Strategies for Improving Small-scale Native Forest Management In Papua New Guinea

Micah Scudder

doi:10.25907/00285

This thesis assessed past small-scale native forest management strategies used in Papua New Guinea and explored options for improving future operations. In the early 1990s, multiple organizations began facilitating small-scale native forest management by Indigenous landowners as an alternative approach to the industrial-scale timber harvest approach to forest management. This approach to small-scale management was referred to as 'eco-forestry' and involved the selective harvesting of timber to produce rough-sawn lumber with portable sawmills for export. This thesis assessed the effectiveness of the eco-forestry management model by conducting a thematic analysis on the outcomes of the eco-forestry organizations and by executing a discounted cash flow analysis of portable sawmill operations that incorporated Monte Carlo risk assessment simulation. This thesis also analysed log export revenue cash flow distributions, to assess the forest resource rents received by the forest resource owners relative to the portions captured by the PNG government and the logging industry. Finally, this thesis conducted a case study on the small-scale forest products informal market in PNG to identify causal linkages between the informal market operators so that opportunities for future improvement could be identified. Four themes emerged from this research; 1) the eco-forestry management model failed because the eco-forestry organizations struggled to maintain financial viability and meet the quality and quantity lumber production targets; 2) using portable sawmills in tropical forests to produce rough-sawn lumber has a high probability of non-financial viability due to the high variable costs of operating portable sawmills relative to the sales prices received for the rough-sawn milled lumber; 3) the existing forest policies regarding forest resource rents has caused the forest resource owners to receive little compensation for the timber harvested on their lands with almost all the value has been captured by the PNG government and the logging industry; 4) the existing forest policies are a hindrance to the economic development of the small-scale forest industry participants. Implications and recommendations of this research are; 1) future small-scale forest management should re-focus to serve domestic markets; 2) competency-based training for future timber harvests and portable mill processing should be developed prior to implementing commercial activities; 3) additional processing of the rough-sawn lumber into value-add products is necessary to improve profitability; and 4) forest policies should be revised to increase the resource rents received by landowners and to improve the legality and productivity of the small-scale forest products market.

Strategies for Improving Small-scale Native Forest Management In Papua New Guinea

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