Non-government organisation in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has dressed down Prime Minister James Marape for claiming his government is sustainably managing the country's forests. Marape made the comment at the United Nations General Assembly, where he also offered PNG advice to other countries on how to care for their biodiversity.
He said PNG hosts up to seen percent of the world's biodiversity that were mostly housed within a tropical rainforest that is the third largest in the world and has a vast marine ecosystem. "We sustainably manage our forests, land and sea, because our livelihood depends on them," he said. But community advocacy group ACT NOW said Marape's government is doing nothing to stop widespread illegal logging and in particular the abuse of agricultural clearing licences.
