Papua New Guinea

Decades of industrial energy production have destroyed vast areas of forest in Southeast Asia. The ‘energy transition’ trend is triggering a new wave of activities that lead to more deforestation in the region. Forest conservation programs, meanwhile, put the blame for deforestation on forest-dependent communities.

The documentary “Pig Feast: Colonialism in our time" presents a vivid picture of the struggle of Indigenous Peoples across the island of Papua against destruction of their territories. The film highlights indigenous resistance against large-scale projects that destroy peoples’ life spaces. One such project is the National Strategic Project Merauke, with 2.5 million hectares currently the world´s largest deforestation Project.

The "Deklarasi Solidaritas Merauke" (Merauke Solidarity Declaration, see below) has been collectively written by participants of the "Konsolidasi Solidaritas Merauke" (Merauke Solidarity Consolidation Meeting), a people's gathering that took place in the town of Merauke, South Papua Province in March, 2025. The declaration calls for an immediate halt of the National Strategic Project (PSN) Merauke.

Women protesters led a blockade against the Panguna copper mine to prevent the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoA) between the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and the Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) company. They also won a court injunction so the MoA cannot be signed until further notice. The MoA intends to allow BCL to reopen the mine before June 2019. The Panguna mine was abandoned in 1989 after a decade-long armed uprising and a movement for Bougainville independence from Papua New Guinea arose.

In 2013, with 3.1 million cubic meters of tropical wood exported, primarily to China, Papua New Guinea (PNG) became in recent years the world’s largest exporter of tropical wood, surpassing Malaysia, which had held the top spot for the past decades.

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The people of Collingwood Bay in Papua New Guinea have won back their land from Malaysian loggers and oil palm companies after a hard fought battle.

We are witnessing a global process of agribusiness expansion and land grabbing in the South. Through lease, concession, even purchase, corporations or foreign states take over large areas of farmland on a long-term basis to produce staple foods or agrofuels for export. It is estimated that roughly 1,000 investment groups have targeted more than 50 countries in Asia, Oceania, Africa and Latin America (1).

In late 2008, WRM and Friends of the Earth Papua New Guinea/CELCOR  jointly organised a workshop with local women in Papua New Guinea. The workshop referred to oil palm plantations that are being mainly promoted to feed the European market with palm oil (used in products such as cosmetics, soap, vegetable oil and foodstuffs) as well as for the production of agrofuels.