A new report predicts by 2021 most of the tropical forests of Papua New Guinea which are available to loggers will be obsolete or cleared away. The report, entitled The State of the Forests of Papua New Guinea, was created by scientists at the University of Papua New Guinea Remote Sensing Centre with help from their colleagues at the Australian National University.
The area they studied boasts to be the third largest tropical forest behind the Amazon and Congo. The scientists studied satellites for five years in order to grasp the intensity of the destruction. Even places where the forest is supposed to be protected are being destroyed, the report claims. By 2021 it is predicted that 83% of the accessible forest will be gone and 53% of the total tropical area will be destroyed or badly damaged.
The results showed that the damage is due to commercial logging, agricultural expansion and forest fires. Phil Shearman, the author of the report and director of UPNG Remote Sensing Centre claims there is a problem when the government expects rich countries to preserve their forests but still allows "multinational timber companies to take everything that's accessible."
Shearman said: "The unfortunate reality is that forests in Papua New Guinea are being logged repeatedly and wastefully with little regard for the environmental consequences and with at least the passive complicity of government authorities."
The authors of the report have faith that there is still time to act.
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This post was written by Christine Pinella on June 7, 2008