Source: Radio New Zealand

The sustainable forestry organisation FORCERT in Papua New Guinea says developers and government players should consult more in communities where they set up logging projects.

A Technical Advisor to FORCERT, Peter Dam, says that due to rampant logging, only a few small parts of forest remain intact on the whole of New Britain.

This and other parts of PNG have been heavily clear-felled by logging projects, including those under the guise of Special Agricultural Business Leases.

Mr Dam says very little proper information about logging reaches affected communities ahead of the development.

"Nobody in the village has had people visiting them, explaining to them what they intend to do, what is supposed to be the proper process; nowhere there's been meetings they are seeking people's consent, and nowhere there has been proper signing up of landowners through their incorporated landgroups. So there's all the paperwork there but if you really check it, it's all wrong."

Peter Dam