UN concern over PNG 'stealth logging'
AAP The United Nations has sent Papua New Guinea's government a please explain letter about millions of hectares of land allocated for what some say is "logging by stealth". In October last year AAP reported PNG villagers in Western Provinces were outraged the government had given away more than a million hectares of pristine forest for Special Agricultural Business Leases (SABL) without their knowledge or consent. Western Province now has half of PNG's allocated 5 million hectares of SABLs - close to ten per cent of the entire country. The leases are for projects like oil palm farms. But some view them as a backdoor way for foreign companies to log pristine forest. PNG has one of the world's largest and most precious forest resources and the build-up of SABLs has enraged green groups, NGOs and numerous government officials who have raised concerns that the forests were under threat by what they describe as logging by stealth. The chairman of the UN's Committ