The Prime Minister’s promise to stop issuing new forestry licences will do nothing to stop illegal logging destroying Papua New Guinea’s tropical forests, says ACT NOW!

Addressing the recent meeting of the Green Climate Fund in Port Moresby, the Prime Minister is reported to have said no new forestry licences will be issued after 16^th September, the 50th anniversary of PNG’s Independence. 

However, stopping new logging licences is an empty gesture that will have no practical impact.

ACT NOW has launched a new advertising campaign on radio and television calling on the PNG Forest Authority to take immediate action on the abuse of Forest Clearing Authority licences.

Panguna mine in Bougainville (2022) PC: Island Business Pacific News

Cathy Tukne | Information Coordinator

Eddie Tanago | Campaign Manager

A recent news story about communities in Morobe using their profits from cocoa farming to pay for solar powered street lights for their villages is very encouraging and positive. Such initiatives drive economic independence, a sense of community and self reliance.

Eddie Tanago | Campaign Manager

ACT NOW is calling on the Prime Minister and regulatory agencies to take urgent action to address the huge discrepancies in log export values revealed in a recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

By Fr. Giorgio Licini, Caritas PNG Advocacy

By FORCERT

In Papua New Guinea, approximately 97% of land is customary, collectively controlled by clans, tribes and communities. This land serves as the foundation of life and security for the country’s rural communities, and is protected from alienation except under special circumstances, with the communities’ consent.

A new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime provides evidence Papua New Guinea could be missing out on billions of Kina in taxes and royalties from the logging industry.

ACT NOW! and Jubilee Australia Research Centre are urging a United Nations Committee to act on human rights violations in PNG arising from illegal logging. The organisations have filed a formal request to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to consider taking urgent action at its next meeting in August. Bismarck Ramu Group has also endorsed the action.