Human Rights in the Western Pacific RAP

Combating Commercial Exploitation of Children and Violence Against Women in Remote areas of the Western Pacific is a project funded for three years by the European Union. The project focuses on the impact of large scale commercial logging on human rights in remote areas of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The RAP research found that in all three countries logging has impacted negatively on the lives of ordinary villagers. It found that the effects range from immediate acute effects in areas where logging is currently occurring, to chronic long term effects where logging has ceased but its legacy still impacts on the lives and human rights of villagers. In Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands the impact is both immediate and long term. In Vanuatu, where large scale logging has ceased, communities are still suffering from the long term effects of logging.

While some land owners have received financial benefits from logging, their returns have been small when compared with the profits made by the logging companies. In all three countries, logging companies have failed to provide promised roads, bridges, wharfs, schools and clinics. Rather than bringing development, logging has brought environmental devastation and human rights abuse, particularly of women and children. Logging has resulted in increased stress in communities already facing pressures from population increase, friction over land issues, and pressure on food security due to climate change. The impact is logging on human rights is most severe for women and children in all three countries.