Forestry can generate enough revenue to run PNG, says MD

PAPUA New Guinea’s forestry sector can generate enough revenue to run the country, but needs a proper accounting system based on the updated National Forest Plan (NFP), says National Forest Service (NFS) managing director John Mosoro.
He told his staff working on finalising the National Forest Development Programme (NFDP), which is a component of the NFP, to take opportunities adding that forestry was not only about timber but covered all other ecosystem services including the forest carbon stock as well.
He said water was a product of the forest system and could not be discounted.
“We can generate revenue from our water system, carbon accounting system, we can allocate one of our concessions purely for carbon accounting and carbon trading,” he said.
“This is the kind of thinking we must have to change the forest planning process in the forestry sector.
“I want you to look at the water system, ecosystem services, the carbon accounting aspect of the NFP and put it together.
“This is our opportunity to include all those aspects, but later on, we can develop specific accounts for the ecosystem services that we have.
“Think international, think about what’s happening in Australia and other tropical countries.
“Some don’t have resources like us, but they have the national accounting system, that includes their biodiversity, their water system in their National Forest Inventory (NFI) in their NFP.
“When people get the plan (NFP), they will think that it is only about forestry but they will be surprised that we are also talking about the entire forest system.
“We can emphasise on our core function of timber, and the resource we have, but we must link it to other ecosystem services that forestry can provide.”
The NFP underwent reviews, but due to the non-completion of the NFI due to funding constraints, it was never endorsed by the National Forest Board.
The latest revised version being 2012.
The first and only NFP was endorsed in 1996.