirable woods can be delivered at an export-quality level. For the first time, ecoforestry programs will have a reliable buyer that will purchase ONLY export-quality timber supplies produced through sustainable harvesting and will pay relatively high prices to improve the profitability of ecologically sustainable timber.

Our offer of a reliable market for timber exports has thus far proven much more interesting to PNG ecoforestry operators than our proposals for manufactured products or pieces, and Mr. Latham's Australian contacts are a potentially great resource for PNG sustainable timber producers given the geographical proximity. The shipping costs of timber to the U.S. are prohibitively expensive for all but the most valuable, and usually rare, tree species. However, we have not yet found any NGOs in PNG that are willing to exert the necessary efforts to train their clients in how to maximize the export value of their timber supplies. Export sales would require local producers to learn how to cut, stack, dry, and dress sawn planks or slabs ("cants" in American terminology) to reach the required level of quality for export-quality timber. This is a value-adding process, just as using the wood for manufacturing would be. We currently have one container of timber about to be shipped from East New Britain to Australia, and we have received inquiries from more than a half-dozen PNG groups with varying capacities.

Several local NGOs we contacted have been unwilling to undertake this commitment because the local PNG market will not support the added costs associated with the necessary processing. In other words, local buyers do not appear willing to pay for higher-quality wood, which means local marketing is inconsistent with export marketing in terms of the acceptable characteristics of the timber. NGO or community programs that focus on local sales have not been willing to train their clients to produce higher-quality wood that usually cannot be sold at a higher price in Papua New Guinea. This is why our ability to offer a reliable export market, with notably higher timber prices, represents a major change from current ecoforestry opportunities. Our partnership theme is again to offer PNG forest users a higher economic return PER tree and more consistent income than non-sustainable logging practices would normally provide.

POOLING TIMBER FROM VALUABLE WOOD SPECIES: A few desirable PNG species, such as rosewood, Kwila, and Black Walnut, command a relatively high international market price, probably high enough to justify exports to America and Europe. However, these species are generally rare and could be threatened by increased demand in any one producing area. Exports of these species at present almost certainly entail non-sustainable practices, which means ecologically harmful forestry will often be more profitable than ecoforestry for as long as local supplies of a premium species hold out. We believe sustainable exports of these timbers would become feasible if a number of NGOs and community programs produced small amount each year and sent them to a holding and drying facility in Port Moresby, the capital and main shipping center. Pooling these small quantities from a number of locations would enable cost-effective larger shipments and would interest more timber importers who are not be willing to maintain an active market for only small amounts of a given species no matter how desirable that wood may be.

FORESTRY EDUCATION PROGRAMS: Offering a reliable export market would not be enough to promote effective ecoforestry as long as most villagers lack the knowledge and motivation necessary to produce export-quality timber. We plan to offer a variety of education programs funded by EcoVitality profits from timber sales and also by foundation grants, if possible, to train PNG people in improved cutting, handling, and dressing techniques. EcoVitality is planning to hire a couple of highly-qualified PNG foresters, perhaps graduates of the Lae Forestry College, and to send them to Rob Latham's factory in Australia for a few months while he provides more intensive training in the procedures necessary to produce export-quality timber. Then we would employ the PNG foresters to visit and revisit a number of timber-oriented communities in a circuit, while transferring their training to local forest users and reinforcing the desirability of sustainable ecoforestry. The EcoVitality-EcoFurniture partnership would also purchase export- quality timber from these communities to offer an immediate return on the people's efforts to improve their forestry practices.

First, we currently have very limited capital and therefore cannot buy enough sustainable timber to have a major impact on the current operations of local NGOs and communities.

Second, our program will never be really effective until we are able to establish collaborative relationships with existing NGOs that provide a continuing in-country presence and are more adept than we are at understanding the attitudes and priorities and of local people. For a variety of cultural and physical reasons, PNG is a very difficult place to implement successful ICAD programs, and we recognize that we cannot succeed on a large-scale basis as long as we're only visiting PNG for a few weeks each year and lack close relationships with PNG groups.

Third, we need to overcome a prevalent feeling among forest NGOs and development organizations that they cannot do any better than they have been doing--which is certainly quite badly--and that any innovation is almost certain to fail. As one example, a critic from an NGO that reneged on an agreement to work with us claimed that PNG wood has a very high moisture content (true) and can never be made into manufactured products unless we set up a two million dollar drying facility. In return, I pointed out that several large furniture makers in Port Moresby have been able to dry and process their wood, and environmental groups should be able to do the same. Mr. Latham went further by creating a design for a solar kiln made from old shipping containers, which are fairly inexpensive and plentiful in PNG. We are now working on adding solar energy or gas-powered heaters and fans to improve the efficiency of this low-cost kiln that could be set up in remote villages. The point here is that many NGOs are NOT looking for innovative solutions to known problems, and they are resistant to any organization that suggests more forest conservation and development progress could and should be made.

During the next year, we will be trying to solve the capital shortage problem by submitting another round of grant applications to donors that claim they want to promote innovative conservation and development programs.

We will be trying to solve the second problem by approaching a greater number of established forestry NGOs and community organizations. The more contacts we make and the longer we operate in PNG, the more likely it is that we will eventually recruit one or more suitable NGO partners.

The best solution for the third problem is to show the feasibility and effectiveness of our value-added, export-focused approach. PNG has a very powerful word-of-mouth grapevine, and our ability to provide higher, more reliable returns from ecoforestry will eventually "get known" if we begin to demonstrate moderate success in some of our programs. At the moment, EcoVitality is engaged in ecotourism, wine rack, and timber-export projects in PNG. The success of any one of these enterprises could improve the chances for success of the others.

With respect to conservation commitments, the villagers participating in any EcoVitality forest program must agree not to enter into contracts with large commercial logging companies, and must become better educated on the merits of reforestation and selective forestry that will leave young trees to mature. If this project is reasonably effective in increasing the economic returns villagers earn from selective forestry, which is our plan and expectation, we will require that the villagers replant several trees of a given species for each one they cut down in areas where the natural regrowth rate is not high--this will ensure that no significant changes occur as a result of our activities in tree species diversity or relative abundance in the local forests. We will also recommend that the villagers follow other widely-accepted forest NGO guidelines, such as not harvesting trees with diameters less than 70 cm, though this commitment may be more difficult to enforce in some settings. Most important, we will have an independent forestry expert inspect participating areas every two or three years and determine whether desirable ecological conditions are being maintained.

A final point to emphasize is that a great many PNG citizens WANT TO PRESERVE their forest environments. But they also want higher incomes and improved access to education, medical treatment, and other social services. It is up to environmentalists who want to conserve PNG forests and biodiversity to create better programs that will allow the people of PNG to have BOTH forests and prosperity.

Robert Latham is the copyright holder for the table photos on this page.
Russell Collier is the photographer and copyright holder for the forest landscape photo.
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