In the last eight years, two finance companies and one equipment retailer have provided financing to at least 15 companies that are logging in PNG’s rainforests, new research by Act Now! and Jubilee Australia reveals.
The recently released 2022 SGS report regarding log exports in Papua New Guinea largely contradicts the Marape Government’s pledge to reduce round log exports and cease the issuing of new licenses to foreign owned logging companies.
A moratorium on new Forest Clearance Authorities, recently announced by the PNG Forest Authority, has been welcomed by community advocacy organization ACT NOW, but the group says the measure does not go far enough.
“We are pleased the National Forest Board has recognized that the FCA system is being widely abused and has ordered a halt on the issuing of new Authorities and an audit of all existing FCA projects”, says Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago.
Papua New Guinea’s latest corruption score is a damning indictment of the government’s failure to properly fund anti-corruption agencies and it confirms PNG as one of the most corrupt country in the world.
The recently published Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) shows PNG’s ranking has dropped six places from 124 th to 130 th out of 180 countries . PNG’s CPI index score which is based on public sector corruption has dropped from 31 in 2021 to 30 in 2022.
Papua New Guinea’s long-awaited Independent Commission Against Corruption must be allocated substantial funding in the 2023 Budget if the government is to make good on its anti-corruption promises.
Community advocacy group ACT NOW! stressed this, as the 2023 Budget sitting fast approaches.
“The Prime Minister has promised a fully functioning ICAC by 2023”, says ACT NOW! Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago.
“But there are two crucial pieces of the jigsaw that are missing, “ Tanago said.
Carbon trading, which is being heavily promoted in Papua New Guinea, will not help reduce global warming and instead risks implicating indigenous communities in the obsessive overconsumption in wealthier countries that is destroying the planet, says local community advocacy group ACT NOW!
Nearly 70% of Papua New Guinea’s round log exports between 2019 and 2021 were concentrated in the hands of just ten groups of companies, all with strong links to Malaysia, according to new research by Act Now! and Jubilee Australia Research Centre.
Community advocacy organisation ACT NOW! says there are a lot of important issues for the new Forest Minister, Salio Waipo, to address, especially rampant illegal and unsustainable logging.
Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago says that it is shameful that more than 30 years after the Forest Act 1991 introduced a raft of reforms aimed at stopping the unsustainable logging and corruption exposed by the Barnett Commission of Inquiry, the situation today is no better.
Effective action against corruption is essential for economic growth and it should be the number one priority for the new Marape government says community advocacy organization ACT NOW!
Recent findings published by the National Research Institute has reaffirmed the importance of good governance and the rule of law in attracting new investment, increasing employment opportunities and boosting government revenues.[i]
Research and advocacy organisations Act Now! and Jubilee Australia Research Centre have welcomed a report that the bank accounts of 30 logging companies operating in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have been closed.