Logging ship, Turubu Bay, East Sepik (taken from cover image of 'The FCA Logging Scandal' report). Photo: Oakland Institute
A community advocacy group in Papua New Guinea says Prime Minister James Marape's promise to stop issuing new forestry licences will do nothing to stop illegal logging destroying the country's remaining forests.
Marape reportedly told the Green Climate Fund in Port Moresby that no new forestry licences will be issued after 16 September, PNG's 50th anniversary.
He pleaded with the international community to act urgently and decisively to preserve the world's oceans and forests, calling them the lungs and lifeline of our plant.
But ACT NOW campaign manager Eddie Tanago calls this an empty gesture because current licences will allow logging for many years to come, especially with the government failing to enforce its own rules.
"Stopping new licences will not stop the illegal logging that is destroying our forests and will not stop the human rights abuses by foreign logging companies and their tax evasion and money laundering," he said.
Tanago said licences already in play will remain valid for decades and the prime minister's promise will not stop these licences being extended in the future.
He said at least one-third of current log exports still come from areas that were issued logging permits in the colonial era, 50 years or more ago.
According to ACT NOT, these are permits that have been repeatedly renewed without the consent of the current generations of resource owners.
Tanago also points to ample evidence show logging companies routinely operate outside their logging permit boundaries, but the authorities never action to stop them.
He said the National Forest Board placed a moratorium on issuing new Forest Clearing Authority (FCA) licences more than two-years ago, but one-third of log exports are still coming from these FCA areas.
This is despite the published evidence that the FCA licences were obtained under the guise of bogus agriculture projects and the logging is illegal.
ACT NOW said the PNG Forest Authority has proved to be totally incapable or unwilling to enforce Papua New Guinea's forestry laws and as a result illegal logging and associated forest crimes remain unchallenged.
Tanago said if if Marape is serious about preserving the country's forests, "then he should order a full public inquiry into the FCA logging scandal and order the suspension of all log exports until the legality of individual licences has been independently verified."
