Report and Satellite Photos Reveal Massive Destruction of Papua Forests

A study based on three decades of satellite imagery reveals extensive destruction of Papua New Guinea’s rain forest, and researchers predict that if present rates of logging continue more than half of the forest will be cleared or degraded in a dozen years.
Destruction of Papua New Guinea Forest
The report, written by the University of Papua New Guinea and the Australian National University, contains numerous photographs like the ones above, which show the deforestation of a tract of land in Milne Bay Province from 1990 (left) to 2005 (right). This land, like many forest areas in Papua New Guinea, was cleared for palm oil plantations. Papua New Guinea has the third largest rainforest in the world, after the Amazon and the Congo Basin. The report estimated that by 2021, 83 percent of Papua New Guinea’s accessible forest and 53 percent of its total forests will be destroyed or degraded. A PDF file of the report can be downloaded here.