Regional leaders will meet for the 53rdPacific Islands Forum in Tonga from the 26th to the 30th of August 2024.
This follows their recent visit to Japan in July for the Pacific Alliance Leaders Meeting [PALM 10]; Japan’s pillar of foreign policy with Pacific Island leaders.
High on the agenda in Japan was the dumping of nuclear waste water into the Pacific ocean; that agenda will again be a priority discussion among regional leaders in Tonga.
PIF Chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister, Mark Brown (left) with PIF Secretary General, Baron Waqa at 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM10)in Japan. [[Photo://Sincha Dimara-InsidePNG]]
The view taken by leaders headed by Pacific Islands Forum chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister, Mark Brown is that Japan’s treatment of the radioactive waste meets the standard set by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
When asked by the media if allowing Japan to dump nuclear waste or treated water in the Pacific Ocean was against the Rarotonga Treaty, Mr Brown said quote, “No, the water has been treated to remove harmful isotopes, so it’s well within the standard guidelines as outlined by the global authority on nuclear matters, the IAEA.“
This view is seen as Mr Brown backtracking on PIFs previous stand in 2023 where he said quote, “Our people do not have anything to gain from Japan’s plan but have much at risk for generations to come.”
Pacific Islands Forum Chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister, Mark Brown.[[Photo//PANG Communications]]
The Rarotonga Treaty, a Cold War-era agreement prohibits nuclear weapons testing and deployment in the region, but it does not specifically address the discharge of the treated nuclear waste water.
Another long-standing issue is the legacy of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands by the US between 1946 and 1958. The United States Institute of Peace has reported that the impact of nuclear testing from cancer to displacement to environmental contamination still plague the Marshall Islands today.
Meanwhile, Pacific Civil Society organizations continue to condemn Japan’s action. Of the 1.3 million tonnes of ALPS treated nuclear waste water, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has conducted seven sets of dumping into the Pacific Ocean and the eighth is due to commence soon.
Japan itself is defending its action saying it will continue to follow international safety standards and ongoing monitoring by IAEA. It will continue to have dialogue with Pacific leaders and support initiatives that mobilizes Japan technology and financial resources.
The annual Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting in Tonga will convene and engage in discussions and agree on policies that benefit the people in the region.
ABC Pacific Beat recently reported that Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka gave strong backing to a plan to overhaul Pacific policing. Mr Rabuka also said he will make an apology to Melanesian leaders at the meeting in Tonga for failing to secure an agreement to visit Indonesia’s West Papua province.
At last year’s PIF Leaders meeting in Cook Islands, the Melanesian Spearhead Group appointed Mr Rabuka and PNG Prime Minister James Marape as the “Special Envoys” on West Papua.
Fiji’s Prime Minister said he is still committed to a visit and would like to make the trip after incoming Indonesian President Prabowo Subinato takes office.
Prime Minister Marape meanwhile is ready to welcome Indonesia’s President- today (Wednesday 21st August 2024). Both leaders’ bilateral agenda will include discussions on West Papua.
Lihir Mining Area Landowners Association (LMALA) is calling for a review of the Integrated Benefits Package (IBP).
This comes after the Government and the developer of the Lihir Gold Mine had not done a review of the IBP since 2007.
The IBP is part of the Lihir Agreements that were signed in 1995 to ensure the opening of the Lihir Gold Mine, the IBP is a compensation Agreement and Chairman of LMALA James Laketan with his executive committee were in Port Moresby to persuade the Government to bring back the review of the IBP.
“Our issue and concerns refer to compensation for our landowners, as landowners we deserve the compensation because of the effects of the mine. This is under Section 154 (1) and 154 (6) of the Mining Act, where it states that compensation must be paid to all mine affected landowners and this also applies in Section 156 (6) of the Mining Act that states those in the periphery of the mine area as well must be included,” Laketan said
Laketan says there is a five-year cycle for review, and there hasn’t been a review for IBP since 2007.
He added they were eager for a review in 2017, in the hopes that it would lead to them finally knowing the value of the IBP, and going forward the figures would help them, work on a sustainable development plan.
This sadly didn’t happen, instead there was a new agreement put forth by the developer and the Government in 2017.
“In 2017 when the developer and the Mineral Resource Authority wanted to start the review process on the Lihir Agreements, but there wasn’t consideration given to have the IBP in the review, instead they put in a new agreement called the Compensation Relocation Agreement (CRA) a totally new agreement, this left LMALA and the Local Level Government, the signatories to the IBP to Pull out because IBP wasn’t in the review.
“We want the Government and the developer to get the IPB Review back on the table so that the outstanding benefits and obligations from the IPB can be given to the people, the review is outstanding, and there is no positive feedback after we had put in our query for a review of IBP,” Laketan said.
LMALA also mentioned in a Media release that they as landowners never gave their free and prior informed consent to have CRA as their new compensation agreement. refereeing to the fact that their push to have IBP as the only Compensation Agreement has fallen on deaf ears, with the Government and developer proceeding with the CRA.
President of the PNG Media Council Neville Choi is urging all media professionals in Papua New Guinea to take part in the recently launched media survey in the Pacific.
This inaugural survey hopes to capture the experiences and challenges facing Pacific journalists attempting to uphold freedom of expression and information across the region.
The media survey was launched on the 7th of August by the Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF).
An online network founded more than a decade ago, the PFF works to protect and promote Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which establishes the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of information as a fundamental human right.
The pilot Pacific Islands Media Freedom Survey is aimed at establishing robust baseline data on the state of media freedom in the Pacific, according to PFF Chair, Robert Iroga.
“We intend to use the survey results to create an inaugural Pacific Islands Media Freedom Index or standard for measuring Pacific media freedoms that is for us, by us and about us,” Iroga said.
PFF will use this baseline for further monitoring, capturing, reporting, and prompting of media freedom in island nations.
“Given the development of the media industry in our region, it is high time that we as Pacific islanders, who live and know the Pacific well, carry out the survey with and for our Pacific journalists,” Iroga said.
A founding editor of one of Solomon Islands most prolific online news sites, Iroga is also the Vice President of the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) which is collaborating on the project.
President of the PNG Media Council Mr Choi in encouraging PNG Journalists to be part of the survey says with the government’s focus on the perceived level of “media freedom” in the country, it is only logical for us to support a more contextualized and region-based survey about the level of media freedom within each of our countries.
The PFF plans to launch its inaugural Pacific Islands Media Freedom Index (PIMFI) and accompanying report at PINA’s biennial media summit to be held in Niue in September.
PFF and PINA jointly represent Pacific Islands journalists on the media freedom and free speech monitoring conducted by the IFEX – the International Freedom of Expression Exchange – a global network that defends and promotes freedom of expression as a fundamental human right.“
Internews, the global media and information strengthening NGO, whose Transparent Pacific project is supporting the survey and establishment of a PIMFI, is also hosting two days of dialogue for editors and journalists at the PINA summit.
It is hoped these roundtables will provide an opportunity for a collective response and strategies to be formulated in light of the snapshot of the challenges facing media freedoms across the region in 2023 provided by the survey.
The PFF acknowledged Reporters without Borders for their previous global work Iroga said.
“The work done by them helped highlight that it was time to develop a more specific and Pacific-led approach,” Iroga said.
If you are working in the media in a Pacific Island nation you can take the 2024 Pacific Islands Media Freedom Survey at For us. By us. About us.
InsidePNG announced the appointment of Ms. Charmaine Yanam as its new Editor-in-Chief today.
Ms. Yanam, who has extensive experience as a news journalist across radio, television and most recently in the civil society space, will now lead the InsidePNG team as it builds its focus into investigative journalism.
A co-founder of InsidePNG, Ms. Yanam was a member of the EMTV News Team which was terminated en masse in 2022 under controversial circumstances.
“InsidePNG emerged from a group of 24 TV News Journalists, Cameramen and Video Editors who took a stand against bullying and intimidation in their newsroom.
“Now I have the opportunity to lead this team of intrepid truth seekers who are InsidePNG. Our focus now is on strengthening our investigative journalism capacity,” Ms. Yanam says.
As Editor-in-Chief, Ms. Yanam will be responsible for overseeing all editorial operations at InsidePNG, ensuring that the publication maintains the highest standards of journalism and delivers accurate, reliable, and relevant news and information to our readers.
All correspondence related to editorial matters, inquiries, and feedback should be directed to Ms. Yanam in her capacity as Editor-in-Chief.
InsidePNG is confident that under Ms. Yanam’s leadership, it will continue to be a trusted source of information, providing readers with valuable insights and perspectives to stay informed and engaged with current affairs.
Ms Yanam is also one of two co-founders of Inside PNG.
Madang Governor Ramsy Pariwa presented K94 000 to the Somare Institute of Leadership & Governance as school fee payment for 19 public servants from Madang Province who are currently studying at the institute.
Pariwa presented the cheque to SILAG CEO Michael Barobe.
The Governor acknowledged the importance of capacity building for public servants in the province to help them effectively deliver government services throughout the province.
SILAG CEO Michael Barobe (LEFT) Madang Governor Ramsey Pariwa (RIGHT).
“It’s the responsibility of every government to empower human resource. As we all know school fee is a big problem in our country that we all face. I was able to pay part of my own school fees with copra and I recognize the challenge students go through.
“I was inspired to initiate the Provincial Government School Fee assistance program when I saw how it greatly assisted some of my course mates from Morobe and Enga while studying at the University of Papua New Guinea some years back. Now that I am in the capacity to create this assistance, I took it on for Madang students studying throughout the country. The program is called “Sir Peter Barter Scholarship Assistance Program”.
SILAG CEO Barobe emphasized that when a province has competent people in the workplace, the province will be moving because they have the right tools.
“He (Pariwa) knows the importance of human resource in his province,” said Barobe.
He said while many things are learnt on the job, it is important for certification to allow an employee to excel in that role.
Barobe also challenged other Governors to invest in building their human resource capacity for effective service delivery in the country.
The National Procurement Commission is partnering with the Somare Institute of Leadership and Governance (SILAG) to facilitate capacity building programs within the Commission.
A Memorandum of Agreement was signed today to signify the commencement of this partnership.
The collaborative agreement aims to enhance public service capacity and foster effective leadership through projects relating to course design, delivery and other learning and development interventions that are to be undertaken by and between SILAG and NPC.
This step taken seeks to promote effective leadership and good governance within these public service organizations.
The objectives outlined in the MOU are that both SILAG and PNC work together to identify capacity and training needs, design suitable training programs, deliver needs-based training and asses it’s impact.
SILAG will extend it’s learning services to support NPC’s capacity building programs, learning interventions and other objectives both at the Head Office and Provinces.
SILAG CEO, Michael Barobe said this agreement is in line with NEC approved Public Sector Training for Improved Service Delivery.
“The policy is intended to advance the government’s plans and desire to make the entire pubic service machinery appropriately functional through systematic training and recruitment that ensures merit-based appointments to public service positions.
Foreigners working in Papua New Guinea will no longer need to lodge separate applications for employment visa and work permits.
Immigrations and Citizenship Service Authority has announced the creation of an online Sponsor Portal that merges work permit and working resident visa into a single digital application.
Acting Chief Immigration Officer, Wellington Navasivu said the Sponsor Portal provides businesses with streamlined process to lodge the combined work permit and employment visa online with a system that directly interfaces with the immigration’s Border Management System.
“Users of the system can input data and pay the necessary Migration Services Fee online at the convenience of their office anytime instead of physically visiting the Immigration office.”
The portal aims to also improve processing time and enhance customer service through the interface which allows sponsors to see the status of application and interact with ICSA.
“The Sponsor Portal will slowly phase out work permit and the end result will be a working resident visa. This means that the users of the portal will no longer get a work permit letter and ID card, instead they will receive a working resident visa which gives them the lawful permission to enter the country and work.
The portal can be accessed on the ICSA’s website with a one-time new registration of USD25 and USD75 for online administration fee per application.
The standard Migration Service Fee of US$380 is charged on each application.
Thousands of Papua New Guineans have signed up to an international multi-level marketing scheme that is being pursued in court in the United States for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of people of over 400 million kina.
As many as 13,000 Papua New Guineans have signed up to the scheme, known as Onpassive.
The Orlando, Florida-based business promises individuals hefty returns from a one-time investment of $US 97 (about 375 kina) and monthly subscription fees. The company claims that investors will share in the profits from the sale of an array of software products that it has developed, and which will be released in the near future.
However, the products have failed to materialize. The U.S. financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), last August filed a civil complaint alleging that the business and its owner, Ashraf Mufareh, have since 2018 perpetrated an “illegal pyramid scheme.”
Onpassive owner, Ashraf Mufareh.
Pyramid schemes are a classic form of fraud in which participants are made to pay money up front, and then urged to earn their money back by recruiting new people into the fraud. The small number of people at the “top” of the pyramid can make large amounts of money, while the far greater number of people at the “bottom” lose out.
In Papua New Guinea, the scheme is being led by David Bakau, a former employee of Lloyd’s Bank in Arawa, Bougainville, who became a senior member in the late 1990s and early 2000s of the U-Vistract fraud run by Noah Musingku.
The U-Vistract scam took money from thousands of victims across PNG, Australia, and the Pacific while promising stratospheric returns that never came through. Musingku is still wanted for arrest by PNG authorities, and is currently holed up with loyalists in his home village in Siwai district, Bougainville, where he has declared himself king.
In an interview with Inside PNG, Bakau said he had long ago walked away from Musingku’s scam. But he said that, despite allegations by U.S. authorities, Onpassive was a legitimate company.
“I have no questions about it, because the legal team are handling that,” Bakau said
Onpassive Dubai.
“We believe in [Onpassive owner Mufareh’s] integrity,” he added. “I followed him in 2019 when the company was barely nothing, and they’ve basically built and I’ve seen everything developed from there.”
Bakau told Inside PNG that he had not yet made any money from Onpassive, but stands to make a 25 percent commission on each 375 kina sign-up fee paid by the scheme’s PNG investors when Onpassive’s software finally launches. He said an issue with data migration has temporarily delayed the release of the software products, which are touted as being part of an integrated artificial intelligence ecosystem that will replace platforms like Google, Zoom, and Facebook.
However, disgruntled former scheme members say such delays are simply part of the alleged scam.
U.S. regulators have alleged that Mufareh and his wife have instead used the money on personal expenses including online retail purchases, upscale dining, TV subscriptions, groceries, salon and spa visits, and the purchasing of stocks.
Bakau said he is unphased. “In every business, there’s a risk,” Bakau said. “Nobody owes anybody. So Ash [Mufareh] doesn’t owe us, we don’t owe him anything”, he said.
Onpassive and Ash Mufareh did not respond to questions.
YouTube videos and social media postings show that Onpassive’s network has targeted PNG since 2019, just a year after the inception of the alleged scam. A closed Facebook group run by senior scheme participants, named “Onpassive Nation -— Papua New Guinea”, has 5,400 members.
Reporters from Inside PNG contacted 10 to 15 Papua New Guineans who have participated in the scheme or have been drawn in by others, but all refused to speak on the record or simply did not respond.
According to the U.S. SEC’s 2023 complaint, as of March last year, Onpassive had received over $US108 million from 800,000 investors around the world.
The Panguna mine made a fortune but left war and pollution in its wake. A new lawsuit backed by anonymous investors is now seeking billions in compensation – and raising concerns about who stands to benefit.
By Aubrey Belford (OCCRP)
High in the forested mountains of Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville Island lies an abandoned, kilometer-wide crater cut deep into the earth.
Formerly one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines, the open pit now serves as an unsightly monument to the environmental and social chaos that underground riches can create.
Run for years by a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto, the Panguna mine earned millions for Papua New Guinea (PNG) and helped bankroll its newfound independence. But it also poured waste into local waterways and fuelled anger among locals who felt robbed of the profits. When an armed uprising ultimately shuttered the mine in 1989, the impoverished island was left reeling.
Nearly three decades later, in late 2022, human rights activists, the local government, and the mine’s former operators joined forces to produce a definitive assessment of the mine’s toxic legacy. Their report, due to be released later this month, will become the basis for negotiations aimed at getting the mining companies to finally clean up the mess and compensate affected communities.
But its supporters now worry their efforts will be undermined by a class-action lawsuit launched in May against the mine’s erstwhile operators. The legal effort is being championed by former rebel leaders — and backed by anonymous offshore investors who stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars if it succeeds.
The lawsuit is part of a worldwide boom in litigation financing that seeks to take multinational companies to task for ecological or social damage while potentially reaping a fortune for lawyers and funders.
Critics in Bougainville worry the lawsuit will reopen old wounds at a time when the island is making a push to break free of Papua New Guinea and become the world’s newest sovereign nation. Many Bougainvilleans are hoping to reopen the mine, using its wealth to fund their own independence this time around.
The region’s government and many local leaders believe the class action could put the mine’s revival at risk. There are also concerns the lawsuit would leave many Bougainvilleans empty handed, while the anonymous foreign investors would walk away with a significant share of the payout.
Unlike the official assessment, which seeks to identify everyone who needs to be compensated, the class action will only share its winnings — which could potentially be in the billions of dollars — with the locals who have signed on. Others will get nothing.
“There’s already fragmentation in the community and families are already divided,” said Theonila Roka Matbob, who represents the area around Panguna in the island’s parliament and has helped lead the government-backed assessment process as a minister in the Autonomous Bougainville government.
She speaks from personal experience. The chief litigant in the class-action lawsuit, Martin Miriori, is her uncle. The two are no longer on speaking terms.
A Losing Deal
Gouged from Bougainville’s lush volcanic heart, the Panguna mine in its heyday supplied as much as 45 percent of PNG’s export revenue, providing it with the financial means to achieve independence from Australia in 1975.
The windfall, however, didn’t extend to Bougainvilleans themselves. Ethnically and culturally distinct from the rest of PNG’s population, they saw Panguna as a symbol of external domination. The mine delivered only a miserly 2-percent share of its profits to their island — along with years of environmental havoc.
Locals walk by buildings left abandoned by a subsidiary of Rio Tinto at the Panguna mine site. [[PHOTO: Aubrey Belford/OCCRP]]
During the 17 years of Panguna’s operation — from 1972 to 1989 — over a billion metric tons of toxic mine waste and electric blue copper runoff flooded rivers that flowed downstream towards communities of subsistence farmers. The result was poisoned drinking water, infertile land, and children who were drowned or injured trying to cross engorged waterways.
In 1989, enraged Bougainville locals launched an armed rebellion against the PNG government. The mine was shut down, closing off a vital source of revenue for the national government in Port Moresby. A brutal civil war raged on for nearly a decade, leaving more than 15,000 people dead, while a naval blockade by PNG’s military obliterated the island’s economy.
A peace deal in 2000 granted Bougainville substantial autonomy. But nearly a quarter-century later, the legacy of Panguna and the war it provoked is still deeply felt.
There are few paved roads and bridges in the island’s interior. Residents earn a modest living through cocoa and coconut farming, or by unregulated artisanal mining in and around the abandoned Panguna crater. Rivers polluted by years of runoff are still an otherworldly shade of milky blue.
At least 300,000 people are estimated to live on Bougainville, including as many as 15,000 who live downstream of the mine. Of those, some 4,500 have joined Miriori — Roka’s estranged uncle and a tribal leader whose brother, Joseph Kabui, served as the first president of autonomous Bougainville — in seeking restitution through the class-action suit.
“We’ve got to make people happy,” Miriori said. “They’ve lost their land forever, environment forever. Their hunting grounds. Their spiritual, sacred grounds.”
Martin Miriori, the primary litigant in the class action lawsuit. [[PHOTO: Aubrey Belford/OCCRP]]
‘Alert to Opportunities’
Miriori took many by surprise when he became the public face of the suit filed in PNG’s National Court in May against Rio Tinto and its former local subsidiary, Bougainville Copper Limited.
While the tribal leader and former rebel is a well-known figure in Bougainville, the funders of the lawsuit are not. They have managed to keep their identities secret in part because the company behind the suit, Panguna Mine Action LLC, is registered on Nevis, a small Caribbean island that does not require companies to publicly disclose their shareholders and directors.
Miriori declined to comment on who was behind the company, saying, “I will not tell you where the funding is based … you can source that from our people down there [in Australia].”
James Sing, an Australian based in New York, is Panguna Mine Action’s chief public representative. He initially agreed to an interview, but later referred reporters back to a London-based public relations agency, Sans Frontières Associates. The agency declined to reveal Panguna Mine Action’s investors.
Litigation funding documents obtained by OCCRP, however, shed some light on the history of the case. The documents show that Panguna Mine Action began to investigate the possibility of a class-action suit as early as July 2021. The Bougainvillean claimants, led by Miriori, were formally brought into an agreement with the company and its Australian and PNG lawyers in November 2022. The suit was publicly announced this May.
The lawsuit’s investors stand to profit handsomely from any eventual settlement: Panguna Mine Action is poised to receive a cut of 20 to 40 percent of any payout resulting from the suit, with the percentage increasing the longer the process takes, the funding documents show. In interviews and statements, both Miriori and Panguna Mine Action have put the potential value of any award in the billions of dollars.
The lawsuit’s financiers defend their substantial share of the potential benefits as standard practice. “The costs of launching and running the class action against a global miner are significant, and almost certainly could not be met from within Bougainville without funding from an external party,” the company said in its statement. Panguna Mine Action added it would bear sole responsibility for costs if the lawsuit is unsuccessful.
According to Michael Russell, a Sydney-based class action defense lawyer, such funding arrangements are typical in the burgeoning world of litigation finance, where investors seek out cases that promote virtuous social causes while offering huge potential payoffs.
A similar case is unfolding in Latin America, where more than 720,000 Brazilians are seeking $46.5 billion as part of a gargantuan class action against mining giant BHP and its local subsidiary for their role in a 2015 dam collapse.
In such cases, funders can justify walking away with significant cuts of any winnings because of the substantial risk they face of losing their investment if a case fails, Russell said.
Such cases are rarely initiated at the grassroots level by the victims themselves, he added.
“Most of the time, either the plaintiff firms or the funders will be the catalyst for a claim,” he said. “They are very alert to opportunities.”
Rival Restitution Plans
Government officials including Miriori’s niece, Roka, say the class-action case, which is due to hold opening arguments in October, threatens to derail the ongoing impact assessment aimed at calculating the full cost of the mine’s environmental impact and developing recommendations for addressing the damage.
The assessment, which counts community members among its stakeholders and bills itself as an independent review, is supported by Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre, who has hailed the project as “an important step” towards rectifying the mine’s devastating impact on thousands of Bougainvilleans.
However, while Rio Tinto and Bougainville Copper are both funding the project, they have not yet committed to paying for any compensation or cleanup. Roka said she was concerned the lawsuit could reduce the company’s willingness to engage with the process, since it could view the assessment as a tool that could be used against them in the courtroom.
The island’s president, Ishmael Toroama, backs the impact assessment and has lambasted the class action suit as the work of “faceless investors… taking advantage of vulnerable groups.” (His office did not respond to an interview request.)
He also expressed concern that the court proceedings threaten to “disrupt” his government’s efforts to reopen the mine, which still holds an estimated $60 billion in untapped deposits. Bougainville’s leaders see the mine as key to securing the island’s economic future as it sets out to form an independent state – a dream that drew overwhelming public support in a 2019 referendum.
Earlier this year Toroama’s government granted Bougainville Copper a five-year exploration license for the Panguna site.
The lack of media and polling in Bougainville make it hard to measure public opinion on plans to reactivate the mine, but many locals appear to support reopening it under local control as an essential tool for achieving independence.
Bougainville Copper’s brand is still toxically associated with Rio Tinto and its past abuses, despite the fact that the international mining giant gave away its majority stake for no money in 2016. The publicly traded company is now majority co-owned by the governments of PNG and Bougainville, and Port Moresby has pledged to hand over all its shares to the autonomous region in the near future.
Panguna Mine Action acknowledges that its effort effort could stand in the way of the mine’s reopening — but the company says that’s a good thing.
“It is our understanding that the people of Bougainville do not wish mining to be recommenced under any circumstances or, alternatively, unless Rio Tinto and Bougainville Copper acknowledge the past, pay compensation and remediate the rivers and surrounding valley,” the company said in a statement.
Rio Tinto declined to comment. Mel Togolo, the chairman of Bougainville Copper, told OCCRP that the lawsuit was the work of “a foreign funder who no doubt is seeking a return on an investment.”
View of the tailings located downstream of the Panguna mine.[[PHOTO: Aubrey Belford/OCCRP]]
‘Only Those Who Have Signed Will Benefit’
The fight over Panguna adds even more uncertainty to long-running anxiety over Bougainville’s future.
With global copper prices soaring on high demand for renewable energy and electric vehicles, the Panguna mine would be an attractive prize for both Western mining companies and firms from China, which is dramatically expanding its influence in the South Pacific.
Since a future Bougainvillean state would be economically dependent on the mine’s revenue, some have raised concerns that control of the mine could become a proxy battle for geopolitical influence in the broader region.
For his part, Miriori expressed little concern that a multibillion-dollar payout might stir resentment by reaching only a fraction of the people affected by the mine’s environmental destruction.
“Only those who signed will benefit,” he said, adding that the opportunity was made “very clear to people” through awareness campaigns.
“Those who have not signed, it’s their freedom of choice.”
An aerial view of the abandoned Panguna mine pit.[[PHOTO: Aubrey Belford/OCCRP]]
Among those who didn’t sign is Wendy Bowara, 48, who lives in Dapera, a bleak settlement built on a hill of mine waste. Bowara said she is looking to the government-backed assessment, not the lawsuit, to deliver compensation and clean up Panguna’s toxic legacy.
“We are living on top of chemicals,” she said. “Copper concentration is high. I don’t know if the food is good to eat or if it’s healthy to drink the water.”
But while it may seem odd given her grim surroundings, Borawa says she strongly supports reopening the mine.
“It funded the independence of Papua New Guinea,” Bowara said. “Why can’t we use it to fund our own independence?”
Niue, a Polynesian island nation located halfway between Fiji and Cook Islands has a population of over 1900. The island is a raised coral atoll with an area of approximately 261 square kilometers.
It is renowned as of one of the largest related coral atolls in the world and boasts over 100 coral species.
Niue hosts a diverse array of marine life including 300 fish species, sea turtles, dolphins, humpback and beaked whales and the world’s highest density of grey reef sharks.
Aerial view of the Island of Niue. [[Photo: By NASA]]
It’s waters remain largely unexploited and pristine with the goal to conserve the ocean for the benefit of the people and environment.
Niue is a small island developing state (SIDS) in free association with New Zealand. It has developed the Ocean Conservation Commitment or OCC Concept championed by local leaders along with a host of partner organizations.
As a SIDS, Niue has limited resources to undertake marine conservation and resilience efforts however through the combined efforts of its government, local organizations and communities, it has made significant advancement in its commitment, policy development and actions.
Niue is one of the first countries to protect 100% of its Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Sea under a comprehensive marine plan and 40% of the EEZ is marine protected area, a no-take zone.
After eight years of work, The Niue Ocean Wide (NOW) Project has evolved into the Niue & Ocean Wide Trust (NOW Trust) its unique approach seeks to create funding and sustainable best practices including effective compliance, monitoring, evaluation, transparency and accountability.
All these efforts to tackle climate change and create a resilient Blue Economy.
NOW Trust was created as a charitable trust under New Zealand Law. One way of generating funds through OCCs is enabling sponsors to make a contribution of NZ$12.50/km2 (per square kilometer) each year for 20 years equating to NZ$250.00. Sponsors receive information in the Annual Report and materials that provide impact stories from the communities.
This concept is advocated in Niue to encourage citizens to take ownership of protecting the ocean surrounding them.
As an OCC sponsor or NOW Trust Contributor, individuals or organizations will aid and empower the efforts of Niue to save its unique ecosystems.
JinNam Hopotoa, Project Communications Officer with NOW Trust makes a presentation on the Niue Ocean Wide Concept, during PALM 10 event in Tokyo, Japan. [[Photo: Sincha Dimara/InsidePNG]]
JinNam Hopotoa is the Project Communication Officer at NOW Trust. He recently made a presentation of their work during the Pacific Island Nations week in Tokyo in conjunction with PALM 10.
Organized by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Japan, island nations including Papua New Guinea showcased their products and culture to the Japanese people. This was done in the heart of Tokyo where the punctual Japanese public made an effort to purchase memorable items or stopped by for a chat to broaden their knowledge of the Pacific.
Sasakawa Peace Foundation Building – host Pacific Island Nations Week in Japan. [[Photo: By Sincha Dimara/Inside PNG]]
The two-week display (July 8 -19 2024) of dance and art cris-crossed the pacific with islanders representing Micronesia, Melanesia and furthest Polynesia.
![PIF Chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister, Mark Brown (left) with PIF Secretary General, Baron Waqa at 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM10)in Japan. [[Photo://Sincha Dimara-InsidePNG]]](https://insidepng.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Copy-of-Facebook-Post-Template-41.png)
