Community advocacy organisation ACT NOW! has filed a second legal action against the PNG Forest Authority, this time seeking the disclosure of information about controversial Forest Clearing Authority logging licences and the audit of FCA projects.

Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago says that ACT NOW! has written to the PNG Forest Authority on numerous occasions over the past three years seeking information on individual FCA logging projects, the moratorium on new projects and progress with the FCA audits, but has not received a single reply.

ACT NOW! has also published five case study reports with the results of investigations into individual FCA projects. These have revealed clear evidence of illegal logging, fraudulent or misleading applications, a lack of consent from resource owners and a general failure to enforce the Forestry Act rules against the logging companies involved.

Although these reports have all been provided to the PNG Forest Authority, ACT NOW! says it has not received any response to the findings.

The new legal action [OS 187 of 2026] is seeking the disclosure of all official information and documents regarding the moratorium on the issuance of new FCA licences and ongoing audit exercise on existing FCA projects, and detailed responses to each of the allegations of breaches of the Forestry Act contained in ACT NOW reports and correspondence.

The new legal action is the second law suit filed by ACT NOW! against the PNG Forest Authority this year.

In March, ACT NOW! commenced legal proceedings [OS 5 of 2026] to compel the PNGFA to publish basic information about all logging projects in the country, including relevant Board decisions, forest maps, logging permits and other details about the project areas as required under the Public Register provisions of the Forestry Act.

Eddie Tanago says it is a sad indictment on the government and the management of forest resources when a community advocacy organisation is forced to take legal action in order to obtain even basic information that every citizen has a right to see.

“The fact that ACT NOW is having to take legal action is further evidence that the PNG Forest Authority has been captured by foreign interests and is no longer able to fulfil its statutory duties”.

The Special Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Reform has also recently been highly critical of the PNG Forest Authority.

In its report on independent log export monitoring, he Committee has accused the PNGFA of ‘abusing its discretionary powers, often under political influences, to shield non-compliant logging companies from penalties and license cancellations’.

This ‘fundamental lack of will to prosecute offenders’ says the Committee, has ‘effectively turned a vital natural resource into an illicit revenue stream for foreign interests’ who are able to operate with ‘absolute impunity’.

The Committee also found that FCA licences are being used as a mask for illegal logging with promised agriculture projects not being delivered and logging proceeding without the free, prior and informed consent of resource owners.

The Committee has recommended an independent review of all FCA permits to see if genuine agriculture projects have been established and to confirm genuine resource owner consent; a recommendation that ACT NOW! has publicly endorsed.

In his evidence to the Committee in July 2025, PNGFA Managing Director John Mosoro stated that 65-70% of FCA projects were about to be cancelled for non-compliance with permit conditions but there is no evidence that the Forest Board has acted on those recommendations.