Welcome
Reforestation potential
How will the project help?
What are the expected outcomes?
Where is the project operating?
Who are we collaborating with?
Information & resources
Photo gallery
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Reforestation potential
Today, log exports from Papua New Guinea's (PNG) primary forests continue to make a significant contribution to the national economy. Since accessible forests are becoming increasingly depleted, the PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA) is focusing on reforestation as a means of maintaining a permanent forest estate that supplies existing and new forest industries. Under its national reforestation program - Operation Painim Graun na Planim Diwai (Secure Land and Plant Trees) - the PNGFA aims to plant 800,000 hectares of trees for commercial, community and conservation purposes by 2050.
The Pacific 2020 Review (AusAID, 2006) concludes that, whilst there is obvious potential for establishing large plantations in the Pacific Islands, community or household arrangements are more likely to succeed due to land tenure constraints. The review recommends growing high-quality furniture timbers with reduced natural forest stands leading to increasing demand and export prices, such as teak and mahogany. The International Tropical Timber Organization's (ITTO) Diagnostic Mission to PNG (Lakani et al., 2006) also found that
"Large areas of degraded land and grassland areas are available for establishing commercial forest plantations. However, this option is subject to availability of investment funds, willingness of the landowners to participate, ownership rights of the landowners being respected, availability of planting materials and appropriate seed sources. The role of the government agencies, private sector together with the customary landowners is the prime catalyst to stimulate the growth and further the plantation development".
How will the project help?
The project aims to create a model reforestation framework (MRF) to address the 3 identified constraints to community reforestation in Central Province:
- Limited access to information services for reforestation enterprises & the wider community;
- Limited access to training services for reforestation enterprises; and
- Limited access to planting stock and materials for reforestation enterprises.
The project, which involves partnerships with service providers from the public and private sectors, is focusing on teak but also encompasses other suitable species, such as mahogany and sandalwood. The MRF will enable the establishment of model reforestation enterprises (MREs) that promote effective land groups, production systems and business arrangements in the wider community.
What are the expected outcomes?
Project partners are developing a model reforestation framework (MRF) that addresses the key constraints to community reforestation through the provision of tailor-made awareness-raising, training and support services. The MRF will encourage target communities in Central Province to promote the following three key components of model reforestation enterprises (MREs) to the wider community:
- A land group that ensures transparent and effective governance;
- A production system for delivering planned products and services; and
- A business arrangement for delivering planned financial returns.
This approach is expected to enhance the short-term income generation capacity of the model land groups, in addition to their long-term financial security. The model production systems are also expected to bring about significant environmental outcomes in Central Province through steadily replacing its lowland grasslands with high values trees.
Where is the project operating?
The project is being implemented in Central Province, which lies on the country's southern coast and has an area of about 3.1 million hectares. The topography comprises coastal lowlands and hills that rise up to the rugged Owen Stanley Ranges. There are extensive areas of tropical savannah (163 000 hectares) and grasslands (535 000 hectares) along lowland coastal areas and northern ranges, representing 23% of the total land area. This vegetation is strongly influenced by a monsoonal climate, weathered soils and land-use practices (particularly fire).
Central Province is well-linked to the national capital, Port Moresby, and therefore offers good access to the marketing infrastructure needed to target both domestic and international markets. The province also contains large areas of unoccupied land, a good road network, and four administrative districts. Many areas have access to power and a cellular phone network.
Who are we collaborating with?
The project is financed by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), managed by the PNG Forest Authority, and implemented in collaboration with the following partner organisations:
-
Girabu Farmers' Cooperative
- National Agricultural Research Institute
Information and resources
Publications
The project has submitted articles to the following international publications:
ITTO Tropical Forest Update, Vol. 29/3, 2020 (pages 8-11)- Commonwealth Forestry Association Newsletter, No. 92, March 2020 (pages 5-8)
Project reports
The project has prepared the following activity reports
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Report for Activity 1.1: Establish forestry education service
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Report for Activity 1.2: Establish reforestation awareness service
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Report for Activities 2.2 and 3.2 : Establish business and (agro) forestry information service
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Report on Forest-Education Resource Vetting & Alignment Workshop
Training resources
The project has developed a set of pamphlets to assist farmers choose and grow the best trees. These resources have also been added to Tree Growers Tool Kit that is hosted on the Resources section of this website.
Tree Selection Pack (Central Province Lowlands)- Which Trees Shall I Plant (Central Province Lowlands)
- Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
- Mahogany (Central Province)
- Mango (Mangifera indica)
- Mango (Central Province)
- Rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus)
- Rosewood (Central Province)
- Sandalwood (Santalum macregorii)
- Sandalwood (Central Province)
- Teak (Tectona grandis)
- Teak (Central Province)
- Terminalia (Terminalia microcarpa)
- Terminalia (Central Province)
Teaching aids
The project has selected and adapted (where necessary) additional teaching aids that have been incorporated into the Forest Learners Kit that is hosted on the Resources section of this website. These new resources suit the Central Province context (e.g. grassland biomes), as well as fill information gaps (e.g. climate change mitigation), They have been arranged according to PNG's outcome based curriculum for elementary to upper-secondary grades (and also the new standards based curriculum).
- A 60 second guide to the savanna biome (grades 5-12)
- An introduction to tropical rainforests (grades 4-6)
- Biomes lesson (grades 4-8)
- Carbon footprints, renewable energy and offsetting (grades 8-12)
- Carbon storage in forest and wood products (grade 9)
- Celebrating our forests (grades 3-8)
- Climate change and global warming (grades 3-11)
- Climate change causes & effects (grades 8-10)
- Climate change presentation (grades 7-11)
- Environments and ecosystems (grades 8-11)
- Every tree for itself (grades 3-7)
- Forestry and carbon sequestration (grade 12)
- Forests, timber and climate change worksheet (grades 9-10)
- Geographic information systems (grades 10-12)
- Habitats linked to cartoon characters activity (grades 3-9)
- How is carbon stored in wood products (grades 10-12)
- Human activities causing climate change (grades 7-11)
- Mitigating climate change (grades 8-12)
- Rainforest millionaire (grades 6-9)
- Science biomes (grades 5-10)
- Tackling climate change (grades 8-12)
- Trees save the world (grades 5-7)
- Trees, woodlands and climate change (grades 8-12)
- Why Trees are important (grades 5-8)
Photo gallery
The timeline below provides a record of project activities and events.
November 2020: SMEC field workers hve assisted one land group in Rigo District to form the Girabu Farmers' Cooperative (see August 2019) with PGK 10 000 (US$ 3 000) subsequently deposited into their bank account as seed capital by SMEC.
Photo on the left shows Mr. Ralda (Managing Director, SMEC) presenting the Cooperative Passbook account to the Chairman of Girabu Farmers' Cooperative witnessed by Mr. Kaip (Policy & Aid Coordinator, PNG Forest Authority). Photo on the right shows Mr. Kaip presenting the Cooperative Certificate of Incorporation to the Cooperative Chairman. Photo: D. Kenny.
November 2020: During the Forest-Education Resource Vetting & Alignment Workshop workshop, 114 teaching aids were selected and aligned with the Humanities-Social Science and Science-Mathematics pathways of the Standards Based Curriculum. The School Teachers Pack was also renamed the Forest Learners Kit.
Photos above show participants from the NDoE's Curriculum Development Division, PNGFA's Policy & Planning Directorate and Pacific Island Projects during and after the 5-day workshop. Photo: D. Kenny.
August 2019: SMEC field workers conducted a 2-week Start Your Business (SYB) Training at Girabu village in Rigo District which led to the formation of the Girabu Farmers' Cooperative (see November 2020)
Photos above show workshop participants preparing a cash flow plan for their business proposal. Photos: B. Reuben.
June 2019: The project team presented the School Teachers Pack to the 3 model schools. An Evaluation Form was used to collect initial feedback and suggestions from community representatives. The form was completed by 62 participants (including teachers and school children) with positive results.
Photos above show school children viewing the teaching aids at Barakau Primary School (left) and average scores for the teachings aids evaluation question with scoring from 1=low to 5=high (right). Photo: S. Rollinson.
June 2019: The project team presented the Tree Growers Tool Kit to the 3 model communities. An Evaluation Form was used to collect initial feedback and suggestions from community representatives. The form was completed by 62 participants (including teachers and school children) with positive results.
Photos above show a participant from Girabu Village reading a tree growers pamphlet (right) and average scores for the resource type evaluation question with scoring from 1=low to 5=high (left). Photo: S. Rollinson.
June 2019: The project team presented the Landowner Awareness Kit to the 3 model communities. An Evaluation Form was used to collect initial feedback and suggestions from community representatives. The form was completed by 62 participants (including teachers and school children) with positive results.
Photos above show school children viewing the awareness video at Barakau Primary School (left) and average scores for the awareness video evaluation question with scoring from 1=low to 5=high (right). Photo: S. Rollinson.
Project focus area: Communication, learning and knowledge building (CLKB), Community driven development (CDD), Forests, climate change and REDD (FCCREDD)