More than 200 people have staged a noisy march to the Madang provincial government office in Papua New Guinea to petition the Government to stop work on the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone.
PNG’s National newspaper says the Zone is expected to be one of the biggest tuna developments in the Asia-Pacific region with ten tuna factories and it is expected to employ more than 30,000 people.
However, the people are protesting against the development because of concerns over the environmental and social impacts the project will have on the people.
They said environmental impact assessment reports presented to them indicated that pollution would be a high concern and their livelihood was likely to be affected because their survival depended on the sea.
However representatives from the administration criticized the involvement of an NGO.
The Governor, Sir Arnold Amet, and Commerce and Industry Minister, Gabriel Kapris, said that outside people like NGOs should not use the people to protest over the project.
