FAO Forestry country profiles - harvesting practicies

Harvesting practicies

The greatest potential for logging in Papua New Guinea is in the Western and Sandaun provinces, where only about one fifth of the total potential area is currently logged. The forests of the country contain up to 200 species which are considered to have commercial value (UNDP & FAO 1989a, WTO 1999).

Most of the wood is cut using selective logging, where only the timber trees above 50 cm diameter at breast height are extracted, at least in theory. Access to the forests is difficult and therefore logs must be transported large distances to export centres (DoF 1991b, UNDP & FAO 1989a, WTO 1999).