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Timber Permit 2/16 illegal, landowners claim
By
ABBIE COLLACO
INCORPORATED land groups in the Vailala concession area are now questioning the legality of a timber rights purchase permit (2-16 ) which was issued by a former Forests Minister to a company on June 24, 1992. They said in 1995, the National Forest Authority initiated and introduced the Forest Management Agreement (FMA) to cover the policy loopholes by repealing the 1991 Forest Act Ch 216. The TP2/16 was again extended outside the Act without the Provincial Forest Management Committee and National board's knowledge. The extension came about in 2002. They said this was a total abuse as positional powers were used to approve, grant and then extend a timber permit that was acquired illegally. Jeffery Hoaela reiterated that in 2003 (FCP) Forest Conservation Program revealed findings that a company induced senior forest officers with incentives to use their positional powers to award and grant TP 2-16 and illegally extend without following the due process of the Act. He said even though TP 2-16 was amended there was no legal base as the issuance of the permit without any existence of the Timber Rights Purchase (TPR) Agreement and the Forest Management Agreement (FMA) was fraudulent. The group successfully obtained default judgment orders on July 16, 2008 against the National Forest Authority. Further orders were granted on the Dec 4 by Justice Kandakasi for settlement outside of court but it never eventuated. Meanwhile, the landowners of the Vailala Block one and two are still demanding that the Ombudsman Commission should tell the resource owners what happened to the US$40 million which certain prominent politicians benefited from through the illegal logging operations in Vailala Mr Hoaela also announced that with the support of the landowners to preserve their forest resources, he has informed the director of the Office of Climate Change and Environment Sustainability, Dr. Theo Yasause of their engagement with a developer in carbon trading. Hoaela will be traveling into the district in Ihu for the signing of an agreement between the investor and the landowners. The Landowners will be coming from Popo, Orokolo, Ahia and the Kouri Miri areas. |
NEWS
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