Tenkyu tru to all the villagerMs. Melinda Thom, of Ramu Agri Industries Ltd, designing a new ACIAR project activity with men, women and children at Sangkian.s who recently helped Ms Emilie Houde-Tremblay with information about gender issues and household roles. Emilie is a visiting researcher from the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her interviews will be used to design a new ACIAR project which will help people to grow trees for firewood, house poles, fruit and nuts.
This project builds on the results of earlier ACIAR projects which identified galip and taun as trees which villagers may wish to grow as multi-purpose trees. With the assistance of our project partner Ramu Agri Industries Ltd (RAIL), Emilie was able to talk to many villagers to get their opinions and thoughts. Gender issues are important to ACIAR and the PNG government and this project will ensure that people are not disadvantaged or excluded by the way the project is designed or managed.
The new project 'Enabling Community Forestry in Papua New Guinea' will begin in October 2017. Research-for-development activities will mainly occur between Lae, Ramu and Goroka and will include staff from the PNG Forest Authority (Port Moresby) the Forest Research Institute (Lae) the Forest Authority (Eastern Highlands), the University of Technology and the Timber and Forestry Training College at (Lae) and RAIL. The new ACIAR project is being designed with contributions from all stakeholders, particularly women.
Ms. Melinda Thom, of Ramu Agri Industries Ltd, planning tree planting with a communityThis webpage presents the results of the research work carried out in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) project titled 'Enhancing the implementation of community forestry approaches in Papua New Guinea'. This research - carried out between late 2013 and early 2017 at Madang, Ramu and Goroka - would never have succeeded without the support of our project partners and their staff, in particluar:
A number of communities and community leaders in the villages of Waritzian, Musuam, Ragiumpun and Sangkian in the Ramu/Markham Valley, Barola in the Eastern Highlands and Sogeram, Aronis and Awane in Madang generously shared their time, knowledge and resources with the project team, and showed us great hospitality in the conduct of the research. We thank them and hope that the project outcomes eventually deliver the benefits to which they and we both aspire, for their and other communities in PNG.
Associate Professor Jack Baynes, Project Leader, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Australia
Planting trees after land has been clearedForest management in PNG is in transition, from export oriented harvesting of logs from primary forest to an increased focus on sustainable management of secondary forests, regrowth forests, plantations, alongside the domestic processing of forest products and a growing recognition of the importance of other forest values such as carbon and biodiversity. There is also a growing recognition of the importance of small-scale forestry operations to process logs harvested from natural forests - locally known as 'ecoforestry'. A number of NGOs have worked with local communities to implement small-scale harvesting and processing with mobile sawmills but evidence of their profitability is scant.
Community forestry in PNG is developing in two main ways which are directly related to the nature and characteristics of the forest or land resources to which communities have access, namely:
The project scoping study revealed the importance of achieving effective engagement, participation and empowerment of communities and landowners (the resource owners) in the sustainable management of PNG's forests. The development of future forest resources was identified as an essential element of achieving sustainable forest management. In addition, community-based reforestation of grasslands showed great potential for producing economic returns to clans, together with positive social and environmental outcomes.
Preparing potting mix for a community nursery The aim of this project was to identify how community forestry in PNG can be enhanced and scaled up to achieve better economic, social and environmental outcomes. The research activities were undertaked in the Madang-Lae-Goroka triangle which provided good access to both natural forest and grassland sites. The main research objectives were to:
The key learnings in terms of each of the project objectives are summaried below:
Some project achievements in the Madang-Lae-Goroka triangle are listed below:
The project resources listed below condense the results of the many site visits, interviews and extension activities. Like all research projects, 'Enhancing the implementation of community forestry approaches in Papua New Guinea' has had its fair share of difficulties and disruptions. However, the overall result has been very positive. We hope you enjoy reading about our work.
The research papers and extension materials have been added to the Tree Growers Tool Kit that is hosted on the Resources section of this website.
The design, development, implementation and completion of the project relied on the contributions from many organisations and staff in Australia and PNG. Project activities were financed by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and managed by the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) in Maroochydore.
Project focus area: Communication, learning and knowledge building (CLKB), Community driven development (CDD), Forests, climate change and REDD (FCCREDD)