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Forest Roads for Long Term Community Use
Other Forest Roads and
Decommissioning Forest Roads
It was observed that road and bridge construction by VFP across the timber area was generally of poor quality.
The Project Agreement gave many people the expectation that road services would be improved in the region and make other regional centres more accessible. The company was to construct a highway to help link Vanimo to Wewak. From the Project Agreement:
Section 4.1 (b)
The Company shall incorporate in its system of roads a major trunk road
(being a road carrying through traffic) extending from the eastern bank
of the Pual River to the eastern boundary of the timber area (the East-West
Highway), and forming part of the Government's proposed trunk road from
Vanimo to Wewak.
The Company shall construct a minimum of 20 kilometres of the East-West Highway during each Project Year and the construction of the said Highway shall commence in Project Year 2 from the eastern bank of the Pual River and the western boundary of the timber area simultaneously until completed in Project Year 5.
The Company shall construct the East-West Highway and upgrade any existing roads constructed by the Company forming part of the East-West Highway to a standard which:-
i) is equal to or greater than that determined in accordance with the Department of Works Road design Manual Part 2 Rural Roads for Medical Traffic Category; and
ii) incorporates permanent materials for all drainage and structures.
iii) is trafficable in all weather conditions by conventional two-wheel drive vehicles after completion of the East-West Highway.
The aforementioned 'East-West Highway' has still not been completed nearly ten years after the Project Agreement was signed and five years after it was meant to be completed. During this survey less than fifteen kilometres could be traversed, as the bridge crossing Busoa Creek was impassable by vehicles.
Fig.1 The Busoa Creek Bridge on the partially completed 'East-West Highway. Originally constructed by Vanimo Forest Products this bridge is in a severe state of disrepair.
The Busoa Creek Bridge is in a severe state of disrepair (as illustrated in Figure 1) and can only be crossed by foot despite local people attempts to repair it with sawn timber. The bridge should have been built with permanent materials (PA 4.1 (b) ii), but as with other bridges constructed by VFP on the East-West Highway, it was made from sawn logs and decked with gravel. The initial intention of VFP must also be questioned as they promised a sealed highway to the people, which would be a reasonable inference from PA section 4.1 (b) (iii), and instead partially delivered a road overlaid with gravel. Furthermore, inadequate measures were made for the control of erosion and sections of the road are regularly slipping away (Figure 2).
Figure 2. A section of the incomplete 'East-West Highway' which has already collapsed due to poor construction practices. Note the extensive growth of the vine Merremia peltata in the right of the photo.
It is evident that VFP has deliberately failed to complete the East-West Highway and inadequately constructed the road to be trafficable for all weather conditions.
4.1.2. Forest Roads for Long-Term Community Use
Roads that were initially built for timber extraction and meant for longer-term use appear to become rapidly impassable once logging operations move to a new area.
Figure 3 illustrates a road leading from Apambo village that was constructed without a compacted gravel surface and continues to deteriorate with vehicular traffic.
During negotiations concerning the timber area many people were told that the roads leading to their villages would be sealed. This never occurred, as no roads outside of Vanimo are sealed and roads that were constructed by VFP to villages were not even compacted adequately. According to government officials, VFP's roller has not operated for several years and only tractor bulldozers and graters have been used to construct roads. Excuses as to why the roller has not been used included a lack of spare parts and difficult conditions. This violates the LCP:
Key Standard No 7. Use compaction equipment (rollers) during road construction.
In Block 1 several roads have recently been constructed in areas which are steep and unstable. These are prone to erosive collapse on road verges and Figure 4 provides photographic evidence of their precarious condition.
Figure 4. Forest roads in Block 1 that have been recently constructed. The collapse of road verges will ensure that these roads rapidly fail.
It is unlikely that these roads will be able to be utilised by the villagers for any length of time, as maintenance of such poorly constructed roads will become increasingly difficult. However, it is often the failure of bridges that leads to a village access road becoming impassable. Throughout this survey of the Vanimo Timber Area bridges were starting to fall apart or had failed completely (see Figures 5 & 6).
Figure 5. Warra Bridge near Black Water. Without geotextile material to retard rot the log bridge will continue to deteriorate rapidly.
Figure 6. Bridge over Pusavo Creek constructed in 1996. Now the bridge can only be crossed by pedestrians.
Soil was used as decking material on all bridges connecting forest roads and village access roads. The requirement in the LCP (Key Standard No. 12: Soil on log bridges.) to use rot resistant decking material to ensure longevity of bridges and to prevent soil entering streams seemed to be universally absent. None of the bridges located during this study used rot resistant material between the log base and soil fill. Another example of VFPs poor road construction practices is the placement of log clusters under the roads. Figures 7 & 8 demonstrate the use of log clusters in Block 3 and Block 1, respectfully.
Figure 7. Log cluster used in road construction in Block 1.
The use of log clusters violates the LCP (Key Standard No. 13: Log clusters are not permitted.) because they do not allow adequate drainage and more often act as dams rather than culverts. Figure 8 demonstrates that the soil around the logs can become a constant source of sediments for streams.
Figure 8. Sediment runoff from a log cluster culvert in Block 1. The constructions do not allow adequate drainage and act more like dams than culverts. The soil around the logs is a constant source of sediment to streams.
4.1.3. Other Forest Roads
Many forest roads are only constructed to extract timber with no intention that they be utilised long term by the communities. The construction of these roads should conform to the LCP guidelines to minimise sediment loss and damage to forest productivity. However, when active logging blocks were examined in this survey it was found that a roller was not used to compact newly constructed roads, log clusters were used under roads and bridges did not have rot resistant material between the soil decking and the log base. These are all clear breaches of the LCP. Furthermore, the width of feeder roads and main forest roads were greater than 40 metres at several locations. This is also a violation of the LCP:
Key Standard No. 9: Maximum cleared forest road width is 40 metres.
Two locations where the forest road was greater than 50 metres in width are illustrated in Figures 9 & 10.
Figure 9. A forest road leading into set-up 4, Block 1, which is wider than the allowed 40 metres.
Figure 10. Another road in Block 1 which has been cleared beyond 40 metres. The construction of this road has also altered the local hydrology. These changes have resulted in the flooding an area of forest that contains a number of rare palm species.
VFP's negligent road construction practices were particularly evident in Block 1 when a bulldozer created an access road directly over a gravesite. The person standing in the middle of the road in Figure 11 indicates the burial place of a man known as Nump from Amoi village.
Figure 11. The person in the centre of this photo is pointing to the gravesite of a man known as Nump. A bulldozer had recently cleared the area to begin road construction. This serious breach of the Logging Code of Practice stems from VFP's lack of community consultation.
This road also passed within 50 metres of another grave (of a person known as Nopop) and a bush camp owned by the Wy Clan. The lack of communication with the landowners lead to this clear breach of the LCP:
Key Standard 2a. Minimum buffer zone for cultural sites, reserves, conservation and garden areas is 100 metres.
4.1.4. Decommissioning Forest Roads
All feeder forest roads (except village feeder roads) should be decommissioned when logging in an area has finished. The LCP (Key Standard No. 19: Decommissioning forest roads) clearly states that culverts and temporary bridges should be removed, but a number of bridges over Asai, Apambo, Newap, Nonokuwap and Warasi Creeks in Block 1 were left when logging operations finished in those areas in 1996.
Figure 12. A bridge spanning Newap Creek in Block 1. It should have been removed when the road was decommissioned more than 3 years previously.
Figure 12 provides photographic evidence of the log bridge still spanning Newap Creek in Block 1. As it was not removed when the road was decommissioned it will eventually collapse and block the flow of the creek.
A number of diesel tanks have been left in Block 6 (see Figure 13) more than two years after logging in the area finished.
Figure 13. One of several old diesel tanks left in Block 6 more than 2 years after the cessation of logging in this area. Note the extensive growth of the vine Merremia peltata. It smothers most of the residual vegetation and retards regeneration in this area.
Wire rope, oil filters, old batteries and bulldozer parts were found littering the sides of roads in Blocks 1 and 3. Leaving debris is incompatible with the LCP:
Key Standard No. 23: Remove rubbish from log landings and roads.
4.1.5. Environmental and Social Impacts of Poor Quality Road and Bridge Construction
Inadequate road compaction, the use of log clusters instead of culverts and the lack of rot resistant material in bridge construction has resulted in high levels of soil erosion from the VFP logging roads. These practices affect the water quality of streams by increasing nutrient levels and turbidity.
Figure 14. High levels of suspended sediment in a Block 1 stream. Runoff from road construction and skidding tracks were the main source of this sediment.
Figure 14 provides photographic evidence of one stream in Block 1 that has high levels of suspended solids. Long-term effects are hard to predict, but in the short term the flora and fauna of this and other streams have been negatively affected, as they are adapted to low levels of nutrients and low turbidity. The excessive width of some forest roads (such as those in Figures 9 & 10) contributes significantly to the area of forest cleared during logging operations.
This damages the overall productivity
of forest and decreases the long-term sustainability of logging operations.
Furthermore, the ditch and levee construction around the road in Figure
10 has altered the surface hydrology of the area. Pooled water can be
seen on the road verges and many areas of the surrounding forest have
flooded and become semi-permanent swamps. A variety of rare palms (including
several Licuala spp., Calyptrocalyx spp. and a Gronophyllum sp.) occur
in these forests and local villagers have harvested the seeds of these
species as part of an ongoing export business to Australia. Flooding of
this forest has created anaerobic soil conditions that damage plant roots
threatening significant stands of these palms. The value of palm seeds
are subject to world market fluctuations, but up to 2.00 Kina has been
paid for each seed of the Gronophyllum sp. in the past. Thus, a road constructed
without any consultation with local landowners may threaten a fledgling
export industry of sustainable palm seed harvesting. Failure of the company
to construct adequate roads is a burden that is borne by all communities
associated with the logging operations. The roads built for long-term
use were meant to link Vanimo and other communities in the Vanimo Timber
Area. Community bus services were often established following road construction
with several individuals from a village investing in the purchase of a
suitable bus. Many people utilise these services to buy and sell produce
at the markets and to seek medical treatment in Vanimo and other community
centres. As the roads rapidly deteriorate bus services have found it harder
to operate. Generally the bus service shortens, stopping at the first
bridge which fails, and then finishes entirely when too many bridges become
impassable. The people who own and operate the bus have therefore lost
the ability to run the service and are no longer able to generate an income.
As women generally have the responsibility of carrying food and children
to the markets the loss of a bus service effects them to a much greater
extent than the men.
Figure
15. Women and children walking from the 'East-West
Highway' to the village of Rawo. A bus service can no longer operate to
Rawo because of several bridge failures.
Figure 15 illustrates two
women and their children who were on the road to Rawo and Poko villages.
The bus service recently finished because one of the bridges failed and
these women now have to walk over 10km to get to a bus service on the
'East-West Highway'. A man travelling with them carried only his bow and
axe while each woman can be seen to be carrying a child and a heavy bilum.
Reaching medical facilities has also become more difficult for these women
and all the other villagers in this area.
