5/9/08
Geenpeace has pulled a stunt in PNG with false allegations about illegal logging to pressure the Australian government to breach World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and restrict imports of timber from PNG, a trade expert said yesterday. Alan Oxley was referring to an ABC report that Greenpeace activists had boarded a vessel which they claimed was carrying illegal timber from Rimbunan Hijau (PNG). He said Rimbunan Hijau (RH) had confirmed it was not its timber and to the best of its knowledge, the timber was not illegally logged. He said had the ABC checked with the company before it filed the story, it would have learnt the same thing. “This is just a continuation of Greenpeace’s scurrilous and unethical campaign to halt commercial forestry in PNG,” he said in a statement released in Melbourne. “Rimbunan Hijau should be congratulated for leading introduction of monitoring systems in PNG that demonstrate their timber products are legal. “Instead, like a bully, Greenpeace is singling out the good guy, the largest company, to attack with unsubstantiated allegations.”
See: http://www.thenational.com.pg/090508/nation5.php
Tags: Environment, PNG