Protest NZ bank funding illegal PNG logging

TAKE ACTION Insist leading Australian/New Zealand bank stop financing destruction of PNG’s ancient rainforests by Malaysian loggers

Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australian community groups have filed a formal complaint against Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ Bank) of Australia over its financial support of ancient rainforest logging companies that are engaged in human rights abuses and environmental destruction in PNG. The complaint alleges that ANZ is "actively facilitating and supporting" the PNG operations of Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau, a company whose operations involve "serious human rights abuses, environmentally devastating logging practices and repeated, serious illegal conduct."

Most of PNG’s logging operations are illegal because of their failure to comply with a whole host of legal requirements including the need for sustainability and informed consent as well as non- compliance with harvesting and labour regulations. The groups filing the complaint are the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Human Rights Council of Australia and three PNG community groups: the Environmental Law Centre, the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum and the Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR). ACF and CELCOR’s recently released report, ‘Bulldozing progress: Human rights abuses and corruption in PNG’s large scale logging industry’, is available at: http://www.acfonline.org.au/ .