The Papua New Guinea National Court’s verdict on 14 August 2026 confirmed what customary resource owners from Wanigela village in Oro Province already knew: the Environment Council’s February 2022 decision to uplift a suspension on the Environment Permit and let Malaysian-owned company Northern Forest Products Limited continue logging for another five years was unlawful.
The verdict, brought by Wanigela villagers, should therefore be a cause for celebration. Instead, local people face one of the worst possible outcomes: they have been vindicated by the court, but as more than four years have since elapsed, the court has refused to reverse the suspension. In other words, the Environment Permit remains, and logging will continue for at least another seven months until it expires, if not longer.
Noting that the current permit is valid only until March 2027, the court cites ‘unnecessary inconvenience and detriment to good administration’ as reasons to uphold the permit until expiry. The court’s decision to allow logging to continue prolongs the harm for the customary resource owners, who have already spent years fighting to protect their rights and lands, while Northern Forest Products Limited has continued its logging under the Wanigela Agro-Forestry Project.
The satellite images below were taken in February, June, and July 2026 in the northern area of the Wanigela project and show the extent of logging possible in a matter of months. Based on satellite image calculations, it is estimated that at least 970ha of forest and peatland has been impacted by logging operations since January 2026.
With the court permitting at least another seven months of logging, it can only be expected that similar, if not more harm may be caused to the Wanigela land, water and people. This comes despite the landowners’ years-long opposition to the Wanigela Agro-Forestry Project, leaving us with the question of whether justice has really been served at the National Court of Papua New Guinea.
Planet mosaic images acquired January, June, and July 2026. Accessed through Global Forest Watch on 26/08/2026. www.globalforestwatch.org
Case Background
The battle to stop logging in Wanigela started in May 2021, when local villagers raised concerns about the resulting environmental damage to the Minister for Conservation and Environment Protection and Climate Change and their local governor. The Conservation and Environment Protection Authority responded by suspending the Environment Permit in June 2021. At this stage, the Environment Permit was still valid for more than another five years.
The suspension, however, was uplifted in February 2022 by the Environment Council and Northern Forest Products Limited resumed their logging activities despite local opposition. This led the villagers to pursue judicial review - a trial they had to wait until May 2026 to commence. After 4 years of waiting, the outcome was delivered this month.
The court found the decision to uplift the permit was unlawful, but logging will still continue until at least March 2027 when the Environment Permit expires. The court’s main reason for not overturning the permit was the administrative burden of ceasing logging immediately, and that only 8 months of logging is left under the current permit.
This ruling comes following serious questions around the legality of the Wanigela logging operations raised in an August 2025 report by ACT NOW! and Jubilee Australia Research Centre. The report details how logging proceeded despite strong local opposition, evidence the Forest Clearing Authority (FCA) logging licence was not being used for forest clearance and agriculture, and concerns over legal compliance.
(For a more detailed and full timeline of the fight by Wanigela villagers refer to Hollow Victory for Wanigela villagers fighting destructive foreign logging and FCA Case Study #4: Chopping down a tropical forest to plant trees?)
It is only fair to say that all the while local villagers fought for the protection of their customary land, Northern Forest Products Limited continued logging and became the major beneficiary of their resources. Post court ruling, vindicating the villagers, they will continue to suffer the destruction of their forests by this Malaysian-owned company.
Given this situation as well as concerns of logging in Wanigela being unlawful due to FCA breaches, ACT NOW! and Jubilee Australia Research Center call on Northern Forest Products Limited to cease all activities immediately, and compensate customary resource owners for the damages caused to their environment and lands.
Note: ACT NOW! and Jubilee Australia Research Center will be publishing an extensive report on the Wanigela FCA in September 2026. This report will be a follow-up from ACT NOW!'s 2025 Wanigela report, and show recent developments in the unlawful logging under the Forest Clearing Authority.