ACT NOW! and Jubilee Australia Research Centre are urging a United Nations Committee to act on human rights violations in PNG arising from illegal logging. The organisations have filed a formal request to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to consider taking action at its next meeting in August. Bismarck Ramu Group has also endorsed the action.

“We have stressed to the UN that there is pervasive, ongoing and irreparable harm to customary resource owners whose forests are being stolen by logging companies,” says Eddie Tanago, ACT NOW! Campaign Manager.

A new report on logging in Papua New Guinea calls for urgent action by authorities in PNG and overseas to address long standing issue related to illegal logging, human rights abuses and environmental harm.

The report, published by community advocacy organisation ACT NOW and the Jubilee Australia Research Centre, focuses on Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs), a type of logging licence. It raises serious concerns that FCAs are being abused to allow large-scale logging, while government authorities fail to act. 

A criminal charge of identity theft against ACT NOW Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago has been struck out by Magistrate Mr. Paul Puri Nii, in the District Court at Waigani.

A prominent civil society advocate, Tanago was arrested and charged by police in December 2024 following a complaint made by the Managing Director of the PNG Forest Authority.

This was after ACT NOW had hosted a public seminar highlighting the abuse of Forest Clearing Authorities by foreign-owned logging companies who use the licences as a cover for large-scale illegal logging.