The Australian Conservation Foundation and the Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights, an advocacy group based in Port Moresby, said the process by which the PNG government bought timber rights from forest communities and issued licenses to loggers was "seriously flawed".

Villagers who resisted were subjected to physical brutality by police moonlighting for logging companies, arbitrary detention and intimidation, the report said.

"The documented atrocities include the bashing of villagers taking legal action, incarceration without charge, the torching of homes and crops, the shooting of domestic animals with M16s and men forced at gunpoint to commit homosexual acts with each other," it added.

"Bulldozing progress: Human rights abuses and corruption in PNG's large scale logging industry," was based in part on interviews with local landowners between 2003-2006.

It said logging was destroying food and water sources and desecrating graves and cultural artefacts.

The two groups called on the PNG government to establish an anti-corruption commission and revoke the licenses of companies found to engage in abuses.

The report also recommended international donors help PNG make the transition away from large-scale industrial logging to community-based forest management and timber production.

The ACF describes itself as Australia's leading national not-for-profit environmental organisation. CELCOR is an non-governmental organization which provides legal assistance to landowners affected by large scale industrial logging.

The publication is the latest in a string of international reports condemning the multi-million dollar logging industry in PNG, which is dominated by Malaysian interests.

In February, Greenpeace issued a study estimating that more than 250,000 hectares (617,775 acres) of primary forest were destroyed by illegal logging in the country each year.

The Washington-based group Forest Trends earlier this year described working conditions in the industry as "modern-day slavery."

International environmental groups have been harshly critical of Prime Minister Michael Somare's government for not doing enough to halt illegal logging.

Related Links
Save the Forests at Wood Pile