ACTNOW's blog

Community advocacy group ACT NOW! welcomes the government’s announcement it will be hosting the Third APEC Meeting of Forestry Ministers in Port Moresby in October.

“This is the first APEC Ministers meeting to be held in Papua New Guinea and will be an excellent opportunity to remind the region of our government’s terrible record on the SABL land grab and illegal logging” says ACT NOW! Campaign Coordinator, Eddie Tanago.

Source: Andrew Alphonse, Post Courier

LOGGING companies in this country are run and owned by ‘foreign criminals Mafias’ who have no regard for the laws of this sovereign nation.

Oro Governor Garry Juffa said this during a press conference early Wednesday morning. He later raised the same during Question Time in Parliament.

Every day the Tropical Gems can be seen taking charge of clearing and tidying civic spaces in Madang, a town on the north coast of the Papua New Guinean mainland. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

Source: Catherine Wilson

Why are foreign businesses always at the top of priority for incentive handouts while local businesses are left to dig deeper for opportunities? Are we going to continue to discriminate against PNG enterprises and encourage foreigners to make extra profit at our expense? When will we give value to our PNG ways and our 100% local industries?

Source: The National

IMAGE: RELICANTHUS SP. -- A NEW SPECIES FROM A NEW ORDER OF CNIDARIA COLLECTED AT 4,100 METERS IN THE CLARION-CLIPPERTON FRACTURE ZONE (CCZ) THAT LIVES ON SPONGE STALKS. CREDIT: CRAIG SMITH AND DIVA AMON, ABYSSLINE PROJECT

Managing mining of the deep seabed

Contracts are being granted, but protections are lagging

Community, Relationships and Exchange are the three most significant values in a cuturally diverse country such as Papua New Guinea. We keep them dear to our hearts after land and life. Our system is a tradition that lives off extended relationships that survive on exchange within community for our social, economic and spiritual wellbeing. We are a spiders web conjoined by PNG culture for a 'Gutpela Sindaun' for everyone.

Source: Huffington Post

Mining in the deep sea for minerals is uncharted territory, but one company is well on its way to making it a reality. Now, the company is trying to convince skeptical audiences it's a good idea.

Even though the Commission of Inquiry into the land grab has found the SABL process was flawed, land grabbing continues while nothing has been done to cancel the leases and return the land to customary owners. Many communities are still not aware of what SABL is and how customary land is being stolen.

 The SABL issue is simplified in this Fact Sheet for use in awareness at the community level.