Nature park supporting SMEs, local farmers in Central

By CLARISSA MOI
THE Port Moresby Nature Park is supporting local farmer Tom Taha from Sogeri, Central, who supplies food for the animals at the park on a weekly basis.
A park spokesperson told The National that supporting local farmers and other small medium enterprises (SMEs) also aligned with the park’s vision of inspiring the guardianship of the country’s wildlife.
The spokesperson said Taha had been supplying fresh fruits and vegetables to the park for almost four years.
“The park is a charity and has always supported small medium enterprises (SMEs) and local groups, believing that this supports our vision in inspiring the guardianship of PNG’s wildlife,” the spokesperson said.
“If we are able to support local farmers, then we can, in turn, hopefully, support them to not turn to other activities like wildlife hunting and poaching for income.
“In addition to supporting local farmers, we also support a number of local artisans by buying crafts directly from them that we can sell in our gift shop.”
The spokesperson said that prices depended on what Taha was able to grow and he sets the prices based on size.
“He also supplies kunai grass when we need to re-thatch our picnic huts and seedlings.
“Tom always rises to the challenge.
“We also chose to buy our fruit and vegetables from Gordon market to support local growers.”