The fightback against Ernslaw One & Rimbunan Hijau The East Coast; Coromandel; Papua New Guinea
THE FIGHTBACK AGAINST ERNSLAW ONE - Catherine Delahunty Catherine Delahunty is a CAFCA member and an activist on environmental, Te Tiriti and social justice issues living in Gisborne with her partner Gordon Jackman. She is the local candidate for the Green Party, works nationally as a radical community educator for Kotare Trust, and is a generic troublemaker (her own words). Malaysian-owned Ernslaw One is the third largest forest owner in New Zealand, ranking behind Carter Holt Harvey and Kaingaroa Timberlands. It now has about 84,000 hectares of forests (of which it has only planted 26,000 ha itself, the rest having being acquired from the original owners). Ernslaw One is a finalist in the 2004 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Ed. Tangata whenua forestry workers from the East Coast took direct action in October 2004 against proposed redundancies by forestry transnational Ernslaw One One. Gisborne woke up one morning to a fleet of logging trucks and a bulldozer carrying slogans which had arrived at dawn outside the offices of the former Huaguang Forestry company that were being taken over by new owner Ernslaw One. Huaguang, a Chinese company, had collapsed in 2003, and left debt and job losses up and down the East Coast. In September 2004 the Overseas Investment Commission approved Ernslaw One buying 3,500 ha of Huaguang’s land, for a suppressed amount. Huaguang sold three Crown forestry licences, five forestry rights, a lease of the Waipaoa Forest and other assets. Ed. Ernslaw One has purchased the Huaguang assets but announced that there would be immediate redundancies of up to one third of the workforce in order to keep the forest sustainable. This news was adding insult to injury. The forestry workers from the Ruatoria region and north painted large banners on their vehicles and drove their bulldozer up against the door of the forestry office. They performed a challenging haka demanding respect for their rights from Ernslaw One, and then went back up the Coast to barricade the forest until negotiations took place. As a result Ernslaw One has backed down on the redundancies but its long-term commitment to the workforce is unclear. The company’s talk of building a timber processing plant in Gisborne is not much help to the workers who live more than two hours away. Ernslaw One has also recently bought, for $9.7 million, the Prime Sawmill, in Gisborne, with plans to increase its production capacity. Ed. Chris Low, a spokesperson for the workers from Ruatoria, told me that, the workers are well aware of the track record of Ernslaw One and its owners, the Tiong family of Malaysia. They feel that a small victory has been won to stop the immediate redundancies, but are under no illusions about the big picture. Like many people they are concerned about the Government’s role in the sorry saga with Huaguang and about the behaviour of the transnational forestry companies. They are also angry about the Minister of Regional Development’s weak position on these issues, by allowing such uncontrolled exploitation of our forests with no protection for the local workforce. One banner said, "Jim Anderton, We Want Work and Income not WINZ" (a play on words on words. WINZ = Work and Income New Zealand, and is the unemployment bureaucracy. Ed.). I have been sharing any useful information with the workers including the Ernslaw One activities at Whangapoua (see the article below. Ed.), on the Coromandel, and also the Ernslaw One efforts to hold onto Forest Stewardship Certification to assist its marketing. If it wants FSC in this country it will have to respect workers, the environment and the cultural rights of the tangata whenua and it hasn’t made a convincing start. The forestry workers have shown that direct action can be highly effective, at least to gain some short term negotiating power. In the long term the Government’s policies towards foreign control, which continue to cause havoc on the ground must be challenged and changed.
THE FIGHTBACK AGAINST ERNSLAW ONE 2/ COROMANDEL - Jean Bibby Jean Bibby is a CAFCA member, a leading activist in the former Coromandel Peninsula Watchdog throughout the 1980s and 90s (when mining transnationals were the threat), and is now a leading figure in the Whangapoua Environmental Protection Society. For the background on this, see the article on Ernslaw One in the Coromandel in Watchdog 106, August 2004. It can be read online at http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/06/09.htm. Ed. Blue Mountain Lumber (BML) is a subsidiary of Ernslaw One. BML is continuing to push through to the Environment Court its unpopular proposal to build a giant industrial sawmilling complex within three kilometres of the Whangapoua Harbour, on the Coromandel Peninsula. Despite almost total opposition including major environmental groups and the Director General of the Department of Conservation (DOC), resource consents were granted. The Whangapoua Environmental Protection Society (WEPS) has appealed this decision and the hearing is likely to be held in the Environment Court early in 2005. Also appealing the decision is Blue Mountain Lumber, which isn’t satisfied with its’ consents, and wants to weaken the conditions even further. BML wants to:
This is the first step in the industrialisation of the northern Coromandel Peninsula and the certain contamination of two rivers and of Whangapoua Harbour. To make up the shortfall of available logs in their forest, BML plans to import logs, which will put added pressure on the narrow winding scenic Thames Coast road. The road is already under stress and Transit New Zealand’s plans to cut down 58 pohutukawa trees and upgrade the road have enraged residents and holidaymakers. If a mill is built it will put even more pressure on the road, as apart from logs coming up, it intends to truck timber for the Auckland market down the Thames Coast road. Despite other more suitable sites being available, BML has refused to consider these and is prepared to spend $500,000- $1,000,000 to get consents to build this mill in this unsuitable and inappropriate site. A disturbing feature of this case which has become evident is BML's ability, with its infinitely greater resources, to buy up the available "experts" and the timidity of "experts" to front up against an opponent as large as the forestry industry. BML has stated that it is prepared to spend up to $1 million to gain the consents to build the mill. Not only is the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) unable to provide technical experts to act for us, as they are already aligned to Ernslaw One, but the only other Government-owned organisation, Land Care Research, has also been employed by BML. We had been liaising with scientists at Land Care since 2003 who, up until recently, had indicated willingness to assist with our case. However, within a week of our last contact they had withdrawn their support and are now working for BML. Other technical experts have been unable to take our case as they do not wish to oppose the timber industry, nearly all of which is owned by transnational corporations. Logging Consents While the local environmental groups have had their hands full with the sawmill application, Ernslaw One endeavoured to push for renewal of its’ logging consents, and duck consultation as required under the Resource Management Act. Since the original consents were granted in 1991, somewhere along the way these got watered down. Because of this, several groups, including Forest and Bird, Coromandel Community Board, Whangapoua Harbour Care, Papatuanuku Environmental Trust and NZ Native Fish Society, joined WEPS in opposing them. Back in 1987, the NZ Forest Service employed consultants to provide guidelines for logging these forests to avoid causing environmental damage, as happened previously, in this sensitive area. Some of these conditions included having riparian strips with a minimum of 20 metres either side of the streams, retiring steep land after the first harvest and dividing catchments so only small areas are logged in any one year. Riparian strips (land on the edge of a stream) have been reduced since the first logging consents to five metres and despite months of meetings, culminating in Ernslaw’s irascible planner, Yannina Whiteley, stamping out and slamming the door, the company refused to move from its’ original application (so much for consultation). No land has been retired from forestry and vast areas are logged in each catchment resulting in sediment washing down into the Whangapoua Harbour. Ernslaw’s clearfelling practices leave both locals and tourists aghast. The relationship with Ernslaw One and its’ sister company, Blue Mountain Lumber, has not been a good experience for environmental groups and locals since they arrived but judging on what happens overseas we expected no better. You can contact the Whangapoua Environmental Protection Society (WEPS) at: jbibby@paradise.net.nz; ph (07) 8665075; fax (07) 8665076; Website: www.weps.org.nz Ed. THE FIGHTBACK AGAINST RIMBUNAN HIJAU 3/ PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Murray Horton Rimbunan Hijau (RH) is the conglomerate of companies owned by the Tiong family of Malaysia. Ernslaw One and Blue Mountain Lumber are but two subsidiaries within that empire. But if you thought that the behaviour was bad in New Zealand, it pales into insignificance compared to that of the parent in the region and the rest of the world. It dominates the logging industry in Papua New Guinea and has significant logging interests in Malaysia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Brazil and Russia. RH’s speciality is tropical rainforest logging, and it is one of the world’s biggest plunderers of this endangered resource. RH has been singled out for special attention by Greenpeace International. In February 2004, Greenpeace International (based in Amsterdam) published a damning report entitled "The Untouchables – Rimbunan Hijau’s World Of Forest Crime And Political Patronage". The title pretty much says it all, doesn’t it. The whole thing is well worth a read and can be accessed online at http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/pdfs/RH_Forest_Report.pdf. You need to have PDF Acrobat Reader and it is a big document (two megabytes). RH didn’t take kindly to this and, in September, wrote to Greenpeace International, demanding an apology and the withdrawal of the report, as well as a list of the report’s recipients. Greenpeace International responded by saying: "RH is hoping that the threat of litigation will silence its critics. But Greenpeace won’t back down, nor will we retract any allegations we have made. We’re confident our report will hold up in court" (15/9/04, "Logging giant threatens to sue Greenpeace over report", Agence France Presse). This forestry transnational has a track record of litigation. In 1994, Television New Zealand’s then current affairs programme, Frontline, broadcast a critique of RH and Ernslaw One, including an interview with me. The Tiongs complained to the Broadcasting Standards Authority. In 1995, the Authority upheld some of the complaints and ordered TVNZ to apologise (which it duly did). That whole episode is covered in detail in Watchdog 80, November 1995, "Don’t Rock The Rulers: TVNZ Ordered To Apolgise To Malaysian Logging Barons", Murray Horton. Crimes Against The Environment And Human Rights In PNG Greenpeace Australia is actively campaigning against RH, specifically seeking to stop the importation of its logs from Papua New Guinea (PNG). "…Environmental studies indicate that logging by Rimbunan Hijau in PNG is among the most environmentally destructive of any selective logging operations studied anywhere on the planet. Losses to the residual stand have been recorded at more than 100 trees per hectare. What is supposed to be selective logging is effectively clearfelling. "The logging mainly ignores the prescriptions in the PNG Logging Code of Practice. Buffer zones are not respected; logging tracks are bulldozed through streams; poor road construction wastes logs and pollutes water courses; oil and other waste pollution is endemic; standing water attracts mosquitoes and increases the incidence of malaria; and undersized logs are constantly felled. PNG’s Constitution and Forestry Act require that all forestry operations are carried out in a sustainable manner and that resources are protected for future generations. In reality, these requirements are ignored and the average life of a logging concession is just 12 years. This is less than one-third of the legally mandated 40-year cutting cycle and is also ecologically inadequate… "Illegal logging takes place when timber is harvested, transported, bought or sold in violation of national laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests, extraction without permission or from a protected area, the cutting of protected species or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegalities may also occur during transport, such as illegal processing and export, mis-declaration to customs, and the avoidance of taxes and other charges" (Greenpeace Australia Briefing, November 2004). And as well as crimes against the environment, RH is involved in systematic human rights abuses in PNG. From the same Greenpeace Australia Briefing: "Allegations made against Rimbunan Hijau in Papua New Guinea include:
This became a major story in the mainstream Australian media. SBSTV’s prestigious Dateline current affairs show broadcast a programme entitled "Jungle Justice" (3/11/04). It brought to light serious corruption, bribery and human rights abuses. "…Royal PNG Constable Emmanuel Bani told Dateline that, for seven years, he’d effectively worked as a standover man for the RH in Western Province, where most of the logging takes place. The scale of the allegations – suggesting the company runs Western Province like a private resource colony – were new. It details involvement of the mobile police squad that Constable Bani once worked for, as on-call enforcers for their business who receive field allowances from the company’s regional manager, known to some as the ‘Governor’ of Western Province…". Former Constable Bani was quoted, as to his instructions from RH: "We handled those suspects good and proper. We bashed them up, we hit them with huge irons and when we mobilised in there we made sure that these people who complain against the rights of their benefit were manhandled you know. I became violent because of their actions, because of their instructions…" (Greenpeace Australia Backgrounder, November 2004). NZ Timber Importers Expel RH Company Nor is New Zealand immune from this infection. In May 2004, to its credit, the NZ Timber Importers Association (NZTIA) expelled The LumberBank, on the grounds that it does not comply with its rules (The LumberBank appealed, to the Auckland High Court, in August). The LumberBank is a major importer of tropical timber into NZ, most of it coming from RH’s PNG operations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ernslaw One, and thus part of the RH empire. "…The NZTIA is New Zealand’s national association of timber importers, and has in its membership around 80% of the timber importers. The NZTIA is a member of the Imported Tropical Timber Group (ITTG) and has made commitments in the ITTG charter to source timber only from certified sustainably managed forests. The ITTG also includes the major timber retail chains of Carters, Bunnings, Mitre 10, Placemakers and Independent Timber Merchants who have issued guarantees that they are not buying timber or timber products originating from The LumberBank…" (Greenpeace Australia Briefing, November 2004). All in all, a very nasty piece of work, globally, regionally, and locally. Several countries, especially Papua New Guinea, would be better off without Rimbunan Hijau. Ernslaw One and the rest of its little mates would be no great loss to New Zealand, either. We’re pleased that Greenpeace has singled out this particularly virulent transnational for close attention, and is refusing to apologise for the dreadful crime of telling the truth about it. Thanks to Jessa Latona, from Greenpeace Australia, and Christchurch’s Grant Rosoman, of the Greenpeace Forests Campaign, for the material cited above. Non-Members:
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