Foreign Correspondent Foreign Correspondent
Your passport to the world of international journalism

Tuesdays at 9:20pm on ABC TV

Foreign Correspondent
World Music
Tape Sales

PNG - Selling Off Their Birthright



The Government of Papua New Guinea is so desperate for cash that besides the short term pain of the cash for recognition deal with Taiwan they are fast tracking huge logging concessions that threaten the longer term sustainability of the country. Evan Williams braves swollen, crocodile infested rivers to travel deep into the remote Western province, the world's biggest tropical rainforest outside the Amazon, to meet those on the frontline of this dash for cash approach to the nation's future. He finds a deep fissure opening between the landowners and the Government supported loggers that spells future trouble, "we will just have to kill everybody around this place, we will look at a second Bougainville here." John Vaso, Maisin Clan Chief

In much of PNG the tribes still live off the forest and they just don't trust the supposed 'benefits of development' promised by the Government. But the shady corridors of power in Port Moresby are a world away from the tribal villages and the lure of the export dollar is proving too tempting.
"This is bureaucratic feudalism because the Government takes away your trees because it essentially doesn't think you've got the brains to manage them and then it mis-manages them on it's own" Brian Brunton, lawyer for the landowners.

Back to 1999 list

Back to main Archive page