Community Advocacy group ACT NOW has welcomed the Moratorium on new Forest Clearance Authorities, recently announced by the PNG Forest Authority, but they say the measure does not go far enough.
“We are pleased the National Forest Board has recognized that the FCA system is being widely abused and has ordered a halt on the issuing of new Authorities and an audit of all existing FCA projects”, Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago said in a statement.
FCA is a permit issued by the PNGFA allowing a logging company to clear small area of forest for commercial agriculture or road construction, however the PNG Forest Authority has been issuing FCA permits that cover tens of thousands of hectares of forest, which are used by logging companies for large-scale export logging operations.
According to ACT NOW, evidence shows that 25% of total log exports in 2021 were sourced from FCA permit areas.
ACT NOW further pointed out that there are also widespread abuses associated with other logging permit types, particularly the Timber Right Purchase (TRP), that also warrants a moratorium and review.
In September 2022, ACT NOW! issued a public call to the new Forest Minister to urgently address rampant illegal and unsustainable logging by issuing a moratorium on both new FCA projects and on the extension or renewal of any permits issued under the Timber Rights Purchase Agreements.
They also called for an independent review of all existing logging projects to assess their legality and impacts as well as calling for an extension of the moratorium to cover all new timber permits and licences.
They say it is important that any audit of existing FCAs is conducted independently and transparently and with full community participation.
“It is the PNGFA that has developed and approved the existing FCA permits that are characterized by widespread procedural abuse and lack of community consent. It will clearly be nonsense for the same forestry officers to now audit the permits they issued to assess their legality” Tanago said.
ACT NOW! is also concerned that a National Court Order issued in June 2021 calling for a halt to all logging in TRP areas has been ignored by the Forest Authority and logging is continuing unabated in those areas.
According to research conducted by ACT NOW! the TRP areas covered by the court order are still producing over 40% of PNG’s total log exports.
ACT NOW! says while the moratorium on new FCAs is an important step, the Forest Authority and Board must go further and stop issuing any new logging permits or permit extensions, until all logging projects have been independently reviewed.
ACT NOW! is also calling on the PNG Forest Authority to publicly explain how it is intending to meet the government commitment to end all round log exports by 2025.