CONSULATE OF THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA http://www.dfa.gov.ph/protocol/consulates/papua.htm
Office: RD Corporation Compound, 1st Road Calumpang, General Santos City.
Tel: (63-83) 552-7626; 552-3590; 552-3767 Fax: (63-83) 552-4595
Email: rerivera@mozcom.com
H.E. Rodrigo E. RIVERA, Sr. Consul-General, a.h.
(please note that Rodrigo Rivera runs RD Corporation! Click here)
Madang Lagoon at risk from pollution caused by RD Corporation.
Statement by Prime Minister Somare at the Fund-raising Dinner & National Alliance Party Celebration of 12 months in office Aug 2003.
"The company's positive response in investing heavily in downstream processing is in line with Government policies. The company and other genuine forestry companies must be supported to impact positively on the economic and social conditions of the areas where they are located and contribute sustainably towards reducing our dependency on aid.
The RD Tuna refuses to be complacent. It continues to expand its investment in Madang. It has been joined by South Seas Tuna Company in Wewak and Frabelle is waiting to get off the ground. The opening of the fishing wharves in Kavieng and Manus should lead to increasing activities there in the next 12 months".
Current situation facing PNG Government by anonymous.
Madang lagoon is a fairly small and very sensitive habitat. Local communities in Madang and coastal villages are increasingly worried about damage to the marine resources in the lagoon, which is leading to the proposed establishment of a series of marine Wildlife Management Areas within the lagoon area.....which DEC is currently facilitating.
RD has their existing factory, which seems to seep waste some of the time through the porous coral rocks, into the creeks and the lagoon, and are now building a further plant at Vidar plantation in Sek harbour. I've not seen the Environment Plan for that plant (only the old proposal from Z fisheries from the early 1990s...which was fairly state of the art....I doubt that RD is going to such effort and expense!).
The company certainly seems to be securing a further round of tax concessions, and with only minimum wages being paid to young women employees at the existing plant the local benefits must be limited. On the other hand the company was fishing in PNG waters before it came to be based in Madang, and then was only paying licence fees. There is some associated business, with supplies and maintenance for the fleet, which benefits the local economy.
I know there are reports of transhipments at sea to plants in Asia, which are not recorded as exports, and recently I heard that a shipment to the US was rejected...though I've not had that verified. The benefits could easily be exceeded by the costs if it is harvesting within the 6 mile limit (restricted for community use only), targeting restricted species (or supposed by-catch) such as sharks, and polluting fragile ecological zones, notably Madang lagoon (plus other environmental unpleasantness, such as the bad smell people are regularly complaining of....though DEC officers seem to have less sensitive nasal powers!)....all of which it is reported to be doing to some extent, at least.
The big expansion of RD (and other fish/loining plants, etc) in PNG is partly geared to preferential access to the European market. PNG's EEZ contains is the last major world tuna resource left, which hasn't already been over-harvested. PNG has gained limited benefits from this resource for a long time, with harvesting by distant water vessels proceeding, legally and illegally. If much of that activity can be based in PNG and kept under better control, and if revenue can go into activities such as effective monitoring/enforcement it would be a considerable benefit to PNG, in terms of revenue, employment etc.
If it is poorly monitored, policed, and licences go for grabs.....with corruption determining the whole process, then PNG (and the wider community) is certainly worse off...the resource will be undermined, including coastal marine resources, pollution will ensue and benefits to PNG and the local communities diverted to politicians and other corrupt leaders/officials/business partners.
At the moment there is a high risk that, with leading and corrupt politicians (such as Marat and Baing) having active and illegal commercial fishing interests and responsibilities, and increasingly wanting to remove checks and balances on their discretionary powers, then marine governance will disintegrate, and there'll just be battles between different commercial interests over concession areas, etc.
Fisheries in PNG will require active scrutiny over the next weeks, months and years! Hopefully the newly established "marine net" will help discuss and highlight issues, though it may be infiltrated and undermined by some less responsible/corrupt fisheries interests, if it's not careful.....it may need some more protected site to highlight issues (as with forestry) to avoid undue threat of defamation, etc...