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PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Controversy over logging

PNG Prime Minister Mekere Morauta has condemned a logging project by Malaysian timber company Concord Pacific after Green Peace activists prevented a shipment of timber last week. Concord Pacific claims that logging concessions were legally granted as payment for the construction of a road, while Green Peace asserts that the company has carried out seven years of deforestation and has failed to build a functional road, endangering the livelihoods of local landowners, particularly the Suburiba tribe of Umuda Island. The government of PNG is currently investigating human rights abuses.