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Home , Ecoforestry, Illegal logging

GLOBAL WITNESS 2018 IMPACT REPORT

Thank you from our CEO Beijing What kind of future do we have if we can’t stop ? We know time is running out to prevent even further escalated risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and famine. World leaders need to act, particularly to limit the impact of the fossil fuel industry – an issue Global Witness has a long history of campaigning on. Thanks to your support, we But the planet also provides us with its own tools for have been able to use the latest mitigating the impact of the toxic gas being emitted technology and data analysis into the atmosphere. One of these is the tropical to expose violations of the in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This rich habitat legal restrictions on provides a vital service, absorbing huge masses of CO2, in PNG. We strengthened and pushing out oxygen. This natural process is key our campaigning impact and to slowing the effects of climate change – it’s why we succeeded in raising awareness Gillian Galdwell, CEO. call tropical “the lungs of the planet”. Since about in Papua © Stuart Ramson 2014, Global Witness has been campaigning hard to New Guinea, both within the safeguard this special from rapacious logging country and internationally, which has in turn increased companies, many of whom are operating illegally. the pressure on companies logging illegally. We have also helped to strengthen on illegal logging within This year the People’s Postcode Lottery players have PNG and supported a local partner organisation to supported us to strengthen our communications and stop logging in their area by raising awareness of illegal investigative capacity, and to improve the way we work logging practices in affected communities and leverage new fundraising contacts from within the Postcode Lottery family. Without the support of People’s Postcode Lottery players, this work would be so much harder. So, we want to say a big THANK YOU to each person who has contributed to protecting our planet by fighting for Papua New the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. Guinea DID YOU KNOW? Papua New Guinea ranks as one the most ecologically diverse countries in the world, being awarded the classification of Megadiverse, along with 17 other nations. Source: http://www.biodiversitya-z.org/ content/megadiverse-countries

Australia Photo © Global Witness Photo © Fábio Erdos / Panos

“The is our wholesale, forest is our timber yard, forest Papua New Guinea’s has no regulation to keep illegal timber from entering its borders. is our freezer, forest is our rainforests By continuing to import tropical The ancient rainforests of PNG timber from PNG on such a scale, supplier. Our land provided us cover 70% of the country and are China is driving the destruction of home to exceptional . a vulnerable and ancient forest. with food and water, protein, The are central to cultural Our 2018 report, A Major Liability, building material, medicines, traditions and livelihoods of exposes rampant illegality in PNG’s eight million people, and to logging in PNG and calls on China warmth and everything else.” fighting global climate change. and PNG to act now to stop the Paul Pavol This forest and the lives it destruction of this vital forest. supports are under threat, Through targeted advocacy in with rate in PNG PNG and in China, Global Witness In 2016, Paul Pavol was nominated by Global Witness unusually high in recent years – in has been working to stop this and won the Alexander Soros Foundation Award for the past 5 years alone, 640,000 deforestation. The Asia Pacific Environmental Activism in recognition of his work to save his hectares of forest were lost. Economic Cooperation (APEC) East New Britain Province community’s forests from logging. Forum, hosted in PNG this Illegal logging continues year, provided us an excellent unabated, fuelled by widespread opportunity to raise the profile . In 2016, PNG of this issue. Global Witness also provided 29% of China’s tropical works with local organisations log imports, making China the and activists, including Paul Pavol country’s single largest supplier. (pictured), to support their efforts China is the world’s largest to stop companies logging on consumer and manufacturer of communities’ land without and wood products. Yet it their consent.

DID YOU KNOW? The country breaks records by playing host to the world’s largest butterfly (10.4-inch wingspan), largest pigeon, longest lizard, tallest tropical and biggest mangrove expanses. Source: http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/ where_we_work/new_guinea_forests/ area_forests_new_guinea/plants_animals_new_ guinea_forests/

A village in the Pomio District on the island of New Britain. © Fábio Erdos / Panos Direct Impact: Better Organisational Direct Impact: Increased Ana Zárraga, our new Development and Increased Communication Capacity Digital Engagement Fundraising Capacity In 2018, the support from players of the Advisor People’s Postcode Lottery helped us This year, Global working, diversifying our I love working at Global Witness develop our communications activities so Witness has continued recruitment channels and I am so excited by what that we better engage with our audiences, to strengthen our and investing in a series we achieved in 2018. I feel like including creating the new role of Digital organisation in a number of interactive diversity we are having much more of a Engagement Advisor: of important ways: workshops led by experts conversation with our supporters, in the field. > This new role has helped Global reaching more of them and getting > We are improving our Witness increase our reach on social media them more and more involved in Ana Zárraga. © Global Witness monitoring, evaluation and > Our relationship with by 26% -from 51 million in 2017 to 64.5 our work. But there is still much learning system, devising People’s Postcode Lottery million in 2018. more to do! an approach that we can has also helped our integrate into the three- funding relationship with > We have been able to not just reach but 2019 is exciting: I am working on a new strategy to engage year strategic plans that we other Postcode Lotteries engage our supporters much more effectively our supporters in our work, including through: will be developing in 2019. to flourish. This year we in 2018; monthly mentions of Global Witness > improving our supporter email lists to ensure we send We trained all staff on this have begun a five-year across Twitter, public Facebook pages, subscribers the most relevant email communications; approach at the 2018 staff relationship with the Youtube, Instagram, forums and blogs grew retreat. Dutch Nationale Postcode by 70% in 2018 (from 1,192 to 2,036 per > building our profile on LinkedIn and YouTube to engage Loterij- providing vital month to accounts with a combined > We have taken the first with investors, an increasingly important audience for us unrestricted funding- and potential reach of 80.4 million). steps towards increasing since many of our campaigns are targeting investors as People’s Postcode Lottery we try to stop companies destroying the environment and diversity and inclusion > have been kind enough to We targeted more top-tier and regional abusing people’s rights; within Global Witness. facilitate an introduction publications than in 2017, with far more This has included to the Swedish Postcode detailed pieces such as the World Forest Day > empowering Global Witness staff to build their own introducing paid Lottery, with whom we photo-essay with The Independent, the blog online profiles so that they can share their expertise more internships, adopting an are in discussion about on our use of technology and the investigative directly with our supporters. advocacy trainee scheme, funding in 2019. polling piece with The Overtake. introducing flexible DID YOU KNOW? The total number of different plants and animals in Papua New Guinea is not accurately known but almost certainly exceeds 200,000 species. This includes around 250 species of mammals, 20,000 species of plants, 1,500 species of and 750 species of birds, half of which are unique to the island. https://www.coolearth.org/2015/10/biodiversity- in-papua-new-guinea/

Photo: Forest conversion, Turubu SABL, East Sepik Province. © Global Witness Direct Impact: Increasing significantly in the ways we use The results of our analysis were technology. Amongst the new shocking. We documented extensive our Capacity through methods we are developing is the use violations of the PNG’s Act Technology Use of remote sensing-based data from in major logging operations. For satellite imagery. We used this in our example, we found that eight projects Our funding from the Postcode investigation A Major Liability (released under the two major logging permits, Planet Trust has helped drive in July 2018) which exposed wide-scale which together were responsible for forward the use of technology in illegal logging in PNG. 32% of PNG’s log exports in 2017, Global Witness’s investigations. This have apparently broken the . We is a direct impact, increasing our Drawing on painstaking analysis of were able to provide this ground- capacity, strengthening the evidence the data from satellite imagery, we breaking evidence to the Chinese base for our campaigns and opening identified the areas of forest canopy government, along with our concrete up new areas of work. gaps, dead and cleared recommendations for how they can areas caused by active logging to tell if protect the rainforest and safeguard Over 25 years ago, Global Witness companies were logging outside their their own position as a global carried out its first investigation – agreed areas, logging in prohibited trade leader. undercover, manually counting the areas or building wider than number of logs crossing the border legally permitted. We also compared Ending this kind of forest destruction is into to expose how the illegal historic satellite images to identify a big and arduous task. But, developing timber trade was funding the genocidal instances where companies were technology means we can get more Global Witness used satellite imagery to document extensive Khmer Rouge rebels. We used our repeatedly logging in the same area. of the evidence we need to root it out logging roads (in pink and orange) throughout an area of East Sepik investigation to call for a temporary We flew drones over some of the and expose it and thankfully we don’t Province where the PNG Supreme Court ruled logging illegal. closure of the border, depriving the areas where logging operations have have to spend weeks on the ground © Global Witness 2018. Khmer Rouge of $90 million a year, been very destructive and obtained in dangerous areas counting logs hastening the end of the war. compelling images and documentary ourselves anymore. The work we have evidence of our allegations of done on this grant is just the beginning Since then, our investigative methods illegal logging. and we will be able to learn from it for have evolved and improved, most our future investigations. Enabled Impact: trade associations is setting up a sub-committee for tropical Papua New Guinea timber importers. They said Our campaign has had impacts they are particularly concerned on the legal structure in PNG, about illegal wood from PNG awareness inside and outside and would like to source from PNG of the illegal logging there, less risky countries. This also Global Witness campaigner: and the capacity of local groups. follows our work with Oro Lela’s diary Province Governor Gary Juffa Day 1: > PNG Timber Legality to place an op-ed in China We’re getting ready to head into the Turubu area, where illegal logging has destroyed local forests and stolen Standard – following Global Daily (the largest English millions of pounds worth of timber from local communities. Witness input, the final draft media owned by the Chinese We are equipped with one rented 10-seater Land Cruiser contains key language ensuring government) calling for China’s (the only vehicle that can handle the roads), and lots of water that all logging operations will support in saving its forests. and biscuits to share. be held to the same standards, > and safeguarding customary Increased awareness as an essential of illegal logging in the Day 2: We covered over 70 km today, driving past forest and component of forestry project international media – The through oil palm – some on stolen land - and legality. international press coverage of photographing logging sites along the way. Around mid-day, our 2018 report A Major Liability we reached a giant logging camp on the Sepik River. It’s > Increased awareness of was very strong, including an alarming sight. We were here exactly two years ago and illegal logging in PNG – we AFP, The Guardian, The Mail there are many more logs here today. The importance of this have supported TEF, our on Sunday, Radio New Zealand, work is hitting home, hard. local partner (see below) in Al Jazeera, The Standard conducting awareness raising Hong Kong, and Yahoo News Day 3: workshops that led to the Hong Kong. Another long field day. We used a drone to film new logging roads built on community land without their consent. end of logging in their local > PNG’s people legally control their traditional land – but here, area. We also had good national Increased awareness of like so many other places we’ve visited, companies are freely media coverage of our work. illegal logging at the UN breaking that law with no consequences and the forests and A short film we had previously – Global Witness submitted the people who live in and around them are devastated. made was well received during documentation highlighting the 2018 PNG Human Rights Special Agriculture and Later, we’ll publish our findings to call for them to be held Film Festival and is now set to Business Leases (SABLs) as to account. But tonight, Turubu Forum (TEF) be screened in Bougainville violating human rights to the chairman Augustine Mondu hosts us for a traditional dinner Universal Period Review of Province, where logging of sago palm and pumpkin greens we helped him pick. It’s DID YOU KNOW? companies are just beginning to PNG’s human rights records. a moment of tranquillity, and a reminder of PNG’s vibrant Subsequently, UN High make inroads and communities cultures and the nature they depend on to sustain their Papua New Guinea is home to the Commissioner on Human Rights have to grapple with how to livelihoods as well as their way of life. long-beaked Echidna, which, along made his first ever visit to Papua manage their forests. with the platypus, are the only New Guinea in 2018 and called egg-laying mammals in the world. > for the abolition of SABLs. Increased awareness of There are only three of these on the – one illegal logging in China planet, bred in captivity. of the largest Chinese forestry Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ Photo: Lela on the in PNG. © Global Witness world-24821987 Enabled Impact: Empowering Local Communities Global Witness has been working with a local organization, the Turubu Ecoforestry Forum (TEF) to protect PNG’s tropical rainforest. We re-granted funds from the Postcode Planet Trust to support their work and we are already seeing great impact.

In July 2018, TEF launched a community awareness campaign, visiting six villages and reaching an estimated 1,200 people in East Sepik Province. At each community meeting, TEF presented information on a Supreme Court decision of 2016 that found logging in the local area to be illegal; details of the PNG-China log export trade, and the benefits that should be (but are not) coming to Photo: Chairman of TEF, Augustine Mondu. © Global Witness communities whose forests are being logged; and the link between deforestation and climate change. Turubu Ecoforestry Forum (TEF) TEF invited communities to sign a statement opposing Established in 2007, the Turubu Ecoforestry logging on their land, calling for landowners to be Forum’s mission is to advocate for and empower compensated for stolen trees, and calling for the PNG landowners to sustainably use their land and government to prosecute those involved in illegal logging. natural resources. TEF organizes and facilitates They used this statement and its signatures to petition the participatory workshops that educate rural provincial government to take action – and to petition the communities on climate change and land rights, logging company to cease operations. among other topics.

By October 2018, TEF had succeeded in their campaign. Chairman Augustine Mondu is a former Logging has stopped in the Turubu-Sausso District of teacher who resigned his position to devote East Sepik Province where they were working, as a direct his time to TEF and protecting his community’s result of landowner opposition, which TEF attributes to rights and environment. He wrote, the awareness program. This is a first for the area and shows the powerful potential impacts of empowering “The funding made available via communities. Even better, the company reportedly Global Witness from the People’s attempted to start work in another area and was Postcode Lottery has made it possible rebuffed by local communities who had attended the for us to travel and visit customary awareness meetings. landowners in each village to conduct Following this success, Global Witness supported TEF with awareness activities. Without this, another re-grant to conduct awareness raising activities logging in the area would not have in six more locations that are vulnerable and targeted for stopped. Thank you for this timely logging activity, beginning with visits to three villages in December 2018. and valuable support.” Top: The Sepik plains. © Global Witness 2018. Bottom: The TEF team. © Turubu Ecoforestry Forum 2019 GLOBALGLOBAL WITNESS WITNESS THEORY OF OF CHANGE CHANGE PARTNERSHIPS

INVESTIGATE EXPOSE ACTIVATE IMPACT

Identifying the problem, Communicating the story Engaging with our key Ensuring that targets adopt gathering the evidence, via the most effective route audiences to inspire them and enact solutions proposed analysing the causes and in the most appropriate to take action to pressure or supported by GW, thereby and implications, format to resonate with or support targets to adopt creating real world change to establishing solutions targeted audiences. and enact solutions. tackle the corruption, human and who can make rights and environmental change happen. abuses linked to exploitation of natural resources.

© Global Witness DID YOU KNOW? What next for our partnership? (used in animal feed and industry), and oil palms Of the hundreds of mammal (which produce used in lots of foods we species discovered in the Congo Global Witness is grateful to players of People’s eat, cosmetic and household products as well Basin so far — including forest Postcode Lottery for continuing to support us. In as in industry). elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, 2019, we are honoured that the Postcode Planet and okapis — 39 are found nowhere Trust is broadening support to Global Witness’s We will use our existing approach of ‘find the else on Earth. Of its estimated entire forest programme. We have exciting plans: facts, expose the story, change the system.’ This 10,000 plant species, 3,300 are also over the last year we have developed a new will include publishing hard-hitting exposés to unique to the region. strategy for our forest work, one that is going to use in advocacy to encourage financiers to pull Source: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/forests/ make us better at protecting the world’s forests out of destructive projects, and to put pressure congo-basin/ and reducing climate change. Making our funding on companies to change their behaviour. This more flexible is so important, especially for a means that much our advocacy will be directed campaigning organisation like us, because it means at countries that provide funding and markets for that we can be responsive to quickly changing ‘forest-risk’ projects, including the situations and can seize unexpected opportunities. US, EU, UK and China. Deforestation is a global problem: the solutions have to be as well. Deforestation remains an urgent global problem: DID YOU KNOW? the world lost more than one football pitch of We will continue to work in partnership with forest every second in 2017 adding up to an area grassroots civil society organisations, helping them More than 20% of the world’s equivalent to the whole of Italy over the year.1 to ensure that local people’s voices are heard in oxygen is produced by the Amazon. Our new strategy will focus on tackling the primary debates about what to do with their forests. We will Source: https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover drivers of large scale deforestation: on protecting make sure we include local people’s perspectives in geography/physical-geography/amazon-facts/ tropical forests from deforestation through our work, that our recommendations respect their industrial logging and land clearance for large rights, and that we strengthen local organisations scale agribusiness such as palm oil, beef and soy. through joint advocacy.

We are focusing our work on protecting tropical We are reorganising our forests teams internally forests in the world: the Congo and Amazon Basins to make a cohesive team jointly advancing and Papua New Guinea. These forests are not only investigations and associated advocacy campaigns. home to indigenous communities and millions This will make use more flexible and make sure we of species of plants and animals. They are also are making the most of the skills and capabilities vital for the fight against climate change because within Global Witness. The support from the the trees absorb lots of the carbon dioxide that is players of People’s Postcode Lottery will also causing the planet to heat to dangerous levels. allow us to develop a specific communications strategy to support this new advocacy work. This Thank you to players of the People’s Our main strategy will be to target the financing communication strategy will be vital to present our of destructive projects, particularly agriculture: in work to the right audiences in the right ways and Postcode Lottery who have helped many countries the largest cause of deforestation is ensuring that we are as effective as possible. make our work to protect PNG’s forests clearing land to graze cattle, or to grow soya possible in 2018! We look toward to reaching more countries and having 1 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2018/jun/27/one-football- Photo: Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo pitch-of-forest-lost-every-second-in-2017-data-reveals?CMP=share_btn_tw © iStock even more of an impact in 2019.