The following petition was presented on the floor of Parliament by the Hon. Gary Juffa, Governor for Oro Province on November 24, 2021

TO THE HONOURABLE SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED

The humble petition of the civil societies of Papua New Guinea, respectively showeth;

The petition from the proposed Torricelli Mountain Range Conservation Area landowners tabled earlier in this Parliament sitting, highlights one example of the many severe logging issues and related challenges we continue to have in our country. Problems range from questionable resources concession allocations, illegally issued Special Agricultural Business Leases (SABLs) and Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs), lack of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) requirements, to illegal logging, tax evasion and human rights abuses. These issues have collectively driven environmental destruction, natural resource and biodiversity loss, and led to big socio-economic losses for our rural communities. They are threatening the country's long-term development and sustainability in the use of our collective forest resources [further background information and justification is provided in Schedule 1 to this Petition]

The PNG Forest Authority and the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA), as the State Agencies responsible for safeguarding our forest resources, have proven over and over again that they are unable or unwilling to ensure our laws and regulations are properly implemented and followed. This situation is of particular concern in relation to SABLs, FCAs and Timber Authorities (TAs), as through these instruments large forest areas are lost forever.

The PNG Government has asked the world to acknowledge the important global role our forests play in mitigating climate change, in seeking substantial finance for its conservation and sustainable management, to compensate for revenue lost from unsustainable practices, and to ensure the custodians of our forests, our customary landowning communities can still realise their development aspirations. The eyes of the world are now upon us, and the world is well aware of the problems we face as a nation in the protection and safeguarding of our forests.

The commitments made by our Government at COP26, and in other venues and agreements, are empty promises if not followed by timely decisive action on the major problems we have in our forestry sector. Such deficient forest governance and poor adherence to our own forest-related laws and regulations has been ongoing for decades, undermining the credibility of PNG' s institutions, and their commitment to PNG's Constitution and application of the country's laws. If we do not deal with these problems now, we will have very little forest resources left to base our sustainable downstream processing industry on, or to generate carbon credits and other payments for ecosystem services.

Your petitioners therefore humbly pray:

1. That Point 4. of the NEC Decision 184/2014, to revoke all SABLs, as recommended by Commission of Inquiry Reports (which stated that they were not even valid in the first place), be actioned without any further delay;

2. That the findings of the Ministerial Committee into the unreported SABLs be tabled and its recommendations actioned, without any further delay

3. That all log exports from TAs (which are illegal anyway) are stopped with immediate effect

4. That a Moratorium on new FCAs is put in place with immediate effect

5. That all existing FCAs are investigated by an Independent Review Committee, and that any FCA found to be illegal is nullified

6. That the Party/Parties found to be responsible for the illegal issuance of SABLs and FCAs are made responsible to compensate for any social, environmental and economic losses incurred, and the costs of restoration of the area involved.

7. That PNGFA and CEPA be required to appear before a Parliamentary Committee to explain whether or how they approved logging in the proposed Torricelli Mountain Range Conservation Area. a well-publicized internationally acclaimed conservation area.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound will pray,

Schedule 1. Further background information and justification

From independence to the current day, despite numerous calls for change, the forestry sector has been beset by issues brought about by the process and environmental damages of industrial logging. The extent and severity of this has been outlined by the Barnett Commission of Inquiry 1990 which investigated aspects of the Logging Industry, and the SABL Commission of Inquiry of 2013, which investigated .alleged abuses associated with the allocation of concessions for clear-felt logging for broad-scale agriculture development. These inquiries highlighted the lack of good governance, oversight, compliance, surveillance and management of the forestry sector by the responsible state agencies, many of which still persist today, negatively impacting both the country's rich forest biodiversity and the livelihoods of its populous village-based rural communities. This despite the Forestry Act of 1991 being a direct result of 'putting right' through legislation. the findings at that time.

1. Special Agricultural Business Leases

In 2011 a Commission of Enquiry was established to investigate the issuance of a large number of SABLs issued between 2003-2009.

The commission of enquiry in the review of 75 SABLs further established findings of widespread abuse, fraud and government incompetence in ensuring compliance and accountability in the S.ABL process application. Fraudulent acquiring of landowner informed consent was also explicit in the findings. This led to a decision by the Government in June 2014 (NEC Decision no. 184/2014) to revoke all SABLs recommended by Commission of Inquiry Reports to be revoked. Almost a decade has since passed with the PNG Government taking no action in implementing this decision, allowing companies to continue their logging and clear-felling operations on SABLs found to be illegal.

In this decision the Government also instructed for a Ministerial Committee to screen all SABLs not assessed by the two COI reports and to make known its findings and recommendations on a case-by-case basis. This review work was completed in 2018, but to date the Committee's findings and recommendations have not been published or implemented.

2. Timber Authority

Timber Authority is a permit for cutting forest giving harvesting rights to a timber holder whom have obtained this right directly from the landowners and issued for areas outside of a Forest Management Area. Timber Authorities may be issued for domestic processing, road-line clearance, conversion of forest to agriculture and other land use, and harvesting of forest produce other than timber.

In a report produced by Global Witness in 2018, titled A Major Liability, the PNG Forest Authority has admitted that areas operated under TAs cannot be verified. This makes it impossible to assess if operations under Timber Authority are complying with the law. Many a company has also been deemed to use TA 02 harvesting timber for Roadline clearance with blatant regard for rule of law.

Section 87 of the Forestry Act (1991) says that logs harvested under Timber Authorities must be processed onshore and not exported. However, Timber Authorities have been the source of more than 1 million cubic meters of log exports since 2007.

3. Forest Clearing Authority

Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs) are issued to convert forest to other land uses. They result in a permanent loss of a forest area, meaning it is even more important to have them issued following proper process and strong scrutiny, in particular on obtaining Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from the customary landowners involved and affected.

After the moratorium on new SABL's, we have seen a proliferation of issuance of so-called Landowner FCA's outside of SABL areas, where Land Owner Companies (LOCs) or individual Incorporated Land Groups (ILGs) have applied for and been issued with an FCA to convert forest areas. Between 2015 and 2018, more than 600,000 hectares of FCA's have been issued in this manner.

The applicants of these Landowner FCA's normally claim that, after clear-felling of the forest and export of the round logs, large-scale agriculture or forest plantations and a range of services will be developed tinder their project. In most instances, these development plans are not properly implemented, or even not followed at all. Also, in most cases, no proper FPIC is obtained from the genuine customary landowners involved and affected.

There is currently no public access to the agricultural development plans or environmental impact statements that are legally required to justify the grant of FCAs, despite Section 55 of the Environment Act specifying this. Nor is there any transparency in the relevant proceedings of the National Forest Board or the mapping and monitoring of agro-forestry projects by the National Forest Service.

4. Lack of Free Prior Informed Consent with traditional Landowners of natural resources

97% of land in PNG is customarily owned however in the last decade with over 5.2 million ha of customary land converted to SABLs, the percentage of the land ownership has decreased. PNG law requires community consent in the process companies obtaining logging permits. As a member of the global community, PNG is also obligated to recognize the international laws that call for the rights of indigenous communities through the Free Prior Informed Consent for any development on their land. Despite this, various research conducted have found there to be widespread lack of informed community consent to logging operations on their land, The COI into SABLs conducted in 2011 found 90% of the reviewed SABLs to not have genuine landowners consent.

5. Commitment of the PNG Government at COP26 to end round log export in 2025 and all logging in 2030

The Government of PNG through the inspiring speech of Hon, PM James Marape to the United Nations Assembly in November 2021, and the commitments made by Hon Minister Wera Mori at the COP26, has drawn international attention and approval of its intention to conserve and sustainably manage our country's forests for the benefit of our future generations and the world, in relation to climate change mitigation. Additional to the existing benefits from the environmental services our forests provide to our people, like clean water, food, building materials, medicine, and the importance of our forests for our culture and spiritual essence, we now know that they also play an essential role in sequestering and storing carbon, that can help us mitigate the effects of climate change.

The PNG Forest Authority and the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA), as the State Agencies responsible for safeguarding our forest resources. have proven over and over again that they are unable or unwilling to ensure our laws and regulations are properly implemented and followed. They also appear not to be able or willing to investigate and deal with any legal breaches that are brought to their attention. This situation is of particular concern in relation to SABLs. FCAs and Timber Authorities (TM). as through these instruments large forest areas are lost forever.

The PNG Government has asked the world to acknowledge the important global role our forests play in mitigating climate change, in seeking substantial finance for its conservation and sustainable management. to compensate for revenue lost from unsustainable practices, and to ensure the custodians of our forests, our customary landowning communities can still realise their development aspirations. The eyes of the world are now upon us, and the world is well aware of the problems we face as a nation in the protection and safeguarding of our forests. The commitments made by our Government at COP26, and in other venues and agreements, are empty promises if not followed by timely decisive action on the major problems we have in our forestry sector. Such deficient forest governance and poor adherence to our own forest-related laws and regulations has been ongoing for decades, undermining the credibility of PNG's institutions, and their commitment to PNG's Constitution and application of the country's laws. If we do not deal with these problems now, we will have very little forest resources left to base our sustainable downstream processing industry on, or to generate carbon credits and other payments for ecosystem services.