2008 Papua New Guinea, 'Paradise Lost' (190 images)

In the remote areas of Paradise Forest, Papua New Guinea, multinational logging companies are at work, seeking out the valuable species of timber, and without adhering to laws, they harvest the trees, shipping the wood at deliberately low value (to avoid high export taxes in PNG) to the market places of China, japan and the Western world. The devastation of the forests is immense, with the naturally rich biodiversity of these areas being lost. Local resource owners are tricked and forced...
more »

In the remote areas of Paradise Forest, Papua New Guinea, multinational logging companies are at work, seeking out the valuable species of timber, and without adhering to laws, they harvest the trees, shipping the wood at deliberately low value (to avoid high export taxes in PNG) to the market places of China, japan and the Western world. The devastation of the forests is immense, with the naturally rich biodiversity of these areas being lost. Local resource owners are tricked and forced into selling rights for logging on their land, with proper consultation periods and processes being ignored. The Papua New Guinean workers are working in conditions of almost indentured slavery, paid a pittance for grueling, highly dangerous work, and forced to live and shop in company run logging stations, their salaries spent on food before they have been earned. It is a story not only of environmental damage but also of human rights abuses.
« less