“China’s huge demand for timber is stripping one of the world’s largest remaining areas of pristine tropical forests. Trees are being felled at 20 times the sustainable rate in the Solomon Islands, where no checks are made to ensure timber is not illegally or unsustainably logged. This island nation, roughly the size of Belgium, is crisscrossed by more than 12,000km of logging roads.”
PNG, together with the Amazon and the Congo Basin is home to the 3rd biggest rainforest in the world, but Indonesian and Malaysian companies are closing in on it. PNG National Court found most Special Agricultural Business Lease (SABL) operators guilty of having imposed "oppressive" lease conditions on "unwitting" landowners. Signatures in Pomio were forged by means of deceased clan members and minors. Prime Minister O'Neill stated that all logging should stop until deals are renegotiated with landowners but we're hearing that logging is continuing in the SABLs with few exceptions. Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau is behind these fraudulent operations.
