PNGBLOGS

STEVE ZWICK On Monday, an article attributed to the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported that Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare has officially denounced voluntary carbon schemes as being too risky.  The article – widely replicated in blogs and news outlets – said that Somare was encouraging forest owners to wait for a formal UN REDD regime before preserving their forests to earn credits for saving rainforests.  The message, however, is not posted on Somare's web page , and the voluntary programs he's denouncing were never verified to any recognized standard. It's just the latest in a series of weird signals to come out of PNG, which is under fire on both the compliance and voluntary carbon fronts. On the compliance front, PNG's handling of the REDD+ Partnership drew fire at UN Climate-Change talks in Tianjin, where scores of participants accused their negotiating team of stifling efforts to bring small landowners and indigenous groups into t

STEVE ZWICK On Monday, an article attributed to the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported that Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare has officially denounced voluntary carbon schemes as being too risky.  The article – widely replicated in blogs and news outlets – said that Somare was encouraging forest owners to wait for a formal UN REDD regime before preserving their forests to earn credits for saving rainforests.  The message, however, is not posted on Somare's web page , and the voluntary programs he's denouncing were never verified to any recognized standard. It's just the latest in a series of weird signals to come out of PNG, which is under fire on both the compliance and voluntary carbon fronts. On the compliance front, PNG's handling of the REDD+ Partnership drew fire at UN Climate-Change talks in Tianjin, where scores of participants accused their negotiating team of stifling efforts to bring small landowners and indigenous groups

PNGExposed Blog While the activities of unscrupulous ‘carbon cowboys’ have attracted much attention in Papua New Guinea over recent years, a confidential proposal shows that the PNG government is itself hoping to carry off the biggest scam of all. The Papua New Guinea government has submitted a proposal to the Norwegians that would see up to US$ 1 billion flow into the corruption riddled Pacific island country. The Somare government came into power in 2002 promising to immediately fast-track 10 large-scale logging projects and soon after threw a World Bank funded forest conservation project out of the country. Since then it has also sanctioned more than 2.5 million hectares of forest clearance for spurious ‘agriculture projects’. But now it is claiming it will change its ways and will bring this forest rape under control – if the Norwegians will just deposit anything between $750 million and $1 billion in its coffers. As we reveal here, the PNG government’s proposal to the Norwegians

PNGExposed Blog While the activities of unscrupulous ‘carbon cowboys’ have attracted much attention in Papua New Guinea over recent years, a confidential proposal shows that the PNG government is itself hoping to carry off the biggest scam of all. The Papua New Guinea government has submitted a proposal to the Norwegians that would see up to US$ 1 billion flow into the corruption riddled Pacific island country. The Somare government came into power in 2002 promising to immediately fast-track 10 large-scale logging projects and soon after threw a World Bank funded forest conservation project out of the country. Since then it has also sanctioned more than 2.5 million hectares of forest clearance for spurious ‘agriculture projects’. But now it is claiming it will change its ways and will bring this forest rape under control – if the Norwegians will just deposit anything between $750 million and $1 billion in its coffers. As we reveal here, the PNG government’s proposal to the Norwegians