By Eddie Tanago

Whilst the PM is attending COP 30 in Brazil to plead for international finance to protect the worlds forests and biodiversity, back home is a different story.

Deforestation under the controversial Forest Clearing Authority (FCA) by mainly Malaysian logging companies hasn’t been addressed.

Papua New Guinea is home to one of the world's largest rainforests, but it is being destroyed by illegal logging turning the country into the world's largest exporter of tropical timber.

About 1.68 million hectares of forests in PNG are currently under threat from FCAs.

Despite a moratorium on new FCA licences, the National Forest Board has not publicly made available the promised audit reports on existing FCA projects and meantime logs are still being exported.

In 2024, there were 18 operational FCA logging projects that produced over 500,000 cubic metres of timber for export to China. The logs were valued at over K200 million (US$50 million). Five of the FCA projects operating in 2024 only started operations after the NFB imposed its moratorium.

The National Forest Board and the PNG Forest Authority’s lack of effectiveness back home contradicts the Prime Minister’s commitments to protect forests at the COP 30 meeting in Brazil. This failure in leadership is yet further evidence of a complete breakdown in governance in the forestry sector. 

Further compounding evidences underlines the lack of governance in the sector. The Bank of PNG’s national risk assessment places the logging sector as ‘high risk’ for money laundering yet the lack of enforcement action by the authorities will largely contribute to PNGs’ grey listing come 2026. 

The PM must address the FCA logging abuses and related forest crimes back at home before going out to international meetings.

STOP the FCA Forest Abuse by SIGNING THE PETITION - www.stopfca.org