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Think Tank Says Illegal Logging in PNG Worse than Ever

September 10, 2018
Source
Radio New Zealand

The American based think tank, the Oakland Institute, says foreign loggers in Papua New Guinea are taking much timber and evading the tax due on it.

Oakland has published a report called the Gret Timber Heist - Continued.

It's a followup to a report from two years ago which condemned the rampant illegal logging happening in PNG, but spokesman, Frederick Mousseau, says the situation has got worse.

Mr Mousseau told Don Wiseman that while the government supposedly tightened some of the rules around logging, Oakland's latest research shows the foreign companies, mostly subsidiaries of Malaysian company, Rimbunan Hijau, are exporting up to 40 percent more, while reporting their losses have more than doubled.