Path to progress or to environmental devastation?

Splitting the forest

International experts on infrastructure development are also concerned about the specifics of the road expansion strategy.

“You cannot deny the necessity of building roads in PNG. They should build new roads, but some of these roads should not happen according to the current plan,” says Mohammed Alamgir, an environmental scientist from Australia’s James Cook University, who is currently working to map infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia.

Alamgir says the government must revise planned routes due to the number of ecologically important areas that the roads will bisect.

“They have a number of high-priority conservation areas, and [new roads] will crisscross most of these,” he says. Building roads through forests fragments ecosystems and also opens previously isolated areas to a host of secondary impacts like logging, poaching and human settlement.

“The rates of deforestation that PNG has experienced over the last few years, all of [these] deforestation rates are high near roads,” Alamgir says. This is a trend that can’t be ignored, he says.

Of particular concern, Alamgir says, are planned “missing link” sections traversing the country’s Western province, which hosts the rainforests of Kamula Doso.

A 2014 report by the University of Papua New Guinea’s Remote Sensing Centre identifies Kamula Doso as “the largest remaining intact block of lowland rainforest in PNG.” It is also facing multiple threats. Officials have already made at least three attempts to grant companies rights to the forest: in the form of a logging concession to Malaysian timber giant Rimbunan Hijau (a deal halted by the courts in 2008); a 2008 carbon-credit deal awarded to local firm Nupan Trading; and a 2009 SABL granted to New Zealand-based Tumu Timber.

The majority of skilled work along the road upgrade is undertaken by Chinese nationals from the China Harbour Engineering Company. Members of local communities are employed as manual labourers and sign holders along the route. Image by Camilo Mejia Giraldo for Mongabay.

Beyond the environment

Whether traveling on the country’s flat lowland roads or the steep, winding routes of the highlands, it is clear not only how much PNG needs to expand its existing network, but also how degraded its current roads are.

Maintenance of infrastructure in PNG, as with many other countries in the Pacific, is an ongoing issue. Beyond natural impacts like heavy rains, roads suffer from a lack of funding and accountability, compounded by widespread corruption.

For these reasons, Alamgir says, the priority of the national government should not be to expand its existing roads but focus first on maintaining them.

“What is the rationale of building new roads when you can’t maintain the current roads you have?” he says.

“Some of these areas [in PNG] have extremely dangerous landslides during the rainy season, and the maintenance costs of these [new] roads will be extremely high. It’s a reality that [the government] don’t have that kind of capacity to maintain these roads,” he says.

To tackle the lack of funding, PNG has turned to China. According to international media reports, PNG has already taken on $1.5 billion in concessional loans from China, which has also committed a further $4 billon to the road network. In June, PNG became the first Pacific nation to sign up to China’s One Belt, One Road initiative — a massive infrastructure project of railroads, ports and roads, among other projects, slated to span some 70 countries at a cost of up to $8 trillion.

The combination of a growing Chinese influence has local critics worried.

Members of the communities along the Kundiawa – Gembogl road are employed as the upgrades pass through their areas. Image by Camilo Mejia Giraldo for Mongabay.

“So far, we’ve noticed that there are 27 projects that these [Chinese] loans have been put towards, which total about 2 billion kina,” about $615 million, says BRG director Chitoa. “But there are rumors that this has gone up to 30-40 billion kina already,” about $9.2 billion to $12.3 billion, “which is a lot of money.”

Chitoa says he fears the government will be unable to repay these loans, the terms of which are not made public, landing the country in a debt trap that will ultimately force it to cede land and resources to China. “The trick is that these are loans, the illusion is that this is to develop us, but this is an exploitation plan,” Chitoa says.

It’s a fear based on a real-life precedent. Global debate over China’s “debt-trap diplomacy” came to a head in December 2017 when Sri Lanka, unable to meet its debt repayments to China, was forced to hand over control of a port for a period of 99 years to Beijing.

Even if the financing doesn’t land PNG in fiscal trouble —some regional experts challenge the debt-trap narrative — road development presents a dilemma for critics.

“Of course we see good things here [with development]. Of course the people need roads and bridges, but we are opening up to the outsiders. Looking at our research now, this development path, it is not the path that we want,” Chitoa says.

This story first appeared on Mongabay

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