Papua New Guinea: Deforestation study in journal Biotropica

An important new study in the journal “Biotropica” finds that between
1972 and 2002, a net 15 percent of Papua New Guinea’s (PNG)
rainforests [search] were cleared and 8.8 percent were degraded
through logging[1]. The clearance rate of 1.1 to 3.4 percent/yr in
commercially accessible forests is much higher than reported
previously by the FAO.

Get full text; support writer, producer of the words:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2009/02/release_papua_new_guinea_rainf.asp

PNG — located in the South Pacific, northeast of Australia — holds
some of the world’s largest and most important intact and contiguous
forests. Their fate has important implications for local livelihoods
and biodiversity, and both local and global climate change. The new
study quantifies forest loss in PNG for the first time with a high
degree of accuracy.

And the findings are not good. Some 36% of the accessible forest estate has been degraded or deforested. This finding raises the question of whether the PNG government — as a welcome leader in promoting avoided deforestation payments — is pursuing the necessary policies to ensure large rainforests continue to exist as the basis for their country to receive large and continuous international payments for their forest’s carbon storage?

“You cannot industrially log, and clear forests for biofuels, and expect to receive avoided deforestation payments,” says Dr. Glen Barry. “As a nation PNG is going to have to choose between continued once off rainforest destruction, mostly for foreign advantage, or being paid more, essentially forever, for maintaining the national and global benefits of fully intact rainforests.

Get full text; support writer, producer of the words:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2009/02/release_papua_new_guinea_rainf.asp