DEVELOPMENT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA: various meanings in the context of logging in West New Britain Peter Nelson, B. A. (Hons. Anthropology), Grad. Dip. Ed. Submitted in fulfilment of a Master of Arts Degree by Research in the School of Australian and International Studies, Faculty of Arts, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia March 1999 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v PREFACE viii ONE Various Meanings Culture and world view 7 A villager's voice 14 Makapa 19 Development in the context of Logging 23 TWO Peoples of Pasismanua and development 35 Exchange 40 Environment and tradition in the Pasismanua region 49 Life in Melanesia 54 Areal cultures 63 The community 70 Governance and the community 72 A development debate 77 THREE Education 83 FOUR Human development: understanding the other 99 Notions of development: a new focusl04 Development and reciprocity 109 Self detennination 112 Sustainable and unsustainable 120 development Good governance 125 Labour and economy 128 Vision and culture 136 CONCLUSION 141 BmLIOGRAPHY 151 iv MAPS MAP I Rainforest opp. p.4 MAP 2 Towns and hamlets in the discussion opp. p.5 MAP 2(0) Dispersion o/main hamlets in Pasismanua opp. p.5 ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE I Traditional integral agroforestry in opp. p.53 Melanesia APPENDIX List of technical expressions 164 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have helped in the marshalling of information and in deepening my understanding of Melanesia. My Supervisor, Dr. David Wetherell, exercised patience through several drafts of the writing. I thank him for his help. A major mover in the consultation process with peoples of tropical forests is Hartrnut Holzknecht, through his association with the Resource Owner Involvement movement of the Forest Management and Planning Project in PNG. He worked through all the arduous issues mentioned in the thesis and has given me the benefit of his experience by conversation. letter and publications. It was much appreciated. Two other people who offered timely advice were Mike Wood of James Cook University, and Robin Hide of the Research School of Asian and Pacific Studies, A.N. U. I am very grateful for their assistance and the use of their writings on the subject of Forestry initiatives in PNG. While they can take credit for the reliable data from their work, the conclusions are based on my own insights into the issues and I bear responsibility for any errors in judgement. In Papua New Guinea, MS.Miriam Joseph from the PNG Forest Research Institute was most helpful on current matters with Forestry generally and I thank her most sincerely. Harry Sakulas the Director of the Wau Ecology Institute also provided assistance. The Very Revd. Bishop Michael Hough of "'Islands" Anglican Diocese made some interesting comments and provided the Diocese's point of view, as far as all the members of the Church can be represented with a single, coherent point of view. Canon Johnston in Melbourne assisted me to gain access to Diocesan material. In West New Britain, Craig and Linda Throop of the Summer Institute of Linguistics gave of their time to provide detailed information about the Kaulong people, and about the experience of living in the Pasismanua District for many years. Lloyd and Ruth Milligan from the Mangseng people, about a hundred and twenty kilometres east of Kamman, gave some insights into their Linguistic work on the South Coast of the island. Max Henderson of the Pacific Heritage Foundation generously sent me materials describing the Bainings forestry initiatives and the general situation in Papua New Guinea. Greg Mongi, previously of the National Alliance of Non Government Organisations (PNG) gave me information about government departments appropriate to the inquiry. In AusAID, several workers in the Kandrian Gloucester Integrated Development Project ('"KG Project") offered considerable assistance. Mike Lowe from the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the ANU supplied the maps, his time during frequent bouts of sickness, and much current news on development in West New Britain. These maps were adapted by Trevor Pickles at Deakin University into a smart, relevant documents for the text of the Thesis, and his generous contribution needs to be acknowledged and praised. Garry Simpson, formerly of the "KG" Project, gave me advice at early stages. Rob Crittenden the Anutech Director of the Project vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS was most helpful, and Peter Charlton was able to give me accurate details of government action and the Development Cooperation Treaty. I was most encouraged to talk to them and their insights were valuable. Ms. Grace Feka, the Development Officer for AusAID in Port Moresby, meticulously described the features of the new Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments. Since details were hard to uncover, I am most grateful for her assistance. Ed Peek the AusAID S.A. Director gave assistance where he could. Brian Dutram, Secretary for the Department of Provincial Affairs and Local Government in 1996, made some helpful suggestions. Paul Chatterton of the Worldwide Fund for Nature offered some graphic stories of development activities and logging in the Pasismanua district, having recently hiked through the Pasismanua hinterland on a W.W.F. fieldtrip. Helen Rosenbaum of the Australian Conservation Foundation offered some helpful advice and encouragement. David Tibayne of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid made some suggestions too. Also in Australia, Dr. Christina Pavlides gave me the benefit of her archaeological fieldwork in the Arawe sub-region and was most generous. Her suggestions were much more helpful than she knows and I am seriously indebted to her. Professor Leslie Potter of the Geography Department, the University of Adelaide, generously gave of her time and advice as an editor, when she had no time. Her interest in one so little qualified in environmental transfonnation was heartening, coming from such an experienced fieldworker. Dr.Petranel Ferrao of the Hansen Research Institute, the University of Adelaide, was very helpful with advice and encouragement and I most sincerely thank her. Hartmut Holzknecht of the Forest Management and Planning Project (PNG) stated that, apart from the anthropologists Jane Goodale and Ann Chowning, «no anthropological research has been camed out in either the central plateau or south coast regions"!. The reliance upon Jane Goodale and Ann Chowning in the thesis is relieved only by my own research and the work carried out by the Melanesian Institute for Pastoral and Socio-economic Research, Inc., during my period of employment with them. I was very happy to be associated with the Institute and I defer to their judgements on traditional matters in Melanesia. I remain especially indebted to the fonner Director, Dr. Ennio Mantovani, and look forward to further work of the staff of the Melanesian Institute on "grass roots" communities of the villages and towns of Papua New Guinea. I Holzknecht, H (1989) The socio-economic environment in the Talasea. Hoskins. Kapiura and Ania-Fulleborn Timber Area, Report 5.3 of Scientific Reports, Unitech, PNG University of technology, Lae, June 1989. vii ABSTRACT Development in Papua New Guinea ... is research into village level issues of logging. In New Britain, nationals are offered royalties for cutting their rainforest. Information about ecology and biodiversity is usually late in coming, and such information to them does not appear to advance their development. This thesis offers the most specific method for dealing with small communities in Papua New Guinea, and confronts the issue of self development. It is posited that all other development must encourage self development in Papua New Guinea. Evidence brought here shows the need to make the Melanesian community central to development strategies. To accomplish such a strategy, there is a need to consider Melanesian cultures. An explanation of world views ensues. The world views of people of the Pasismanua region, of New Britain's south coast, was compared broadly with Melanesian cultures and Melanesian development in a variety of circumstances. Consequently, the suggestions made are broadly applicablc to situations where resources must be well monitored. There are many such situations in Pacific nations, which suggests that the thesis will be of usc to a wide research community. Since research is grounded in ethnographic as well as other research, this kind of study generates many other research questions, and the research is designed to lead to other studies. Certain aspects of the design become disclosed when the research has progressed. As well, the background of an expatriate researcher is intrusive, and must be mitigated by some form of participation in the host culture. This is a central tcnet of the thesis. This participation increases sensitivity to culture and yiclds a circumspect consideration of the colonial issue. Occupied for many years by colonial powers especially Australia, all New Guinea including West New Britain shows the effects of colonisation. It also shows evidence of the new colonialism of cash-cropping, and of the destruction of biodiversity. This becomes a central theme, as does the position ofthis researcher as a participant in a global economic culture cncroaching on and invited by Papua New Guinea. PREFACE: a Room Full of Voices The transcendental presupposition of every cultural science lies not in our finding a certain culture or any "culture" in general to be valuable but rather in the fact that we are cultural beings, endowed with the capacity and will to take a deliberate attitude towards the world and lend it significance ... these phenomena have cultural significance for us and on this significance alone rests its scientific interest. Max Weber, "Objectivity in Social Science and Social Policy" There is a party going on in one large room. Everyone is talking, some in small groups, some in large. They are all trying to talk about the same thing. Some have the words in vogue, and some do not.