Forestry lacks data

 By HELEN TARAWA

LACK of data has contributed to PNG being rated at the low end in many of the indicators measured by international partners, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says.

Speaking at the launching of the K22.9 million National Forest Inventory and the REDD + monitoring Web portal on Wednesday, O’Neill said the country needed data that would give PNG good information.

“Many times we hear the United Nations and others say that we are not achieving millennium development goals and other indicators that they measure global growth and development of citizens in their countries,” O’Neill said. 

“We take it for granted that this is not important so we don’t provide proper data. As a result they measure us in a terrible manner. 

“We in our own mindset think that we are a failure, when in fact we are not, our children are being educated, our hospitals are working, our road infrastructures are improving, our airports and ports are improving so that our business centres continue to function.”

He said the inventory project is funded by the European Union K20.7 million and UN-REDD K7.1 million  totalling about K27.8 million.

The project is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation  (FAO) of the United Nations, with the Forest Authority as the Government agency.