PNGFA ventures into reforestation at Gomore
By FAY DUEGA
 THE Papua New Guinea Forest Authority (PNGFA) and the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) are working together to encourage landowners to establish successful forest plantations on unproductive grassland areas in the Central province.
Gomore village, which is located about an hour’s drive out of Port Moresby city along the Magi Highway, has been chosen for the pilot community reforestation venture. Gomore was chosen because it is easy to see and access, in the hope that villagers from other areas will see what is happening there and also want to venture into community reforestation.
The project titled: PPD 125/Rev.2 (F)-Reforestation of Tropical Savannah Grassland with High Value Tree species is financed by ITTO and managed by PNGFA with assistance from consulting firm Pacific Island Projects Ltd (PIP) based in East New Britain province.
The pre-project phase was initially planned to take nine months, from June 2008 to February 2009. However, an awareness workshop conducted at Gomore village from July 2 -12 this year, agreed to fast track the field visit schedules with the community to keep the momentum going.
Secondly, to match up with the ITTO project cycle process to minimise ‘wait time’ for a full project proposal to be submitted to ITTO to meet its November 2008 deadline.
The workshop facilitators were Simon Passingan and his wife Linda, and Simon Rollinson of PIP.
From the National Forest Service were Acting Divisional Manager for Forest Management Francis Vilamur, Aid Coordinator Frank Agaru, Supervisor Forest Plans Gewa Gamoga, Officer Forest Management Agreement Dai Nohokau and Kuriva plantation supervisor John Boslogo.
The project will see the teak species planted as well as other agricultural crops so that while they wait for 30 years for the teak to mature for harvest, they will have the agricultural crops to sustain their immediate needs.
The Gomore people have permanent houses and electricity. The village is clean and the people very hospitable. The villagers work their gardens for food.
The only problem is the absence of water connection to their houses but they are still better off compared to some other villages because they have a river nearby to wash in and use for cooking and drinking.
Some years ago, the European Union funded a water project for Gomore village whereby water from a bore nearby was piped to the centre of the village.
Individual families were then supposed to buy their own pipes to connect water into their homes with monthly water rentals collected by a village committee and paid to the Kwikila government station. This worked for a number of years but water has since been disconnected due to non payment of bills.
The Gomore villagers are keen to see the reforestation project start because village elders in the likes of 56-year old Kilage Billie and Mr Agaru, have seen enough in their lives to want to urgently do something for the future of their people.
Mr Billie said he has seen changes the Gomore village environment has undergone and is concerned that if they do not reverse the trend now for the better, the situation will worsen.
Mr Agaru on the other hand is concerned that some people in Gomore are now becoming too dependent on their relatives working in the city, and worries about what the future holds, if no attempt is made now to change their mindset, to be self reliant. The community reforestation venture is one solution to this problem.
Mr Bill comparing the environment in the village now to when he was a young boy said:
“This workshop has given us some insight about our attitudes and behaviours of looking after our environment, particularly our land, which is a very important resource that we have in the village.
“When we were small, we used to attend mission school here. All these areas were covered in forest but we started making the pastor’s garden and all the forests are gone,” Mr Billie said as he pointed to grassland behind the pastor’s house.
“Our river also was flowing all year round. But we did not look after our environment. That is why, we now have a lot of grassland, and the river dries up in the dry season.
“We are causing the destruction to our environment ourselves. When we are gardening, we should also be planting forests.
“We have sandalwood on parts of our land and in 2005, someone found a buyer in America, and came and told villagers and they started harvesting them. They were uprooting and mining the sandalwood roots as well because according to the buyer, the roots would fetch more money. Sandalwood had to be chipped out and only the core sold from which a lovely scent is given off. After four years of harvesting, there were no more sandalwood. New ones are now starting to grow but they will take another 20-30 years to harvest.
“During the sandalwood rush, everyone in the village could sell two bags of 50 kilogram sandalwood which earned them K2,500. There was a lot of money flowing around in the village. I was then operating a small PMV business and they would come to me to change their big notes into small denominations. That’s how I realized that people in the village had a lot of money. However, the money just finished within weeks and they have all gone back to the normal livelihood.
“One of the things I learnt from this workshop is the need for us all to keep records of major events that take place in the village such as when floods or big fires occur etc. When we did the Gomore timeline as part of this workshop, we came across a lot of information about our village that we did not know. We went back about 25 years and back tracked as to what happened then until now. Before 1983, we did not remember much compared to after 1983. This is one of the things we need to improve ourselves on,” Mr. Billie said.
“It is not too late to reforest our land. We have kwila and rosewood seedlings from the river bed that we could collect and replant elsewhere. We could also do awareness to our people not to make gardens too close to the river, and let trees grow close to the river bank, which will enable it to continue running and serve us for many more years to come,” he added.
The project has been divided into a pre-project and a full project. The pre-project has five steps and will take six months.
Step one was the awareness workshop at Gomore village as the pilot community project.
Step two to be held in August will help the pilot community (Gomore) become well organized and properly formed using the Incorporated Land Group (ILG) process. The PNGFA Acquisition Branch will assist landowners to submit an ILG application that satisfies the requirements of the Department of Lands and Physical Planning.
Step three to take place in October is to undertake a prompt resource assessment of the selected sites at Gomore. This will include an analysis of rehabilitation and land-use options (e.g tree species, propagation techniques, and distribution channels.) The land use planning team will help landowners and PNGFA staff to collect and analyse essential natural resource data at Gomore.
The fourth task scheduled for October will help project partners work out the best strategies for controlling grasslands and realizing desired objectives. This vital task will use the findings from steps one, two and three, to lay the foundation for step five. The project team will assist partners to consider the pre-project findings and work out an achievable and worthwhile road map for the future.
The fifth and final task which will take place in November 2008 is to produce the full project funding proposal for submission to ITTO. Careful, participatory project planning will lead to the formulation of a cost effective, low risk project that meets ITTO, PNGFA and landowner objectives as quickly as possible. This will involve the project design team presenting key stakeholders with the draft full project proposal for their review and feed back. The full project will help establish a complete “reforestation package” that encourages and assists landowners, the public and private sectors to rehabilitate degraded grasslands, and look after the remaining natural forests in Central province.
The Gomore reforestation project will add to other reforestation activities that PNGFA has done in other provinces. This includes 5,000 hectares of grassland in Eastern Highlands province, while similar efforts are underway in other highlands provinces. In the lowland regions, reforestation of logged over areas are being undertaken in Milne Bay, Western, Madang, Central, Morobe and in the island of New Britain.
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