Poverty and the Environment

Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau has been logging in Kamusie village in western Papua New Guinea since the 1980s.  The area has minimal infrastruc­ture and lacks basic government services.

Communities thrive when all citizens have access to clean air, clean water, open spaces, and healthy ecosystems.

Unfortunately, poor communities are often unfairly burdened by environmental injustices.  They bear the costs when industries extract minerals, timber, and petroleum products from local lands.  ELAW partner Effrey Dademo says that Papua New Guinea is "an island of gold floating in a sea of oil," but local people don't realize the benefits.

"The western province of PNG has the largest tract of tropical rainforest outside of the Amazon.  Logging and mining have taken place here for 33 years and this is our least developed province.  There is minimal infrastructure and non-existent basic government services," she says.

Effrey is an attorney and spokesperson for the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum.  Her organization recently celebrated a Supreme Court victory that shelved logging rights for a Malaysian corporation that had its eyes on 800,000 hectares of prime PNG forest.

Staff at the Papua New Guinea Eco-Forestry Forum (left to right): Thomas Paka, Charles Kautil, Peter Marise, Susan Saea and Effrey Dademo.

She says: "We advocate that locals manage and develop their resources themselves.  When locals manage their own resources they achieve a form of sustainability, because there is a sense of ownership and with it comes responsible and wise management of resources for future generations.  When development of resources is spearheaded by outsiders who are only here for the duration of their licenses, they get what they want and leave nothing behind for the local people.  Our government views us as "anti-development" when in fact our work encourages self-reliance and informed decision-making.  We advocate for people before profits."

ELAW is working with Effrey and hundreds of other grassroots advocates around the world to demand environmental justice for disadvantaged communities.  Effrey will travel to Eugene in February and collaborate with ELAW partners from around the world at the 2009 ELAW Annual Meeting.