Source: Radio New Zealand International

An organisation which promotes sustainable forestry, FORCERT, has sounded a note of caution about oil palm developments in Papua New Guinea.

This comes as the national government recently approved of the US$ 2 billion Sepik Plain Oil Palm Development Project, covering 10,000 hectares of land in East Sepik province.

FORCERT's Peter Dam says the legacy of oil palm development in PNG has not been good for local communities.

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Cook Islands opposition MP says the country has matured enough to explore deep sea mining prospects and deal responsibly with the profits, but there has still been a lack of consultation.

A meeting of 60 people on Rarotonga this week will hear from Cook Islands officials, but also regional and global interests.

Wilkie Rasmussen says it wasn't easy to gain access to the meeting, but is thankful the organisers recognised that interests from the outer island had a right to be heard.

Source: PNG Loop

Parliament sits at 10:00 am today starting off the second week of sessions for the three weeks assigned in the May Sitting, and one important thing  is the Land Grabbing Issue that hit the PNG and International news headlines in recent weeks.

Source: The National

JUST two years of operation of the Ramu nickel-cobalt mine has seen tailings smother organisms and sediment in the Basamuk Bay, a research says.

Such has been the impact on the biodiversity that organisms have disappeared, it said.

Marine researcher and biology lecturer from the University of Papua New Guinea Ralf Mana said: “The tailings of the mine disposed into the bay have overridden the organisms and the sea and the sea floor.

Source: PNG Mine Watch

Moana Nui submission to the 13-16 May 2014 Pacific ACP States 5th Regional Training Workshop Organised in Partnership with IMF (Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre): Financial Aspects of DSM being held in Rarotonga.

Arnie Saiki: Coordinator-Moana Nui Action Alliance

Source: 23 Things they dont tell you about capitalism, Ha-Joon Chang

In a market economy, it is said that people are rewarded according to their productivity. Fact remains, a Swede gets paid fifty times what an Indian gets paid for the same job, but that is reflection of their relative productivities. People will tell you that introducing minimum wage legislations will reduce differences to wage in repute to productivity. This will only lead to unjust and insufficient rewarding of individuals talents and efforts - as such in India.

Source: Radio New Zealand

The sustainable forestry organisation FORCERT in Papua New Guinea says developers and government players should consult more in communities where they set up logging projects.

A Technical Advisor to FORCERT, Peter Dam, says that due to rampant logging, only a few small parts of forest remain intact on the whole of New Britain.

This and other parts of PNG have been heavily clear-felled by logging projects, including those under the guise of Special Agricultural Business Leases.

An overwhelming 80% of respondents to a newspaper poll oppose the proposed Solwara 1 experimental seabed mine.

Source: Peiley Lau

Source: PNG Mine Watch

SOPAC continues to push for experimental seabed mining against the wishes of Pacific peoples - while using classic doublespeak to pretend its intervention will ensure positive outcomes, something that is manifestly untrue...