- Woodlark Island sits far off the coast of Papua New Guinea and is swathed in old growth forests home to animals found nowhere else on the planet. However, the island and its unique inhabitants have an uncertain future. Lured by high-value timber, a logging company is planning to clear 40 percent of Woodlark’s forests. Researchers say this could drive many species to extinction.
- The company says logging will be followed by the planting of tree and cocoa plantations, and it has submitted to the government a permit application to clear forests as an agricultural development project. However, an independent investigation found this application process “riddled with errors, inconsistencies and false information” and that the company did not properly obtain the consent of landowners who have lived on the island for generations.
- It is unclear if the application has been approved, but there are signs that the company may be moving forward with its plans.
- Meanwhile, a mining company is pushing forward with its own plans to develop an open-pit gold mine on the island. The mine is expected to result in increased road construction and discharge nearly 13 metric tons of mining waste into a nearby bay.
A unique island ecosystem and culture lying 270 kilometers (170 miles) off Papua New Guinea is once more in the crosshairs. Over the past decade, Woodlark Islanders have defended their forests — home to dozens of endemic species found nowhere else on Earth — from a slew of threats from loggers, miners and plantation developers. Their latest challenge comes from a foreign-owned company, Kulawood Limited, which has applied for a permit to log and clear 30,000 hectares (74,100 acres) of land. If carried out, this will lead to the destruction of some 40 percent of the island’s forest.
The company says the logging will be followed by the planting of trees and rubber and cocoa plantations, and that it is part of a wider integrated agriculture and forest plantation project. Yet an in-depth, four-part series published by investigative outlet PNGi casts doubt on this claim. It throws into question whether the promise of agricultural development is being dangled over Woodlark as a ploy for green-lighting industrial logging. It also reveals how the application process through which Kulawood has sought approval for large-scale forest conversion is “riddled with errors, inconsistencies and false information.”
David Mitchell, director of Eco Custodian Advocates, a community-focused conservation charity in Papua New Guinea (PNG), has worked for many years in the region and says he believes logging is an immediate threat to the island.
“There is something going on on Woodlark to try [and] get logging still. It is remote and difficult to monitor [the situation] unless you are there,” he says.
Mongabay has been unable to reach Kulawood Limited or the PNG Forestry Authority to confirm whether the permit for forest clearance has been granted, but there have been recent developments on the proposed project, set to be implemented on the ground by Kulawood’s local partner, Ebony Woods Investment Limited.
The most recent shipping data available show no timber exports as of November 2018, according to PNGi. However, sources on the ground report a meeting at the beginning of this year where residents were informed that logging would soon begin. There are also reports of efforts to land logging machinery on Woodlark, along with the construction of accommodation for loggers in Kaurai village, on the north of the island. This is despite the project not having been approved by the provincial executive council in a meeting last year.
Satellite data visualized by Global Forest Watch shows that deforestation surged on Woodlark between September and December 2018, with another burst occurring in June and July this year. While it is not yet clear to what extent mechanized industrial logging has contributed to this, satellite imagery shows a proliferation of roads with adjacent deforestation in the largely uninhabited northeast portion of the island. Previous to these incursions, this area contained one of the largest continuous tracts of primary forest on Woodlark.
The logging permit application submitted by Kulawood in February 2018 covers the entirety of the roughly New York City-size island. Reports of where the 30,000 hectares of logging would take place within these borders are ambiguous, but PNGi finds that that harvested timber would be valued at some $87 million — even more if stands of highly prized, slow-growing ebony trees are cut down.
Scientists say they fear what this project may mean for the island’s staggering biodiversity and the more than 8,000 people who call Woodlark home.
The shattering of a ‘biological jewel’
Woodlark, also known as Muyua, has never been linked to the mainland. Like on other islands necklacing New Guinea and isolated in the rough waters of the Pacific ring of fire, Woodlark’s flora and fauna have been left to explore the farthest branch tips of the tree of life.
This isolation-impelled evolution means animals and plants living there are found nowhere else on Earth.
“There are 7 endemic frogs on the island, 5 endemic lizards, 2 endemic snakes, 1 endemic marsupial, and 12 endemic plants,” says Fred Kraus, a herpetologist at the University of Michigan.
Perhaps the most famous and funky of these is the Woodlark cuscus (Phalanger lullulae), a speckled marsupial that snoozes in tree holes during the day and peruses the canopy at night looking for things to munch. Although a relatively common sighting for islanders, the Woodlark cuscus is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List because of its restricted range.
Kraus himself is more interested in the amphibians that burrow, leap and wriggle through the forest understory.
“Right now many of the forests are in good shape, and walking in them at night [when Kraus does most of his fieldwork] immediately makes clear the diversity and numbers of endemic amphibians and the health of their populations,” Kraus says.
But the mystery and uniqueness of Woodlark’s astounding wildlife is perhaps captured best of all by an unlikely candidate: its snails. Zoologist John Slapcinsky of the Florida Museum of Natural History describes his time rooting through mulchy leaf litter and rotten logs hunting for Woodlark’s shelled gastropods as “extremely enjoyable” and full of surprises, highlighting just how little is known about Woodlark’s still mostly unexplored biodiversity.
“Of the approximately 40 land snails I found on the island, about half are found nowhere else on the planet and half of these are new to science and are still awaiting formal description and naming,” he says.
Researchers say the clearance of large tracts of forest would have grim consequences for this bounty of life.
“The massive logging proposed will destroy much of the island’s forests and the essential ecosystem services they provide and jeopardise those species,” says Stuart Pimm, an expert in extinction and professor of conservation at Duke University.
The possible impacts are dire, Kraus says. “The island is not of great size, so losing 40% or more of the forest there will severely reduce populations of the many endemic species that occur on the island.”
Wildlife existing or thriving only in small patches across the island are most at risk. If forest clearance occurs in the east of Woodlark, in the stronghold of the Woodlark cuscus, it could drive the iconic species toward extinction.
For the frogs and snails that rely on a moist environment for survival, the stripping bare of closed canopy forest could trigger a spasm of ecological collapse.
“Snails tend to have localized populations and several of the species I collected appear to have very narrow ranges that could be entirely eliminated by large scale logging operations,” Slapcinsky says.
Woodlark has previously been described as a “biological jewel.” If Kulawood’s plans are realized, it’s a jewel that could soon shatter into a thousand tiny pieces.
‘Riddled with errors, inconsistencies and false information’
PNGi’s investigative series reveals a troubling backstory to Kulawood’s proposed project.
Before approval for large-scale forest clearance can be given by the PNG Forestry Authority, agricultural projects and the key industry players behind them are supposed to be rigorously vetted by the Department of Agriculture. This is meant to defend local landowners from a recurring pattern across Papua New Guinea, where locals are conned by false promises of development into handing over their lands to agricultural companies.
In the case of the Woodlark Integrated Agriculture and Forest Plantation Project, PNGi’s investigation uncovered documents that indicate the Department of Agriculture (DAL) seems not to have exercised even basic due diligence.
It failed to recognize that Ebony Woods Investment Limited, Kulawood’s local partner, didn’t even officially exist at the time it was granted project approval from the Department of Agriculture on March 24, 2017. It also failed to realize that Ebony Woods was a “paper company” with no registered assets or staff. Moreover, despite Ebony Woods’ claims to be a “landowner company” controlled and owned by a mixture of landholders, at the time of its application it was under the sole control of a single man, Samson Siguyaru.
The very same Samson Siguyaru, as it happens, who documents indicate bankrolled the transport, accommodation, meals and “all arrangements done” for three officers from the Department of Agriculture trusted to visit Woodlark on Aug. 20, 2018, to vet Ebony Woods’ agroforestry proposal — something PNGi’s report disparages as a “sad reflection on the funding and independence of government departments,” and not promoting of “independence or objectivity.”
(The shareholder structure of Ebony Woods Investment Limited has since been changed, and now lists nine shareholders.)
PNGi’s investigation found Ebony Woods and Kulawood also failed to properly consult and gain permission from landowners for the proposed agroforestry project.
On paper at least, Papua New Guinea has extremely strong land tenure laws, and its Constitution recognizes the right of landowners to determine what happens on their own territory. But these rights seem to have been flouted.
According to documents gathered by PNGi, representatives of the Department of Agriculture appear to only have consulted with Woodlark Islanders on a single occasion before granting a “certificate of compliance” to evidence landowners’ consent for the project. Yet at this meeting, the DAL officers met only with a fraction of the island’s approximately 9,000 residents, who were described in the officers’ report as “scattered all over the long island.” Records of the meeting’s minutes show that they also skirted questions about specifics to do with logging and failed to properly record key voter information in a community vote about the project’s go-ahead.
All this points to a situation where locals have not been adequately informed of the scope or impact of the proposed logging and forest clearance.
Questions also remain as to whether the proposed agricultural project is even financially viable given Woodlark’s isolated location and the outcome of a previous agricultural assessment. This showed that large segments of the island are unsuitable for growing Kulawood’s proposed mixture of tree, rubber and cocoa plantations.
In addition, Kulawood Limited appears to have no previous experience with logging or agricultural development, is listed as a company with no significant assets or staff, and has a share capital of just 100 kina (roughly $3o) as of its 2018 annual return – a far cry from the 10 million kina (around $3 million) it promises to invest in the project in its forest conversion application to the PNG Forestry Authority.
Taken in their sum, the findings of PNGi’s report reveal potentially illicit activities at play in vying for the approval of the Woodlark Integrated Agriculture and Forest Plantation Project.
That raises the question of whether the agroforesty project is just be a front for something else.
Papua New Guinea’s dysfunctional agricultural leases
The use of agricultural development as a ruse for setting up logging operations on indigenous people’s lands has a dirty history across Papua New Guinea. In the past decade, vast tracts of locally owned territories have been carved up and handed over to timber barons under the government’s Special Agricultural Business Lease (SABL) program.
Initially designed as a mechanism for advancing rural agricultural development, SABLs have been co-opted to crippling effect by corrupt officials and agribusiness and logging influences, independent investigations reveal. According to a Chatham House Report, prior to a moratorium on new SABLs in 2010, 11 percent of Papua New Guinea’s land — an area roughly the size of Costa Rica — was given out under these leases. Some 90 percent of these were illegally issued, yet a third of Papua New Guinea’s timber can still be traced back to these areas, before flooding into China’s poorly regulated markets.
PNGi’s investigation did not uncover evidence of illegal leases being granted under Kulawood’s logging proposal. However, its findings may signal that the sorts of projects historically used as a corporate tool for colossal land-grabbing are still not undergoing the inspection and government scrutiny needed to defend the rights and forests of local landowners.
A magnet for foreign exploitation
“This government is all about putting our country in the right place and taking back our economy … We don’t need foreigners to come in to take advantage of our forestry.” So said PNG Prime Minister James Marape in a speech following his recent election.
Yet Woodlark still seems to be a magnet and a microcosm of foreign exploitation.
Repeated claims by Kulawood Limited to be a majority locally owned company when it applied for its forest clearance permit appear to be false. At the time, Leonard Ng Chow Leung, a Malaysian national and Kulawood’s former director, held 100 percent of the company’s shares.
But Kulawood’s logging plans are only the most recent onslaught in a barrage of attempts by foreign industries to exploit Woodlark. In 2007, a Malaysian oil palm company announced its intentions to clear 70 percent of the island’s forests to make way for an enormous monoculture plantation. The project was thwarted following media protests, petitions and fierce opposition from local residents. But within seven years, logging company Karridale Limited, another Malaysian-owned business, had locked eyes on the island, threatening to log half of it. At the time, this sparked fear among international scientists, who warned that clear-cut logging could lead to an extinction vortex.
Then, just last month, Australian company Geopacific Resources Limited consolidated full ownership of a long-awaited gold-mining project on Woodlark. This will streamline Geopacific’s ability to develop, finance and expand mining efforts on the island, which are set to ramp up in 2020 when open-pit mining is expected to begin.
Geopacific is already operating a mine on Woodlark, which is currently the largest single employer on the island, providing salaries for roughly 70 workers. The planned further buildout of the gold mine project will require additional infrastructure development to access the ore as well as to process and transport it off the island. According to project plans, Geopacific expects to dump an estimated 12.6 metric tonsof toxic mine tailings into Wamunon Bay in the Pacific Ocean over the mine’s lifetime.
Papua New Guinea’s government has already faced considerable local and international backlash in court for loosening laws around marine mine waste disposal, most recently in relation to the Ramu nickel mine.
Maps on Geopacific’s website also show that exploratory efforts are underway to scout sites for future gold mine expansion across the island, and that the construction of several new roads and other mining infrastructure is underway.
The Department of Agriculture assessment cites the expansion of gold mining on Woodlark as a point in favor of large-scale forest clearance.
The DAL report paints a future in which the transition of the gold mine into its production phase will require more mouths to be fed and an increase in agricultural production — with the proposed agroforestry project—a “way forward” to achieving this.
No evidence is given to support this. Moreover, a recent feasibility study of the gold mine says workforce camping provisioning would only need to house 300 people, made up predominantly of locals already living on the island.
PNGi’s report casts doubt on whether the feeding of such a small workforce is a valid basis for the Department of Agriculture authorizing the clearance of 30,000 rugby fields’ worth of forest.
So what now for Woodlark Island?
Elders from Woodlark used to start their origin myths by saying, “The Creator cursed us.” Their ancestors could be forgiven for thinking so, given the cluster of industrial interests, past and present, that have coveted their small, isolated island.
Whether the threats to Woodlark’s forest and culture now materialize hinges on whether the Forestry Authority decides to grant Kulawood Limited’s clearance permit.
There are some hints that large-scale logging might be on its way. Samson Siguyaru, previously the sole shareholder in Ebony Woods, has one in-law heading to study at the Timber Forestry Training College in Lae and another organizing to land logging machinery on Woodlark.
Kaurai, the Woodlark village Siguyaru’s wife is from, is also seeing a burst in construction work, supposedly in preparation for the arrival of loggers.
Mongabay reached out to Siguyaru, as well as a former CEO of Kulawood and Ebony Woods, but received no response by the time this article was published. Requests for comment sent to Geopacific also went unanswered.
At the same time, calls to block the proposed project may be helped by a recent political reshuffle. PNG’s minister of forestry, Douglas Tomuriesa, was recently replaced in his role by Solan Mirisim.
Sources on Woodlark say Tomuriesa is widely known for corruption relating to forest permits and was recently charged with money laundering and the misappropriation of 2.2 million kina (around $650,000) from a health-worker housing directive. Mirisim may be more stringent on landowner rights, but this remains to be seen; he did not respond to Mongabay’s efforts to contact him.
At a speech given last month, Mirisim congratulated Tomuriesa for increasing log export volumes to 3.5 million cubic meters (124 million cubic feet) between 2014 and 2018.
He also assured forestry staff, ministers, investors and logging companies that, “We are not here to chase you away, we are here to assist you. But the best interests of this country will be the number one priority.”
Woodlark has a unique, more than 2,000-year-old culture based around subsistence gardening, herding wild pigs, and occasional hunting. Apart from the harm forest clearance could inflict on Woodlark’s wildlife is the possible threat posed to its human inhabitants.
“Experience with logging companies elsewhere suggests that large-scale logging, often with little or no supervision to ensure best practices, often causes massive, irreversible harm, and does little if anything to benefit local communities,” Pimm says.
“It is likely that the logging company will bring in many outsiders to actually do the work instead of employing locals. This is likely to significantly alter the social dynamics of the local communities,” Kraus says.
When logging machinery last landed on Woodlark in 2014, William Laurance, a professor at James Cook University and director of ALERT Conservation, said, “It’s vital that the world watch Woodlark very carefully.”
It looks like the planet’s laser focus is needed once again on Woodlark Island.
Editor’s note: William Laurance is a member of Mongabay’s advisory board.
Banner image of Woodlark Island forest from this Geopacific video on Youtube.
Editor’s note: This story was powered by Places to Watch, a Global Forest Watch (GFW) initiative designed to quickly identify concerning forest loss around the world and catalyze further investigation of these areas.
