By Norm Dixon
Dr David Suzuki, renowned Canadian conservation campaigner, has warned Papua New Guinea about the activities of multinational timber companies while on a visit to inspect both pristine and logged tropical rainforest areas in that country. Logging of PNG's vast untouched rainforests is becoming an important political issue.
Suzuki said these companies were interested only in exploiting timber resources for quick profits. He urged that the Earth Summit in Brazil consider a ban on timber from Third World countries that was not logged in a sustainable manner.
Suzuki attacked Japan's and Malaysia's involvement in logging PNG's rainforests. Japan had become wealthy by exploiting the resources of developing countries. Malaysia has turned to PNG's forests because it has virtually exhausted its own, he said.
"I think its important for people [in PNG] to realise companies that come in from outside do not care about people here", Suzuki told Radio Australia on May 28. "They are not interested in long-term sustainable forestry. They're interested in maximising profit for the shareholders in the countries where they come from ... Foreign companies don't give a damn about the people here."
He added that landowners should be wary of claims that forests will be restored. "That is an absolute joke ... You can look at the developed world and see that they are not able to regrow forests themselves. Why do they think they can come to Papua New Guinea and ... reforest far more complex communities here? They can't."
Suzuki stressed that landowners themselves must be empowered to make decisions about their land. The world has to provide economic alternatives to PNG landowners who felt they had to accept deals from multinational companies so that they could bring development and income to their communities, he said. "We, the environmentalists, have to go back to our own countries and build up the opportunities that will allow the people here doing responsible forestry, who are living in a sustainable way with the forests, to get access to markets in the rich countries."
Suzuki said that rich nations had a responsibility to support and encourage people in the Third World to develop other incomes from the forests.