Latest news with #logging
New York Times
a day ago
- Business
- New York Times
Trump's Pick to Run the Forest Service Has a History With the Agency
The Forest Service is an agency with a big purview: It manages almost 200 million acres of public lands across the United States, including maintaining trails, coordinating wildfire response and overseeing the sale of timber and other resources. For an article published Tuesday, I looked into the background of Michael Boren, President Trump's nominee to head the service, who is the founder of a billion-dollar tech company. He is an unusual choice. He was accused of flying a helicopter dangerously close to a crew building a Forest Service trail, prompting officials to seek a restraining order. He got a caution from the Forest Service, and criticism from his neighbors, when he built a private airstrip on his Hell Roaring Ranch in a national recreation area in Idaho. And in the fall, the Forest Service sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing a company that Boren controlled of building an unauthorized cabin on National Forest land. Now, Boren is in line to oversee the very agency he has tussled with repeatedly, and at a tumultuous time. In April, Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture, issued an order removing environmental protections from almost 60 percent of national forests, or more than 112 million acres, mostly in the West. That came after Trump issued an executive order to increase logging on those lands by 25 percent. The Forest Service has also fired thousands of workers as part of Trump's drive to shrink the federal government. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
RNZ News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Plea for UN intervention over illegal PNG logging
Logging ship, Turubu Bay, East Sepik (taken from cover image of 'The FCA Logging Scandal' report). Photo: Oakland Institute A United Nations Committee is being urged to act on human rights violations committed by illegal loggers in Papua New Guinea. Watchdog groups ACT NOW and Jubilee Australia have filed a formal request to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to consider action at its next meeting in August. "We have stressed with the UN that there is pervasive, ongoing and irreparable harm to customary resource owners whose forests are being stolen by logging companies," ACT NOW campaign manager Eddie Tanago said He said these abuses are systematic, institutionalised, and sanctioned by the PNG government through two specific tools: Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABLs) and Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs) - a type of logging licence." "For over a decade since the Commission of Inquiry into SABLs, successive PNG governments have rubber stamped the large-scale theft of customary resource owners' forests by upholding the morally bankrupt SABL scheme and expanding the use of FCAs," Tanago said. He said the government had failed to revoke SABLs that were acquired fraudulently, with disregard to the law or without landowner consent. "Meanwhile, logging companies have made hundreds of millions, if not billions, in ill-gotten gains by effectively stealing forests from customary resource owners using FCAs." The complaint also highlights that the abuses are hard to challenge because PNG lacks even a basic registry of SABLs or FCAs, and customary resource owners are denied access to information to the information they need, such as: "The only reason why foreign companies engage in illegal logging in PNG is to make money," he said, adding that "it's profitable because importing companies and countries are willing to accept illegally logged timber into their markets and supply chains." ACT NOW campaigner Eddie Tanago Photo: Facebook / ACT NOW! "If they refused to take any more timber from SABL and FCA areas and demanded a public audit of the logging permits - the money would dry up." ACT NOW and Jubilee Australia are hoping that this UN attention will urge the international community to see this is not an issue of "less-than-perfect forest law enforcement". "This is a system, honed over decades, that is perpetrating irreparable harm on indigenous peoples across PNG through the wholesale violation of their rights and destroying their forests."
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Report highlights widespread abuse of logging permits in Papua New Guinea
Logging ship, Turubu Bay, East Sepik (taken from cover image of 'The FCA Logging Scandal' report). Photo: Oakland Institute New Guinea Island is home to one of the world's most important remaining stands of tropical rainforest. However, for many years, it has been under assault by illegal loggers and a community advocacy organisation in Papua New Guinea is calling for action to stop it. ACT NOW, with Australian watchdog Jubilee Australia, has produced a report called The FCA Logging Scandal , which details the abuse of a PNG government scheme aimed at encouraging the clearance of small patches of forest for agriculture. Prime Minister James Marape, in his inaugural address to the national parliament on 9 August 2022, stated that " we are committed to stopping all round log exports by 2025". "We can no longer tolerate this wrongdoing happening for a very long time under our noses," Marape said. "We are also exploring state market options for logs that are earmarked for the state, which will give us the volume to move into downstream processing. This level of intervention is likely to also shine a spotlight on the challenges of the sector and what needs to happen to it, to stimulate growth." However, that promise has yet to be fulfilled. RNZ Pacific spoke with ACT NOW campaign manager Eddie Tanago. PNG logging Photo: Papua New Guinea Forest Industry Association (This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity). Eddie Tanago: These aren't new issues. We've been talking about these issues. The recent being the Forest Clearing Authority (FCA), which has been subject to abuse for quite a long time now, and it accounts for a third of total log exports coming out from Papua New Guinea. The concerns have been raised numerous times, and it's quite frustrating that there's really nothing tangible done to address it. The recent report that we had launched actually demands for action, not only by PNG authorities, but by overseas agencies, or those that are involved in the supply chain, and those who actually buying from Papua New Guinea. Ninety percent of exports from Papua New Guinea go to China, it's right that China also acts on ensuring compliance from the sources that it is buying the logs from, and abuses and the issues of illegal logging, human rights abuse, and the harm to the environment has been in existence for as long as Papua New Guinea has been a state and it is still an issue. Don Wiseman: Yes, let's look at these. So these Forest Clearance Authorities, they're there to primarily encourage agriculture, but that often doesn't happen. ET: Exactly, and what has been uncovered in this recently published report, is that, FCAs is meant for clearance for agriculture or other small clearing or land use, but the evidence that we have collected in the series of reports that we have documented, and the current one shows that logging has been happening, and we're talking about large scale forest clearance. We see that in normal logging operations and under different type of licence. For this case, we have seen logging companies who are in the excuse of doing agriculture, taking up huge volumes of logs. And logs worth millions have been shipped out or exported. This is a concern. It's a direct breach of the terms of the licence. DW: When they go into an area, they're taking a far bigger area than would ever be required for whatever agricultural project they're doing. ET: We have reports and evidence that shows that logging is actually happening in large scale. Not only that, but we have satellite imagery that shows that logging are actually happening beyond the boundaries that it's supposed to happen. We have what's written on the paper. It's different to what's actually happening on the ground. And as I said, this is very concerning. We have the PNG Forest Authority and the board having announced a moratorium and promises to have the audit reports on the FCA is audited and have a report published. And this is like two years ago, this hasn't happened. DW: So no moratorium? ET: There is an announced moratorium. There's a new one being announced. As it is now we are not able to verify if that really has existed, because, you know, two years ago they promised an audit, and the audit report would have been made public. We don't have that report, or it's not even publicly available that we have cited. DW: Who do you blame? Who do you blame for these, these failings? ET: T he regulatory authority, which is the PNG Forest Aauthority, it is not able to handle these issues. While we are not able to handle these kind of issues, logs have been shipped out from these areas. We have people's rights who have been suppressed, or we have logs that are taken out illegally. We have the proceeds from these logs that are going out and sold in the markets. So this whole lot of issues that are still outstanding while logging is being allowed to continue under this FCAs. DW: You've put out a report and you've made some recommendations. What do you want to see happen? ET: As I said earlier on, the report is out there, and this is an issue that's not only for Papua New Guinea and not only for PNG Forest Authority, but those in the whole picture. We had a set of recommendations that accompany the report, and the number one is that we want the government to suspend all log exports from the FCA series until an independent, transparent and public inquiry is held to look into the legality of these existing FCAs. And number two is that we want the National Forest Board to extend the moratorium on the new FCAs until a government inquiry has been conducted, [and] recommendations have been implemented. But also we wanted audit reports publicly made available. We also want the police fraud in the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and Interpol, to identify the criminal laws that may have been broken in the submission and the approval of the fraudulent FCA projects. Commercial banks also play an important part in this transaction or in this in this process. We also want the commercial banks to identify any customers or logging companies that are linked to FCA logging operations. And we will want a full compliance with all anti-money laundering legislation and the bank environmental social responsibilities are complied with. DW: You've called for overseas timber buyers to be a whole lot more vigilant. How would they know - if the wood goes to China and then, I guess, comes out to Western countries as furniture and whatever. How would you know? ET: That's a very good question, and that is also a very big hindrance. There has to be some kind of system put in place, where it's traceable when it goes to jurisdictions like China. There has to be some kind of message put in place between Papua New Guinea, and maybe China, to ensure that there's transparency. So the buyer, or the users of the end products, know exactly the sources the timbers are coming from and where people's rights are not being infringed, where people are not being made landless, where people are not being deprived of their rights to have access to the environment and their land. These kind of things have to be put in place properly, so that those in the supply and the demand chain, and the end users, are able to trace back to the sources of timber to ensure that people's rights are not infringed.
ABC News
21-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
WA jarrah axemen led back-breaking life as native forest logging peaked
The grim, back-breaking work of Western Australia's pioneering logging families should not be forgotten, according to historians, who say their contribution to the construction, railway and shipbuilding industries was vital. Under often treacherous conditions, loggers climbed and then felled giant jarrah trees, which were prized for their hardy timber. The trees, which can grow to 40 meters high and live for 1,000 years, became known as "Swan River mahogany" to European colonisers in the 1800s, however the species is known as djarraly in the Noongar language. It is almost 18 months since native timber logging was banned in the state, bringing an end to 200 years of forest harvesting. But historian Don Briggs said the stories of the early workers and their families should not be forgotten just because logging in native forests has been banned. During its peak, logging in the only area of Australia where jarrah grows naturally — the south west of WA — saw axemen working under terrible conditions. The pay, particularly for southern European migrants, was so low there were reports of some severing their own fingers for workers' compensation and income. This grizzly chapter of WA's history has been archived with interviews and records. But not all woodsmen were treated harshly. One such logger, Norman Smith, travelled west from Victoria at the turn of the 20th century to earn his way in WA's burgeoning native timber industry. In an archival interview recorded in 1971 and provided to the ABC, Mr Smith, who is now deceased, recalled his life as an axeman when the pay was clearly more agreeable. He said he was paid in gold pieces, known as sovereigns. "We considered we weren't doing much good unless we made 50 pounds a month," Mr Smith said. Fifty pounds from the early 1900s equates to about $10,000 today. Historian Mr Briggs has spent years researching and writing the history of the South West's native timber industry. "It goes right back to the 1830s, when the first ships arrived. One of the ships was Captain James Stirling's boat, the HMS Success," he said. The HMS Success crashed into Carnac Island, but the crew managed to throw enough weight overboard to float the ship to Garden Island, where it was repaired. "The timber used was called Swan River mahogany, which later became known as jarrah," Mr Briggs said. When the HMS Success returned to England with no sign of marine borer damage in the jarrah repairs, WA's timber export industry boomed as demand for jarrah wood soared. Jarrah wasn't just prized by shipbuilders — it was also used in the construction of railway networks throughout Western Australia, thanks to its natural resistance to termites. Initially, railway sleepers, especially in the Great Southern region, were made from timber harvested in the karri forests near Torbay, about 20 kilometres west of Albany. Mr Briggs said once the construction workers realised that the karri wood was often riddled with white ants, they set their sights on harvesting the jarrah forests. In the early 1900s, thousands of men made their way to jarrah country to work on the railways. While men, including Mr Smith, toiled on the forest floor, where they cut railway sleepers by hand, others risked life and limb climbing the giant trees to make fire-lookout towers, such as the iconic Gloucester Tree at Pemberton, 320km south of Perth. Mr Smith said the men would ascend the trees on precarious spikes driven into the wood. "They drove one in, say up three feet, and then the other one would be up a couple of feet … and they kept driving these spikes in and they climbed up them," he said. But it was risky work, and not everyone was keen to climb 40 metres up a tree trunk. Waves of European migrants eventually flocked to WA's southern forests for work from the 1920s to the 1970s. Christina Gillgren has detailed migrants' stories in the book Growing Roots — the Italians and Croatians in the Development of the Western Australian Timber Industry. "These early settlers came and did a lot of the clearing of the land, especially on private property," Dr Gillgren said. Dr Gillgren, who has a doctorate in philosophy from Murdoch University, said casual migrant workers in the native timber industry went to great lengths to maintain their income. "Especially when they didn't get paid, they would resort to very extreme acts to get some income. Sometimes they would cut off fingers and toes," she said. Dr Gillgren said a severed finger or toe would be enough for a workers' compensation claim from the timber mills. "It was very grim," she said. Life for the workers' spouses and children was also unforgiving, according to Dr Gillgren. One example was the life of an Australian woman called Elsie, who married a Croatian hewer. "She ended up having 13 children. "Her husband would come home and tell her they had to shift camp. "She'd have to pack everything up — she'd probably only just finished washing the nappies."
Free Malaysia Today
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Don't blame us for scrapping of forest project, says group
Residents during a 2024 protest against logging in the Upper Baram Forest Area. (BMF pic) PETALING JAYA : Environmental group Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF) tonight denied a claim that it failed to meet conditions set by the Sarawak government, which led to the termination of a forest project. It said the claim was baseless. BMF said the Sarawak government's policy change over logging core protection zones was the real reason for the International Tropical Timber Organisation's Upper Baram Forest Area (UBFA) project being scrapped. 'We are not willing to take the blame for a policy change by the Sarawak government,' Lukas Straumann, the director of the Switzerland-based group, said in a statement. Earlier today, Sarawak deputy minister for urban planning, land administration and environment Len Talif Salleh told the state assembly that BMF had focused solely on the Penan community in the UBFA. He said BMF had overlooked other key indigenous groups such as the Kenyah, Kelabit, and Saban, who also have legitimate interests in the area, and that such an approach risked undermining community harmony. Separately, Celine Lim, the managing director of Sarawak-based NGO SAVE Rivers, said they had worked with non-Penan communities, adding that these groups were part of the UBFA Project Steering Committee. 'So, it is not true that the overall communities were not well represented via the NGOs' coalition,' she said. Lim accused Len Talif of villainising the role of SAVE Rivers. Len Talif had said the project's termination would not affect the well-being of local communities as various initiatives by the forest department, ministries and government agencies were being executed to improve livelihoods across multiple sectors.
