Forestry to undergo review, says minister

THE country’s forest sector is expected to undergo a major review and policy change, Forest Minister Walter Schnaubelt says.
Speaking at Dami in West New Britain last weekend, he said: “In the last 46 years we have learnt not to repeat the mistakes of the past which had painted a negative picture on the forestry sector.
“We continue to export round logs without any focus on downstream processing which could create employment opportunities for our people.”
He urged the people of West New Britain to play their part as well.
“Don’t be observers. It takes everybody to contribute to achieve this goal.”
Meanwhile, Schnaubelt said carbon trading was an area that the government would tap into.
“Now we have heard a lot about the carbon trade covering our forests where we do not have to cut down trees.
“PNG does not have issues of gas emissions into space, it’s the larger countries with big factories that contribute to these problems.”
“These are the factors contributing to climate change and it’s affecting PNG as well,” the Namatanai MP said.
“It is oxygen and we need to conserve some of the forests but we must also practice sustainability.
“We just have to carry out scientific surveys to understand how much carbon is in the forests.”