MP wants board decentralised

Source: Post Courier

LANDS and Physical Planning Minister Benny Allan has thrown in his support for the decentralisation of land board functions to provinces.

"This is so that each province can have their own land and physical planning board to plan how they can use their land without waiting for approvals from the National Land Board, in so far as allocation and granting of land titles are concerned," Minister Allan said in a statement yesterday.

Health check for deep-sea mining

European project evaluates risks to delicate ecosystems.

Source: Katia Moskvitch | Nature

Source: PNG Loop

Usino/Bundi MP Anthony Yagama and Madang acting Provincial Police Commander Ben Neneo met with the Bundi people on Sunday to hear their side of the story of the million kina damages caused by some of them last week.

Bundi villagers expressed their concerns that the developer, Ramu Nickel, and the Government of PNG had not implemented much of what had been agreed upon in the MOA.

A new radio advertisement calling for an end to illegal SABL logging is hitting the airwaves in PNG.

Produced by the Bismarck Ramu Group and ACT NOW!, the advert will be playing on the popular YumiFM, NauFM and LegendsFM radio stations.

Logging in SABL areas is continuing despite the directive to CANCEL ALL illegal SABLs

The Special Agriculture Business Leases are mutating into yet another scam by the same Foreign logging companies

Source:The National

A draft policy for offshore mining is in place which will cater for seabed mining projects, Mining Secretary Shadrach Himata says.

He said the draft policy would be brought before parliament for adoption first.

“We do have a draft offshore mining policy. We hope to bring this to parliament for adoption by fourth quarter this year.

Himata added that the draft policy was not yet a public document.

Source: PNG Mine Watch

NGOs from Australia, Canada and India are calling for an international moratorium on deep seabed mining in light of the International Seabed Authority’s (ISA) issuing of 7 exploration licences for deep seabed mining in international waters.

Natalie Lowrey, spokesperson, Deep Sea Mining campaign:

Source: PNG Mine Watch

Source: PNG Village

A computer diagram of the undersea mining of the Solwara 1 Project in New Ireland Province.

Nautilus Minerals, the developer of the Solwara 1 Project is currently developing a Environment Management Plan and monitoring programmes for the project.

According to Nautilus, this is a contingency plan to put to action just in case an unexpected incident occurs during the operation of the project that would require emergency response.

Source: The National

The open workshop on the "Review of PNG's System of Government, Legislature and Service Delivery" hosted by the National Research Institute (NRI) held on the 7th August 2014, was a great insight to suggestive solutions to amplify service delivery in Papua New Guinea.