Papua New Guinea’s Forests Are Falling, and Malaysia Is Holding the Axe

Nuraiah Binte Farid
Nov 8, 2025
3 min read

Papua New Guinea (PNG) holds one of the last great tropical rainforests on Earth, a 288,000-square-kilometer expanse teeming with biodiversity and ancient indigenous heritage. Yet, as the chainsaws roar through the canopy, much of that destruction bears a distinct Malaysian footprint.

Photo Credit: Aileen Kombia via Unsplash

A Colonial Echo in a Corporate Form

Since the 1990s, Malaysian logging conglomerates, notably Rimbunan Hijau Group, among others, have dominated PNG’s forestry sector. Operating through a web of subsidiaries and joint ventures, these companies have secured vast Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABLs), a loophole allowing them to log under the guise of “development.” In reality, these deals often see local landowners misled or pressured into signing away their forests for decades.

Independent investigations have exposed how Malaysian firms export millions of cubic meters of tropical hardwood, mostly kwila (merbau), rosewood, and other high-value timbers to China, Japan, and even Malaysia itself. The profits flow offshore; the ecological cost stays behind.

Communities Silenced, Rivers Reddened.

In remote provinces like East Sepik and Western Province, indigenous communities are watching their ancestral lands vanish. Forests that once supplied food, medicine, and spiritual identity are being clear-felled for quick cash. Many villages describe rivers turning brown with silt, sacred hunting grounds replaced by eroded wastelands, and local leaders bribed into silence.

“They call it development,” said one villager in an investigative report. “But what’s left for us? No forest, no fish, no voice.”

The Biodiversity Black Hole

PNG’s forests are a part of the third-largest tropical rainforest system in the world, home to over 5% of global biodiversity. The loss of these forests doesn’t just harm PNG; it accelerates global climate change, disrupts Pacific rainfall patterns, and threatens species like tree kangaroos and birds-of-paradise that exist nowhere else on Earth.

Ironically, many of the same Malaysian firms operating in PNG have been accused of unsustainable logging in Sarawak and Sabah, meaning the destruction is exported, not reformed. This raises an uncomfortable question: Is Malaysia outsourcing its own environmental sins? — Nuraiah Binte Farid

The Southeast Asian Blind Spot

Despite the staggering scale of destruction, deforestation in Southeast Asia rarely dominates global headlines. Western media still frames rainforest loss through the lens of the Amazon, while Southeast Asian deforestation remains a “regional problem.” Yet, its global consequences are undeniable: altered monsoon cycles, weakened carbon sinks, and deepened climate inequity.

Part of the silence stems from geopolitical sensitivity; few nations want to publicly confront a fellow ASEAN member. Malaysia’s own government often frames these logging operations as “private business abroad,” conveniently distancing itself from accountability.

Greenwashing and Global Hypocrisy

Malaysia frequently touts its environmental credentials at international forums, from pledging carbon neutrality by 2050 to championing sustainable palm oil certification. But these claims ring hollow while Malaysian-linked companies ravage foreign ecosystems with impunity. The hypocrisy isn’t lost on observers: how can a country claim environmental leadership while its corporations are knee-deep in rainforest destruction abroad?

Reclaiming Responsibility

The path forward requires more than performative sustainability pledges. Transparency in overseas investment, enforcement of anti-corruption measures, and cooperation with PNG’s indigenous landowners are essential steps. Malaysia must extend its environmental accountability beyond its borders because reputation, like rainforest soil, erodes quickly once the roots are gone.

As the chainsaws echo through PNG’s forests, they carry a warning that resonates across Southeast Asia: the region’s environmental crisis isn’t just local, it’s global, corporate, and complicit.