'Passing the buck' like everyone else again. fact remains that the PNG Forest Authority is the government body mandated to issue all FCA's and not the Lands Department. Thus, the PNGFA should see it as thier responsibility to cancel any FCA's that have been issued to illegal SABL(s).

SABL(s) have been deemed illegal but why is it that logging is continuing? Is it becuase the FCA's are still valid?

Source: The National

The controversial Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) remains a thorn on the side of the PNG Forest Authority, despite it not being responsible, managing director Kanawi Pouru says.
He said SABLs were issued by the Lands Department and PNGFA was being wrongly blamed as in many cases they were used as a cover-up for logging operations.


“It’s an issue and the Government has made a stand on that,” Pouru said.
“Lands Department is taking action on how they want to manage that now. 
“The Lands Department is moving away from that already and perhaps going straight into registering customary land, which is considered more appropriate than the SABL.

 
“Those conversions are probably being done as they go through case-by-case, which is a Lands Department issue. “
Poru said SABLs were not a forestry operation.“By our definition, SABLs are not forest industry,” he said. 
“They are agriculture operations, or whatever the industry is.
“If it’s land clearing for oil palm, cocoa, coffee, whatever, then it is agricultural-based. 
“If they want to clear it for some physical planning development or whatever, it’s business-based. 
“The forestry law doesn’t apply to it. 
“But if you say, ‘I’ve got some good timber, and I want to get some value out of it’, that’s when you come to us. 
“The board has now tightened up, tightened up in the sense that if you have an SABL of 30,000ha, we’re not going to give you an FCA (forest clearance authority) of over 30,000ha.
“If you say you want to develop 10,000ha, okay, we will give you FCA for 10,000 only. 
“The other 20,000 (ha) remains.”