Media Releases

Forest Clearing Authorities used as fronts for Illegal Logging

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. 

New DDA Watch website to promote transparency in public spending

Community advocacy organization ACT NOW! is today launching a new website, www.ddawatch.org to promote transparency and accountability in how government funds are used across all 94 Districts in Papua New Guinea.

The DDA Watch website will provide the general public, officials and academics with impartial and non-partisan information on the work of each District Development Authority, with the ultimate aim of helping to improve the quality of local infrastructure and service delivery.

Moratorium on new FCAs a step in the right direction

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.

CORRUPTION COSTING BILLION AND COSTING THE ECONOMY

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.

BUDGET MUST DELIVER SUBSTANTIAL ICAC FUNDING

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 will not stop global warming but will entrench global inequality

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!

New Forest Minister must address legality and sustainability issues

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.