Boost for forestry

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Thursday 06th of March, 2014

By LAZARUS BIRA
THE PNG Forest Authority is now equipped with data and resources to monitor forests and tackle climate change, managing director Kanawi Pouru says.
Pouru said this during a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA) project workshop.
The three-year K25 million project was funded by Japan and implemented in March 2011.
The project is to assist nationwide forest monitoring by use of satellite images and geographical information systems, plus building capacity for the PNGFA staff.
JICA assisted by developing a forest base map, updating the forest data base and developing the capacity of staff.
“This enables the PNGFA and its partners to use the facility to monitor and sustainably manage the forests to deal with climate change,” Pouru said.
He said PNG did not have the ability to manage the forest.
“We have had partners who helped to sustainably manage the forests but the ability of the government to sustainably manage them was an issue,” he said.
Pouru said Japan’s support to PNG was a big intervention to help update the forest data.
He said in the course of implementing the project, it had help to bridge the huge gap we had.