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A child stands before the remains of a sacred limestone area, logged then mined in PNG's Turama Extension logging concession.
Enlarge imagePapua New Guinea's remote location suits illegal and unethical logging companies. It makes it very difficult to prove workers' claims of mistreatment and poor conditions. Conditions for PNG forest communites and logging workers were mostly undocumented - until now.
In September 2008, Greenpeace went to the heart of the forest to expose the impacts of logging on its people, the environment and our global climate.
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For years, a war of words has waged between logging companies and organisations, like Greenpeace, that support Papua New Guinea landowners. From the logging camps and remote logging concessions have streamed stories and letters of complaint from landowners and workers.
Landowners' complaints include:
- lack of promised development
- debt bondage
- poor working conditions
- environmental destruction
- endangered food supply
- siltation of river system.
Until these complaints were documented, it was the word of the company versus the word of the landowners. And when a logging giant owns one of the country's largest newspapers, as Rimbunan Hijau does, propaganda comes cheap.
Where is the doctor?
Logging companies promised forest communities schools and medical centres as part of their development package. What we found were temporary buildings. Schools in poor condition, medical aid posts in name only. Few teachers, no books supplied, no doctors, no medicine.
Proof of forest destruction
This documentation fights the company's propaganda war with images and video testimonials. This proof is dated and geo-referenced. We have GPS positions of photos taken in the same areas that logging companies claim to be providing healthcare and education. Key images were mapped to their locations.
