Deforestation and forest degradation are problems common to many tropical countries, including Papua New Guinea (PNG). These problems are often a result of the environmentally unsustainable logging practices of industrial logging companies. Beginning in the 1990s, six organizations attempted to mitigate the deforestation and forest degradation occurring in PNG by facilitating small-scale native forest management by Indigenous forest landowners. All six organizations utilized an ‘eco-forestry’ approach, involving selective harvesting of timber combined with the milling of timber by Indigenous forest landowners using portable sawmills. The lumber produced was sold into local and international markets as sustainable certified under Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) principles. The use of portable sawmills was also intended to provide the landowners with a greater financial return compared to the timber royalty payments they could receive from logging companies. This study used a literature review and interviews with key informants from the eco-forestry organizations and the PNG Forest Authority to assess the effectiveness of variants of the portable sawmilling model. We found that each of the six organizations were unsuccessful in developing a financially viable model for small-scale native forest management by Indigenous forest landowners in PNG. All the Indigenous landowners were unable to continue their portable sawmill operations once the donor funding of the eco-forestry organizations ceased. In addition, the operators of portable sawmills struggled to produce lumber that met the quality and quantity demands of buyers, who ultimately ceased purchasing the lumber. Furthermore, the Indigenous landowners struggled to adhere to the FSC principles, resulting in a loss of FSC certification. The study identifies a need for a new small-scale native forest management model in PNG. We recommend that future research involve collaboration with private sector businesses and professionally trained operators to inform the development of a small-scale forest management model which is financially profitable while also adhering to the principles of ecoforestry.

Introduction

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has one of the largest remaining continuous areas of tropical forest in the world. There are approximately 29 million hectares of forest with 97 percent of the forest held under customary land ownership by Indigenous clan groups (PNGFA, 2009). Large-scale industrial logging companies operating in PNG export approximately 90 percent of the logs harvested in the country (PNGFA, 2009). Just over 3.4 million m3 of non-coniferous logs were exported from PNG in 2016 (SGS, 2017). This amount represents 8.5 percent of total non-coniferous log exports from all tropical countries in the world in 2016 (ITTO, 2017). The PNG Government imposes export duties on exported logs, which totalled approximately $95.5 million USD in 2016 (SGS, 2017). The customary landowners receive royalty payments as compensation for the harvested timber, which varies between $3.30 and $11.55 per m3 in 2016 USD, depending on the tree species (NFS, 2011). The harvest methods of the large-scale logging companies operating in PNG have been widely criticised, especially in respect to the widespread environmental damage resulting from noncompliance with the PNG Logging Code of Practice (PNGFA, 1996), (e.g. Bun and Scheyvens, 2007; Fox et al., 2011; Bun, 2012). In addition, the timber harvests have resulted in social inequalities due to the royalty payments received by the landowners being disproportionately small relative to the value of the timber being removed. Furthermore, the system for distributing royalty payments to landowners lacks financial transparency, causing landowners to question if they have been paid the amounts they were owed (Bird et al., 2007). These issues provided the impetus for PNG’s customary landowners and supporting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to explore alternative forest management methods such as ‘eco-forestry.’