In the peaceful South Pacific town of Madang, Papua New Guinea (PNG), the local indigenous people are being inundated with foreign industrial "development" projects -- mines, logging and fisheries -- for which they have not been properly consulted, have not given their informed consent, and from which they are unlikely to meaningfully benefit.  This includes the PNG government's and World Bank/IFC's plans with China and Japan's governments to facilitate and invest in the construction of ten new tuna fish canneries and a large central warehouse and worker settlement along Madang's beautiful  coconut lined north coast. A tranquil village culture -- living simply but well from small-scale fishing -- will be decimated.

A  US$300 million (K990m) Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) is planned that will greatly increase industrial harvest of Madang, PNG and the Pacific Islands' rich tuna resources. Canneries and dock and storage facilities are to be constructed to service foreign fishing vessels that would dump their tuna catch. It will bring tens of thousands of unskilled Asians into Papua New Guinea when local unemployment is high.  And it most certainly will lead to fishery depletion and collapse. Unless this expansion of an already socially and ecologically failed industrial tuna industry is resisted, overfishing and piracy will destroy PNG and most of the world's remaining tuna and other fisheries.

The one existing Filipino owned RD Tuna plant has previously been shut down for unhygienic conditions (including birds defecating into tuna cans), fined for poor waste disposal, and employee relations are poor.  Benefits have been limited to assembly line jobs for women who make K80 a fortnight (~ $USD26, essentially slave wages). Villagers have been affected by the "sex for tuna trade" where local women have been driven to trade sex for fish by-catches. There have also been waste discharges on land and water, and a persistent fould fish odor permeates the area. Anti-cannery advocates allege that better tuna is served to the western world's cats than is served to the local market.

RD Tuna is about to embark on PMIZ to massively expand their operations. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, has been a prime project booster, is actively advising the PNG government on PMIZ, and may provide finance.  PMIZ has been called a "thoughtless, half-baked scheme" by local NGOs. Clan land has been alienated from local control for the infrastructure development on 216 hectares at Vidar.  The people have been fighting since the colonial era to reclaim this land. There have been no public consultation and plans were quickly thrown together with a rushed ground-breaking.  The primary impact upon ordinary citizens is to provide menial short-term dead-end jobs, and much diminishes free local sources of fish protein.

Following the legally questionable ground breaking ceremony in June of 2009, the Madang Lagoon communities have begun holding meetings to explore collective organized actions to permanently block PMIZ. Local communities are concerned about environment, pollution and land issues. It is not clear how PMIZ can benefit local peoples, as they will be left with no options but to work for the cannery under whatever conditions it chooses. This industrial plant will affect many other communities along the shoreline from Madang town, including Bel people who have just declared parts of the internationally renowned Madang lagoon as conservation areas.  Local peoples are organizing themselves to protest and resist -- starting this Oct. 15th with a march to petition the provincial governor.

Over 75% of the world's ocean fisheries -- some 19 out of 24 -- are being, or have already been, overexploited. Billions of people depend upon wild caught fish protein, and Pacific and PNG fisheries are some of the last healthy wild fish stocks on the planet.  Many Asian and European industries and consumers are in need of Pacific fish now, as their own fisheries are collapsing.  The EU is RD Tuna's biggest market, with Germany and Ireland the primary export markets. The EU market is the major target for PNG after it signed the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) this year allowing duty free status for all tuna processed in PNG regardless of where the fish are caught.

Plans are to follow the same foreign investment driven development model, to quickly industrially over-develop the tuna resource, which has exhausted fisheries globally wherever practiced.  More ecologically sustainable management -- such as a locally owned and controlled mid-size purse-seine fish industry -- could provide fish and income in perpetuity for the people of Madang.  A deeply corrupt political system is selling out the land rights, resources and future ecological sustainability of its peoples for a small group to enjoy short-term profit and bribery. The industrial export model enjoy tax holidays, enriches primarily the Chinese-owned trade stores with the small amounts of wage money entering the economy, pollutes local seas, disturbs coastal fisheries and threatens Madang's tourism industry.

Industrial fisheries destroy local livelihoods and ecosystem sustainability. An enormous amount of pirated fish is being lost from PNG's waters, and this lack of control demonstrates PNG’s clear inability to monitor existing resource depletion much less its 10x expansion. Chinese and Filipino vessels are to increasingly be joined by European vessels, as they have nearly completely depleted their own Mediterranean tuna. Besides canceling PMIZ, suggestions for improving the ecological sustainability of Pacific and PNG tuna in particular include:  1) a 50% reduction of overall fisheries based on 2001-4 average levels, 2) Closure of all high seas pockets between 20 N and 20 S, 3) and a ban on at sea fish transshipment.