My first multi million dollar aid project and perhaps the most demanding project I ever managed (talk about deep end).
The aim of the project was to plant 14,000 ha of denuded land in a small industrial plantation. As well as the obvious environmental benefits, the project was meant to create a sustainable wood resource to generate a wood processing industry, and provide significant employment opportunities to the locals.
Unfortunately, on the one side we had to deal with corrupt NRDC government officials who wanted to control the funds and take ownership of all the vehicles, and corrupt local politicians who organised squatters to try and undertake land grabs every time we opened up a road, and on the other, we found that the province we were planting was the rest and recreation area for the Communist insurgents, who were worried that our roads would enable the military to access and attack them. The Communists whipped up support from NZ NGOs using native Lumad customary land as a smokescreen, and applied pressure on the NZ government to stop the project.
Fortunately, the project hung together due to tight cooperation between Warren Ellis and later Peter Clark as Project Managers for FORENCO, together with Warren Searell at the Embassy and myself in Wellington.
A TV documentary was produced named Babes in the Woods – which in retrospect despite our good intentions pretty aptly summed up the situation.
However, the fact that we planted the best part of 14,000 ha in forest on denuded hills made all the tough times worthwhile.
Clippings from the Dominion Sept 1991
