A community advocacy group in Papua New Guinea says Prime Minister James Marape's promise to stop issuing new forestry licences will do nothing to stop illegal logging destroying the country's remaining forests.
Marape reportedly told the Green Climate Fund in Port Moresby that no new forestry licences will be issued after 16 September, PNG's 50th anniversary. He pleaded with the international community to act urgently and decisively to preserve the world's oceans and forests, calling them the lungs and lifeline of our plant.
But ACT NOW campaign manager Eddie Tanago calls this an empty gesture because current licences will allow logging for many years to come, especially with the government failing to enforce its own rules.
