1936 An Attempt at Institutional Strengthening

1936 AN ATTEMPT AT INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING

In 1936, the Timber Ordinace of New Guinea was superseded by the Forestry Ordince 1936. Responsibility for the administration and development of the forest resources of Papua New Guinea and control of its forest industry was vested in the Department of Forests under powers conferred by the Forestry (New Guinea) Ordinance 1936-62 and the Forestry (Papua) Ordinance 1936-62 and the Forestry regulations as amended. Nearly all forest in PNG is grown on customary-owned land. The Department of Forests after 1945 had to create a forest concession system that catered for all parties i.e., landowners, government agencies and developers. For any timber to be harvested on an area, the State had first to acquire timber rights from the landowners before allocating the rights to a logging company. Prior to 1992, this was done through either the negotiation of a timber rights purchase or a local forest agreement. Since 1992, when a new Forest Act came into force, state acquisition of timber rights has been through the negotiation of forest management agreements between the PNG Forest Authority and customary owners. The Territory policy for the extraction of timber from customarily owned (‘native’) forests was developed over time through the mechanism of a ‘timber rights purchase’ (TRP) agreement, which was a way of purchasing so-called ‘timber rights’ from customary owners of forests, but not alienating the land. Virtually all logging companies in the territorial period were Australian-owned or Australian-based. Some of these did a degree of processing locally, but most timber was exported as round logs. The legal framework for forest exploitation had three main elements: Timber Rights Purchase (TRP). Under this arrangement the State acquired timber rights where customary owners were willing to sell. The State then issued a permit or licence to remove the timber on agreed terms and conditions, including the payment of royalties, a portion of which was passed on to customary owners. The TRP arrangement was intended for large-scale exploitation and was managed by the Department of Forestry. Timber Authorities (TA) could be issued, on payment of a fee, to enable any person to purchase a limited quantity of timber directly from a customary owner. Without a TA no one other than a Papua New Guinean could purchase forest produce from a customary owner. In 1937, in New Guinea, there was a sudden interest in log export, which caused the Administration44 to revise its legislation and consider the establishment of a forest service. In that territory, there was a mill at Waterfall Bay and mission mills also at Finschhafen, Alexishafen and Marienberg. Mills had also started at Bulolo and Wau, having been flown in from the coast. Sawn and milled timber, however, was still being imported from Australia and the Philippines to Rabaul when McAdam arrived in New Guinea in 1938 to initiate the new Forest Service.

By 1937-1938, although nothing had eventuated in Papua or the Northern Territory, an assistant forester had been trained in Canberra and a forest policy had been initiated for Norfolk Island and a qualified forester “J B” Jim McAdam MM (1910-1959) had been appointed to the Mandated Territory of New Guinea in 1938.

44 PNG Scientific Society Presidential Address 1952 “Forestry in New Guinea” J B McAdam