IN response to an agreement signed between the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) and OK Tedi landowner group as reported in the PNG media, Dr. Robert Bino in Port Moresby said the arrangement could be seen as tourism could be pursued as a land-use option especially when the same physical space was previously subjected to mining as a first-preference land-use option.
He claimed that ‘thinking’ is a myth and should not be promoted. “Now that mining is over in OK Tedi, and the landowners could opt to switch to tourism as a replacement land-use activity is a wrong perception,” he added.
“Mining in PNG context happens at a great cost to the natural environment whist branded tourists who visit PNG tends to be environmental enthusiasts, keen on enjoying the range of products that nature has to offer such as bird-watching. After the mining, all the birds around OK Tedi could have fled the area due to noise pollution.” Dr. Bino lamented.
“For tourism as a land-use option, mining in PNG context had been environmental-destructive at a cataclysmic scale and therefore it is misleading to depict the notion and wrongly promote the illusion that landowners still have the option of tourism to pursue when industrial-scale mining terminates on their land,” he said in a statement to PNG media.
Instead the tourism planning should be part of any mining and the extractive industry planning and issuing of operating licenses to developers coming into the country.
TPA and other tourism stakeholders as well as the PNG Tourism Ministry should be looking at tourism development plans when the mining wants to start and not when it ends.
Dr. Bino's comments came about when on the October 12th, 2018 the Tourism Promotion Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a landowner company to develop eco-tourism.
The agreement with the Ok Tedi Landowners Royalty Investment Trust will see TPA provide technical and other support to the landowner communities to develop and market their tourism products.
Tourism Promotion Authority CEO, Jerry Agus, said whilst we appreciate the good work that the mining and petroleum sector is doing, it is common knowledge that this sector has a timeframe to it.
“Over the next 20 or 30 years’ time, we know that these sectors will come to an end,” he stated.
“And when that happens, which industries are we going to fall back on?
“We must develop buffer industries that our people and our communities must fall back on.”
The TPA boss said the decision by the Ok Tedi landowners, through their firm, the Star Mountain Group of Companies, is a positive step forward.
Royalty Trust CEO, Aubrey DeSouza, said this eco-tourism project is exciting as it will benefit the 10 mine villages around Ok Tedi.
“And we expect the project to grow and give them sustainable employment and other opportunities,” he said.
Royalty Trust aims to attract a maximum of about 50 to 100 bird watchers per month.
The Trust started in 2016 and mainly focused on investments such as real estate, hotels and share acquisitions to generate income for the landowner communities. - Via Garamut News.
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