"... better strategies need to be in place to take the significant wealth generated by extractives industries and translate this into meaningful human development for citizens across the country".

United Nations calls for responsible foreign investment

Source: PNG Mine Watch via the Masalai blog

Source: EMTV online

Pacific indigenous people made their stand clear on seabed mining at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Speaking on behalf of the Pacific indigenous people, Dr Samson Viulu from the Solomon Islands addressed the world leaders, reiterating the facts of the lifestyles of Pacific people and their dependency on the marine environment.

A new report from the United Nations highlights the global cost of the illegal exploitation of natural resources and its role in preventing sustainable development for the world's poorest people.

Titled 'The Environmental Crime Crisis' the report estimates the illegal trade on natural resources is worth between US$70 and US$213 billion a year.

From Radio New Zealand

West Papuan separatists say they want the United Nations to revisit their case, claiming they were denied their rights in the 1969 Act of Free Choice.

The UN-sponsored vote by a selection of chiefs is widely decried as a sham that allowed Indonesia to annex the former Dutch colony.