Your help is urgently needed by indigenous communities in Papua New Guinea who are seeing their forests illegally destroyed by foreign-owned logging companies.

These companies are stealing logs, destroying the valuable forest environments communities rely on for their subsistence and subjecting local people to violence and abuse.

Source: Radio New Zealand

The director of Papua New Guinea's Institute of National Affairs says a plan to sell betelnut in packaged form in Port Moresby could create a whole new set of problems.

Source: Mine Watch

The Constitutional and Law Reform Commission has made a series of recommendations for changes to the law as it affects the management and disposal of mine tailings.

The recommendations are contained in a Draft Report (which can be downloaded below - 650kb) on which the Commission welcomes submissions

The Commission says submissions are welcome from a broad cross-section of the community, as well as those with a special interest in the inquiry.

Source: Dr Roman Grynberg

Source: EMTV

The Constitutional and Law Reform Commission is pushing for a ban on deep sea and river tailings placement in Papua New Guinea.

These two proposals were amongst the 19 recommendations that have been drafted and will be presented to the Minister for Justice and Attorney General, for perusal and cabinet approval.

Source: Online Editor

Small island nations in the Pacific are concerned about the future of their development progress as negotiations for the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations — better known as PACER-Plus — inch closer to completion.

Aid and trade watchdogs consulted by Devex fear the scheme will not bring equal benefits to stakeholders.

Source: Free West Papua Campaign

On 17th July 2014, hundreds to thousands of people outside the local Indonesian Parliament office in Timika, West Papua, peacefully protested for an independence referendum and for the release of the scores West Papuan political prisoners who continue to be held behind bars by the Indonesian government.

"... joint statement on the failure of the World Bank's draft safeguards to protect land rights and prevent impoverishment was just sent to the Committee on Development Effectiveness and other Executive Directors, with 111 signatories from around the world.  We will be sending out a media statement shortly - please help to spread it widely to journalists and social media..."

Words and Pictures by Nathan Matbob

John Roka was a loving father who did not think twice about his own life when he traveled back to be with his family during the peak time of the ten year crisis in 1993.  John, from Bali in West New Britain Province, married Theresa Pokamari from Enamira in Panguna, Central Bougainville in 1977. And both with their children lived in the mining town of Arawa. Stories from people who knew John personally often articulate John of a person who never held back anything; he was a very generous man.