Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

PNG govt has failed to protect landowners from carbon traders, says Greenpeace

Posted at 05:48 on 28 January, 2010 UTC

A Greenpeace forest campaigner in Papua New Guinea says the government has failed to stop unscrupulous carbon traders from buying up rights to forests from indigenous landowners.

Dorothy Tekwie’s comment comes amid media reports of various carbon traders, mainly Australian, forcing PNG landowners into questionable deals, often with the assistance of local officials.

She says the PNG government has established no legal framework or policy on carbon trading to ensure its people are protected from traders looking to make easy money off them.

“It is a new colonisation of our future. It is raiding of PNG people’s heritage by people who we have always had high regard for. Australian carbon traders are actually raiding this country, just as the Asian loggers had raped and ripped this country’s forests off.”

Dorothy Tekwie