Landowners walking along a logging road in an illegally logged forest, Metamin area, New Hanover, PNG. Photo: Global Witness Media Hub
Nearly 12 years ago the then Catholic archbishop of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, Francesco Panfilo, took on giant Malaysian logging and palm oil developer, Rimbunan Hijau, on the side of the beleaguered landowners in East New Britain.
RH, as it's mostly known in PNG, was accused, through its subsidiary Gilford, of making unfair contracts with some landowners, ignoring other landowners, taking many trees illegally and planting oil palm where they shouldn't.
The archbishop led the battle to try and have these contracts renegotiated, but this process was stymied by the Covid pandemic and what he sees as legal manipulations on RH's part.
RH is notoriously difficult to reach for comment but RNZ Pacific is continuing to pursue them.
Now retired and living in the Philippines, Francesco Panfilo, is still involved in the battle and told RNZ Pacific's Don Wiseman he hopes the PNG Supreme Court will next month direct RH to renegotiate.
