A new timber treatment plant has been commissioned in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, which officials say sets a new benchmark for sawmill operators.
New environment legislation which came into force on January 1 requires sawmill operators and timber treatment plants to obtain an environmental permit from the government.
The secretary of environment and conservation, Dr Wari Iamo, is calling on industry players to exercise self-regulation to comply with environmental performance standards through a co-operative approach rather than through statutory means.
Speaking at the commissioning of Northern District Sawmilling and Timber’s new treatment plant, Dr Iamo said timber processing was mainly a clean activity apart from chemical wastes and he urged the company to establish a suitable waste-management regime.
He said the new environment legislation would complement the government’s export driven economic recovery policy through downstream processing of logs into timber products and the treatment of these products for domestic and export markets.
