The government needs to urgently take action on the SABL land grab and increase scrutiny of the logging industry. This was one of the messages from the international community during a review of human rights in PNG by the United Nations in Geneva on Friday.

Countries from Central and South America, Asia and Europe all spoke of the need for the PNG government to do more to protect the rights of customary landowners.

Photo: Ronny Hansen, Rainforest Foundation Norway

A group of civil society organisations, including ACT NOW!, Global Witness and Rainforest Foundation Norway, held a panel discussion inside the Palace of Nations in Geneva on Friday to review the outcomes from Papua New Guinea’s Universal Periodic Review.

Source: United Nations

Papua New Guinea’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the second time on Friday, 6 May 2016 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

The Forest Minister has taken out full page adverts in the media this month [see below] trying to refute allegations of illegal logging and financial misreporting by the logging industry. But his lengthy explanations fail to answer the central allegations and many of his admissions actually add weight to the arguments he is trying to dispute!

A new report published by the United Nations Human Rights Council is critical of the SABL land grab and the PNG government’s response. The UN says the land grab has been especially harmful to minorities and indigenous peoples.

The SABL land grab has resulted in over 5 million hectares of land being unlawfully taken from indigenous rural people and given to foreign corporations.

The government is to ignore the SABL Commission of Inquiry and endorse the SABL land grab by converting the unlawful leases into registered land and issuing new leases to the logging companies.

The government’s human rights record and its failure to protect the interests of customary landowners is under the spotlight in Switzerland this week.

Community advocacy group ACT NOW! is in Geneva briefing diplomats at the United Nations on the SABL land grab, illegal logging and experimental seabed mining.

Source: Cosmas Makamet, PNG Eco-Forestry Forum

Source: Legend FM News FB page

Sir Julius Chan, Governor of New Ireland Province, has challenged recent statements by the Forest Minister, Douglas Tomuriesa, concerning a recent report from the Oakland Institute that was critical of the way the forestry industry is run in PNG.

Source: Radio NZ

The Papua New Guinea Forest Minister has been urged by a transparency and environmental NGO to allow an audit of financial reporting by the logging industry.

Despite a new report by the Oakland Institute tracking massive tax evasion by foreign companies involved in PNG forestry, the minister Douglas Torumiesa has defended the loggers.

Mr Tomuriesa attacked the report's findings as being inaccurate because the companies do pay log export taxes.