I'm not sure what the situation is in this case, but in the past there have been a lot of licenses which were sold under previous laws and/or previous government administrations that can't easily be _legally_ limited.
As a result, the current administration can't force them not to use those licenses, but are still likely to put at least _some_ pressure on them to minimize their use of them.
But do you know of any country where getting legislation like this passed would be straightforward and apolitical? It's not that the can't do it, it's that it would be difficult to do and would require expenditure of political capital.
If a majority government came to power and had this as a major part of their platform I suspect they'd try to get legislation passed, but any other government is not going to expend as much effort on it as would be needed to get it through.
That's understandable, and perhaps buybacks should be attempted (around here there are conservatories that buy up "pristine" land and then take it off the market, either by themselves or via covenants with the gov't).
As a result, the current administration can't force them not to use those licenses, but are still likely to put at least _some_ pressure on them to minimize their use of them.