Papua New Guinea rainforests under threat
Background
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the world's most important biodiversity hotspots and part of the third largest tropical rainforest on the planet. PNG’s rainforests cover about 28.2 million hectares of the country.
This unique forest is under threat, at least 2.9 million hectares of rainforest (about 15% of the total) have been degraded, and deforestation is ongoing.
In 2024, 2.5 million m3 of roundwood, representing 25% of the world's tropical round log exports, came from Papua New Guinea.
The forests of Papua New Guinea are being severely damaged by foreign companies, mainly from Malaysia or with close ties to Malaysia.
Almost the whole country of PNG is today covered by logging or palm oil concessions by now.
One of the major cause of deforestation in PNG are so-called Forest Clearance Authority (FCA) licences that are largely controlled by Malaysian families (from the state of Sarawak) and contribute to the clearcutting of huge areas of forests. Currently, 1.6 million hectares of untouched forest are threatened with clear-cutting due to FCA licenses.
Timber export statistics suggest that recent political measures in PNG had almost no impact on reducing deforestation. Despite a 2023 moratorium on new FCA licences, large-scale logging and human rights abuses persist, with FCAs now as the single largest driver of forest loss in PNG.
According to a new investigation, logs from FCAs account for more than 39% of Papua New Guinea’s log exports.
175,173 hectares of forest have been converted to FCA areas, representing an area twice the size of Singapore. At least 1.68 million hectares of rainforest are under threat from FCA licenses. Of these forests, 88% are classified as ‘undisturbed forests’, and their conversion would release a combined 277.35 million tons of carbon dioxide. A report of PNGEA, Rimbawatch and Bruno Manser Fonds now reveals that 63 of 67 FCA licences are controlled by Malaysian-linked companies, covering 94% of all FCA licenses. PNG has become a corporate colony of the Malaysian timber industry.
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