Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Gazelle peninsula, New Britain island, East New Britain province, Rabaul, Rabaul Bay, Matupit island, Tavuvur, Turangunan, Tovanumbatir, Rabalanakaia et Vulcan volcanoes seen from Malmaluan viewpoint. Photo: Dozier Marc / Hemis via AFP
Civil society groups and community representatives from across Papua New Guinea say the government must take action to end the widespread abuse of Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs).
Over one-third of all logs exported from PNG come from logging operations authorised under FCA permits.
Environmental campaigners, Act Now!, say there are currently more than twenty FCA logging operations in eight provinces across PNG, contributing to widespread illegal and unsustainable logging
RNZ Pacific spoke with Act Now! spokesperson Eddie Tanago Paine.
(The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
Don Wiseman: Back in September, the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, James Marape, told the United Nations General Assembly that PNG stood ready to help other countries save their forests, because of all the work it's been doing in saving its very critically important forests.
Eddie Tanago Paine: Well, the thing is that the Prime Minister has been going out and telling the world and international community, of the importance of the forests, the importance of preserving and conserving the forests. That's good. But the one thing is you must make sure that your background is okay, your backyard is okay before you go in out and tell the world and boast about PNG forests being the lungs of the earth. What's happening domestically is that logging is one thing that's really eating away these "lungs of the forest" has been boasted about in the in international meetings. The history dates back to pre- independence and all the way up. The industry itself is riddled with all sorts of issues.
One current issue that we are talking about is the abuse of one of the leases, which is the Forest Clearing Authority. So yes, the Prime Minister is telling the world, but he has to also look at cleaning his backyard first, in terms of the issues of illegal logging and unsustainable forestry that has been prevalent for almost as old as Papua New Guinea being a country.
DW: There's been lots of plans over the years. All of them have been controversial, and these Forest Clearance Authorities have been around for a long time. FCAs, as they're called, are meant for the clearing of a very small amount of land that would then be used for agriculture. That's not happening.
ETP: That's true. Act Now! has started an exercise by going out and documenting cases of FCAs being issued to so-called agriculture companies. Our documentation of these case studies in various FCA locations around the country has spoken otherwise. What we have discovered in all our case studies is that they all point to one conclusion. And that conclusion is that these agriculture companies are mainly logging companies using these FCAs and going after our forests. The forest logs worth millions and millions of dollars have been shipped out and exported. This, in itself, is a breach of the terms and conditions of the licence, which is, as you rightly said, is just meant for a smaller, discrete area of forest, mainly for agriculture or other land use. Our case studies have also on that there is no agriculture happening on the land. It's all logging.
DW: Who's issuing the FCAs?
ETP: The responsible authority issuing these FCAs is the PNG Forest Authority. We have already numerous occasions raised the issue, and this week, we have done a seminar, and the seminar was meant to bring in all civil societies, local landowners who have been affected by this particular licence. We have all come together to raise the issue, and we also calling on the Forest Authority and the National Forest Board also to look into the issuance and the legality of this particular licence.,
DW: Is it a rogue government agency, or are they doing what the government is telling them to do?
ETP: Well, they are an organisation that is put in place to ensure sustainable forest management. It's not about making money, but also the wise use of our natural resources, and also, most importantly, the rights of Papua New Guineans to the use of their natural resources. As we have seen, that's not the case. The government does have a plan, and its plan is to go into downstream processing by 2025.
DW: That's all very well, but 2025 is just a couple of weeks away, really, isn't it?
ETP: It is.
DW: What plans are in place?
ETP: Well, what I'm trying to say is that, the government's midterm document, which is the MTD, or Medium Term Development Plan, and what we have seen so far is that the reality is not, is not matching up with what it envisions. The log export numbers are quite high at the moment, so it seems very unlikely that the government will meet its target if it's supposed to be going down on a downward trend, in terms of exports, until it meets its target, and then we can have downstream processing internally. That is not the case at the moment. So, that is really, really a concern and something for the government to look at what it's doing practically.
DW: In terms of round log exports, do we have numbers comparing, say, now and five years ago.
ETP: in terms of numbers wise, it's quite unpredictable at the moment. But given the increase now in the issuance of the licences, obviously, we will have a very high number of exports that are happening now, and one of the licences that have seen the increase in in in log export numbers is, is the FCA, the current FCA scam that we have now.
DW: So part of the reason for calling this meeting in Port Moresby is to encourage the government to change tack.
ETP: Exactly.
DW: How confident are you that you can do that?
ETP: Well, you know, it's, it's something that should not be turned a blind eye on. It's a concern, and this particular FCA thing, it's sort of more following a similar trend that we have seen some years ago in the Special Agriculture Business Leases which FCA were a part of. Now, without the SABL leases, we have sort of, like a direct entry for agriculture companies to get FCAs directly from the Forest Authority. I just hope that, I mean, it's not only the Forest Authority that's responsible, but a whole heap of government agencies, a whole heap of stakeholders who have also invested so much in the sector. And our call we had for that seminar was for the seminar was to and so that relevant and different stakeholders play an important role in ensuring that such abuses are stopped.
DW: And are you satisfied with what's happened so far?
ETP: Not really satisfied. We've been advocating on this issue for a while now and have gone out and documented evidence that showed what we are talking about. There is still a lot more to be done to ensure [we uncover] this crime - it's not just about FCAs, it's about the industry itself too, where the logs are harvested, and there are different stakeholders that are involved in the supply and demand chains in the sector. There are whole heap of demands that we had set where we wanted different stakeholders to play in and soaring sustainability. But also, most importantly, this issue of the abuse of FCS is gotten rid of.