Foreign fishing company exploits PNG land and people
Fishing is big business in Papua New Guinea…with exports worth more than 65 million dollars a year. Taking a big slice of the pie is RD Fishing Limited and its sister company RD Tuna Canners Limited…both are Phillipino-owned. RD’s cannery and fishing operations are located in and around Madang, in Papua New Guinea’s north. It employs more than one thousand local people to process more than one thousand tons of raw tuna per day. But local community groups say their land, sea and people are being exploited. Yat Paol from the Bismarck Ramu Group says noise and waste pollution from RD Tuna’s operations are also having negative effects. Chief Executive Officer of PNG’s Environmental Law Centre Anne Kajir says the list of complaints is endless. Of particular concern are the reports of young village girls prostituting themselves to the foreign sailors in exchange for fish…fish caught from waters their ancestors traditionally owned.
Social Impact Study on RD Tuna Ltd