Develop Kokoda in a win-win way
KOKODA Track is synonymous with World War Two and has made Papua New Guinea famous.
The 96km trail is our national shrine, heritage and pride.
It should be preserved and protected for many unforeseen benefits.
Lest we forget, it is the trail that our forefathers, the “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels”, had shed their blood, many fighting alongside Australians, to protect the motherland.
The Kokoda Track experience has strengthened relations between PNG and Australia and is part of the reason why Canberra has pumped millions of dollars into our country for development since independence.
Unfortunately, these millions have never benefited the people of Kokoda.
The people need better roads, some linking to Port Moresby, improved health facilities, education, communication, water supply and agricultural development.
They were never appreciated, and acknowledged and they feel completely ignored, rejected and forgotten.
The Rudd government promised K42 million funding to list Kokoda as a World Heritage but how will that help the people?
The companies that organise trekking trips are Australian-owned and most travel arrangements are made out of Cairns, Brisbane or Sydney.
Also, there no proper toilet facilities along the trail, resulting in pollution to the rivers.
The locals are made to carry heavy loads and are paid poorly.
The proponents of tourism are urging the people to embrace it but they need guidance and assistance to set up their own companies, establish guest houses and lodges as community-based projects or businesses that could be sustainable and generate more wealth and income.
Some AusAID money should have been invested in such tourism business to promote the Kokoda Track.
What the Kokoda people want now is mining.
They are resource owners and they have every right to decide for their future and nobody should deprive them of their rights to have access to improved services that would be brought about by their mineral deposits.
But mining is an unsustainable project that will compromise the ecological integrity of the environment, bring more pollution and deprive the future generations.
The third feasible and sustainable option now is development through carbon trade.
Kokoda has been recently been identified as a site for a pilot project by Rudd after he returned from global climate talks.
Now what the Rudd government and PNG Government should do is invest in the Kokoda people by helping them to preserve and rehabilitate their forests for carbon offsets.
Australia should buy the carbon credits and payments should be made directly into the accounts of the local people.
Or else integrate tourism, carbon trade and mining developments in a more feasible, sustainable and environmentally friendly approach, to resolve the conflicts of interests.

John Laule, Port Moresby
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