Reforesting our barren hilltops

IN response to a question posed on the floor of Parliament, Forest Minister Belden Namah said he would find the funds to have people reforest our barren hilltops and valleys.
It is an idea that does not seem to have attracted too much attention but which really should be seriously pursued by both the minister, as a matter of policy, and by the Forest Industry Corporation.
While logging has made an impact on denuding our rainforests, it is also a fact that much of PNG’s forests have been denuded through gardening activities over the years as well as cutting down timbers to build homes, fences and for firewood.
Mangrove cover, in particular, had been lost to building activities along PNG maritime shorelines.
It would be an excellent idea to engage in reforesting our barren hilltops, our valleys and our denuded shorelines to secure an economic future for the people by planting forests of commercial values.
In just another 20-30 years, the nation could have a tremendous forest cover which would help restore ecology systems as well as affect rainfall and climatic conditions.
Such activities would also give PNG an immediate and important edge in the global carbon trade market by adding thousands of new acreage to the already impressive tropical virgin forests of PNG. 
It would further have PNG continue to lead the world in the fight against carbon depletion.
The world will obviously benefit from every ounce of carbon sucked out of the air by extra trees and help restore the ozone balance and reduce global warming.
Papua New Guineans will have trees on their land ready for sustainable harvesting within 30 years, thereby, creating a secure forest-based economic future.
Receding shorelines will be secured by mangrove forests which will also provide breeding grounds for fisheries, thereby, securing a marine-based economic future.
There are presently unrelated planting activities going on throughout the country but none on a sustained basis and, certainly, not on a national basis driven by government policy.
A new dimension will be added to eco-tourism for the future with guest houses and planned walkways and bird-watching in these new planned forests.
Landowners will benefit because they will donate land free for trees which will be planted at no cost to them but which will be theirs to harvest in future.
Schools will benefit from government or donor support as they will be the frontline of this entire effort.
An entire new category of foresters and forest wardens will emerge to train and look after the forests, boosting employment by tens of thousands of people.
Government will reap an immediate applause from the global community and it will have provided, for its people and itself, a sustainable economic project that can continue for centuries.
The government, through the ministry of forests, should adopt a policy to reforest the vast amounts of open spaces throughout Papua New Guinea and to plant mangroves on the shorelines of all our maritime provinces.
Finance for this effort will be enormous and must come from the national budget or from donor sources.
Such a policy, if it were adopted, will entail full participation by landowners who will voluntarily contribute their land for planting the forests. The grown forest will, in future, be theirs at absolutely no cost. For this one project, the government will not need to pay any money for using traditional land.
The Department of Education ought to be roped in and become an important partner in this project as all schools across the country should be engaged to become the planters and the carers of the new forests.
Government subsidies, as well as gifts such as computers for schools, will be offered for schools to participate. A new awareness and respect for the environment would be inculcated in students as a result and, even a new curriculum, could be developed.
The role of forest officers would be expanded and a new class of forest wardens should emerge to take care of and manage the new forests.