Both the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea governments have signalled changes to make their forestry industries more sustainable. The Papua New Guinea government will be putting a stop to the issuance of all new logging licences to foreign companies. Forestry Minister Solan Mirisim who resigned as Defence Minister under the O’Neill led government, said licenses will only be issued to landowning companies. …He said that more needs to be done to ensure the forestry industry is sustainable. …Deforestation is rife in Papua New Guinea, with 640,000 hectares of forest felled in the last three years. Much of the logging is illegal, prompting conflict between offending companies and indigenous landowners.