GoPetition - Popular petitions (Papua New Guinea) http://www.gopetition.com/popular-petitions/papua-new-guinea Popular petitions on GoPetition en-us Tue, 7 Apr 2026 07:56 UTC GoPetition RSS Feed Generator Copyright 2026 GoPetition No mining the Karawari caves https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-mining-the-karawari-caves.html?utm_medium=rss For the past 7 years, Nancy Sullivan and Assoc, a group of PNG ethnographers, have been recording and conserving the enormous cave art system that riddles the northern escarpment of Mt MacGregor as it falls down the headwaters of the Arafundi and the Karawari Rivers.

Some of the people we work with are amongst the last nomadic hunter gatherers in PNG, and the continue to live in these caves with stencils and images that date back, we believe, 20,000 years. As yet we haven’t had the expertise to confirm their age, but they are very similar to caves found in Borneo and Western Australia which have been dated to that era. Our efforts are fully endorsed by the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port Moresby, and we have written numerous articles on their importance. The National Geographic Society, which assists us with small grants, published a story about the Meakambut people in the Februaru 2012 magazine.

A company called Pristine No 18, which is partly owned by Rimbunam Hijau, has now applied for an ELA 2008 covering the majority of these historic caves and the rainforest where the Meakambut still live and thrive. But the Meakambut and the entire Penale tribe are adamantly against the exploration. They know that once Pristine #18 has invested in exploration, they will find it impossible to evict them from their lands and forests. And they know what is at stake: Our company, Nancy Sullivan & Assoc, has spent the past 7 years paying all the school fees (and now project fees), establishing a primary school, and bringing health services (in regular patrols by a pediatric surgeon from Wewak) to the area. This is our quid pro quo for allowing us to study their caves and ultimately produce a book about them. Thus far we have received Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Christensen Fund grants, as well as National Geographic support. Our interest in the region is sincere and longstanding; we have a project that should continue for decades yet and provide these communities with the income from scientists and community development for their future.

For more information about the company and what we do, please see www.nancysullivan.net and for images of the work we do in the caves, please see the following: www.nancysullivan.typepad.com/weblong_2014/04/the-meakambut-penale-ewa-alamblak-and-sumariop-get-a-check-up.html

For details about the Pristine # 18 meeting in the village recently, see our blog:
www.nancysullivan.typepad.com/weblong_2013/03/rh-descends-on-the-meakambut.html

We have had the support of Ludwig Schulz, the late Angoram MP, and a wide swatch of his constituency who have benefitted from our work.

For the MRA representative who attended the meeting, we understand that Pristine #18 has 2 weeks to assemble an exploration application for the Ministry’s approval. We seek to circumvent this right away, in the interest of all the Penale as well as the Ewa and Sumariop people whose precious caves and histories will be disturbed by this venture.

Please support us in a campagn to keep RH and commercial mining out of these forests and away from the NATIONAL CULTURAL PROPERTY within them. The Ewa people of the upper Karawari have suffered at the hands of art dealers who emptied their caves of carvings before independence and left them with next to nothing as compensation---while their father’s carvings continue to fetch 6 figure prices on the Oceanic art market and can be seen in museums across the US and Europe. They too would be victims of this short term greed if the exploration went forward.

More info: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/karawari-cave-people/jenkins-text

]]> Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:28 UTC 60709 Repeal the Economic Facilitation Committee Law 2017 https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/repeal-the-economic-facilitation-committee-law-2017.html?utm_medium=rss The Milne Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCC) asks our Provincial Government to repeal the new EFC Law 2017 which is trying to kill business in our province. This law states that all EXISTING as well as new businesses, are about to be slugged with a new K1,500 fee to apply to register their businesses with this newly formed Committee, and then K5,000 to renew their registration every year if they are approved!
It appears that the Milne Bay Provincial government is completely out of touch with the people in this Province. Do they seriously think that any of the PMV owners, taxi drivers, work boat or dinghy operators can come up with K6,500 to stay in business this year? As for the foreign companies, many of them have been in MBP for many years, and contribute significantly to our local economy, also provide the majority of employment in our towns and they are being asked to pay K17,000 a year just to stay in our province. And what about local Milne Bayans who might be in partnership with someone who is a foreign national? They still also have to pay K8,500 a year?! The MBCC has started a petition to repeal this law and save our livelihoods.
The law seems to be designed to encourage existing and new businesses to take their money and their employment elsewhere to provinces which actually want them to spend money, and employ their people.
The Members of the Milne Bay Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the business community wish to express their vehement opposition to this Law.
We were not given access nor time to review the law prior to it being passed. We can see why, as this is a clearly a ploy to create a gravy train for the people who will be involved in this Committee, and who obviously have no regard or concern for the long term consequences of this sinister legislation.
This law will effectively put existing businesses in a position of ongoing vulnerability, by forcing them to re-apply to stay in business each year. The decision to allow them or not allow them will be made on the whim of a group of people who do not understand business, and have never put their livelihood on the line by investing their life savings in a business.
The Committee has given itself unlimited powers to reject businesses, with no oversight over their decisions.
We have also noticed that the Committee members are paid, they can create sub-committees of people who are also paid, and a employ as many people as they like who will be paid as much as the Committee decides. We also noticed that the funds of the Committee are to be used for the purpose of the Committee only (Item 4.2)! Nice work. This Committee is attempting to grab as much as 10.8 million Kina from the pockets of Milne Bay people by imposing ridiculous fees destined only to support the Committee which is administering the funds. In 2017 we very conservatively estimate that if all existing businesses pay the fees to apply to stay in business that the income of the committee from local PNG owned businesses alone would be K9.75M (1500 x K6,500), plus foreign companies, k680,000 (say 40 x K17,000) and local & foreign owned companies pay K340,000 (40 x K8,500).
The intent of the original Committee was to monitor businesses intending to come and settle in the Province so that some control could be exercised if necessary. The guidelines for this original Committee should be reinstated and the Committee should be comprised of government employees (who are not paid extra to do this work).
We strongly oppose this law and want it repealed immediately.

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