Source: Post Courier March 26 2025

The Media Council of Papua New Guinea convened its latest Press Club event focusing on the alarming increase of Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) lawsuits.

Held at the Lamana Hotel, in Port Moresby, earlier today, the council highlighted the detrimental impact these lawsuits have on freedom of speech and public discourse.

ACT NOW! in collaboration with Starbox Production has launched a new music and video as part of the wider campaign to protect and promote customary land in Papua New Guinea.

Source: CIVICUS Monitor

Source: Post- Courier January 31st 2025

Joseph Ketan, Anthropologist ad Social Scientist

THE Year 2025 marks the 50 Anniversary of Constitutional Independence for Papua New Guinea. No doubt, many of you are thinking of ways to celebrate this significant milestone in the history of our country.

The 2025 National Government budget has seen an increased of budget allocation for district support improvement program (DSIP).

This is despite the fact that DDAs are lacking transparency and accountability in their operations and expenditure.

ACT NOW! analysis has shown that there is lack of DDA contact details, DDAs lack proper development plans and bad records of acquitting funds.

Prime Minister James Marape has spoken of the importance of preserving Papua New Guinea’s tropical rainforest in a meeting with the United Nations General Secretary and in his address to the UN General Assembly last Friday 

Yet, his government is doing nothing to stop widespread illegal logging and in particular the abuse of agricultural clearing licences.

Marape has described PNG’s rainforests as vital to PNG and to the global community, yet PNG is the world’s largest exporter of tropical logs and most of the logging is illegal and unsustainable.

We the Nzera Clan of Sio Village and Levo Clan of Karangan Village are TOTALLY AGAINST the current logging operations in the Wasu area in Tewae- Siassi District in Morobe Province.

The logging is done by Lucky Logging (PNG) Limited, a foreign owned Malaysian Company, under two Forest Clearing Authorities (FCA 13-02 and 13-03). The FCAs were supposedly issued for Cattle farming, Hunting and Forestry.

By Eddie Tanago Paine

Forest Clearing Authorities are being unlawfully used to facilitate large-scale logging operations by foreign-owned logging companies according to a new report published today by ACT NOW!, in collaboration with Jubilee Australia Research Centre. 

The new report, which focuses on the Wammy logging operation in West Sepik Province, reveals how a Malaysian logging company has used a Forest Clearing Authority (FCA), intended to allow land clearing for agriculture or other land use projects, as a front to export hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of round logs. 

Rimbunan Hijau (RH) Group (From"The New Timber Baron Report")