Trees improve degraded grasslands

By ZACHERY PER
YONGUMUGL sub-district is mostly limestone mountain areas in the northeast end of Chimbu.
The sub-district was previously covered by natural forest, mostly high mountain tropical trees beautified by other native plants growing and hanging over limestone cliffs overlooking fast flowing rivers beneath.
But there has been a rapid depletion of forest cover and the loss of local tree species over the years through small scale logging practices for sawn timber, domestic use such as fencing, house construction and firewood for households.
That, coupled with clear felling and intensive slash-and-burn subsistence farming practices by the locals due to rapid population growth has converted the area into bare grassland and regenerating seeds and stems were destroyed by frequent bush fires.
The entire Yongumugl area was deforested and is now a degraded bare grassland and there are no reforestation activities to rehabilitate and restore local ecosystems to support the livelihoods of the rural people or to sustain the timber resources and fuel wood for the future generations.
The availability of trees is very limited at present to meet the growing demand for timber.
The area is inundated with land and habitat degradation, loss of local ecosystems which reduces the quality, quantity and natural standard of food and water systems, because they all are weak and vulnerable, and lose their wholesomeness with high prevalence of water-borne diseases and malaria.
Prolonged heavy rainfall is causing major landslides and heavy soil erosion which destroy food gardens, cash crops like coffee and is also affect the feeder road network causing delays for service delivery and socio-economic activities.
These problems are real threats and are severely affecting the local ecosystems and socio-economic activities of the people, whose livelihoods are mostly dependent on the environment.
Voice of Yongos is a local community based organisation at Terebona Village in the area embarked for a community environment conservation project in 2009 with funding support from Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).
The group conducted community awareness to educate the people to change the habit of destruction to protection, promoting conservation and preserve use of natural resources.
A community Tree planting project was started in 2011 after the public awareness campaigns with initial funding support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) under its Small Grants Programme and the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust (New Zealand) to create a community-supported reforestation project that contributes to socio-economic and environmental benefits for the people of Yongomugl sub-district.
The project aims at planting 500,000 tree seedlings by 2020 to rehabilitate ecologically degraded grassland areas to create secondary forest cover to improve local ecosystems.
It will sustain natural food sources and water systems, timber resources for future generations, combat natural and man-made disasters and improve livelihoods of the people and provide small income generating incentives.
The community tree planting became a viable, simple, cost-effective solution to the much talked about climate change.
The battle against climate change cannot be won without trees; the more trees we plant, the more greenhouse gases are sunk into the atmosphere. It also contributes towards the reduction of climate related disasters.
Voice of Yongos has so far raised, distributed and planted 210,000 trees and the project is progressing well with 115,000 tree seedling currently in the nursery beds.
The seedlings production is the main on-going project activity and the project is rapidly expanding with a further funding support of US$49,0000 from the Small Grants Programme (GEF) in 2015 currently under implementation.
Another funding support of CAD$64,000 from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) from 2016-2018 was used to establish new nurseries, it increased seedlings production to raise, distribute and plant 500,000 trees by 2020.
Voice of Yongos’ dedicated community reforestation effort has earned the confidence of the PNG Forest Authority to recommend the project to the Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet) in 2017 for funding support.
Capacity building trainings were conducted for tree farmers and project staff on basic nursery skills and planting site management and to spread awareness to students, teachers and community leaders on sustainable forest management practices.
The distributed tree seedlings were planted on degraded grassland areas to create secondary forest cover to regenerate vegetation.
This plays a vital role for sustainable landscape management and biodiversity conservation because secondary forest provides opportunities for local communities to also access medicinal plants, firewood, construction poles, thatching grass, fruits, edible mushrooms and fodder.
The PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA) has introduced a couple of commercial tree species in PNG over the years to add economic value for local timber resources.
Tree species suitable for the Highlands region were Eucalyptus Grandis, Pinus Strobus and Pinus Patula which grow rapidly in moist and watery soil conditions. These are today the most sought-after hard and soft woods.
The demand is very high for both introduced and natural trees nowadays. People are concentrating on introduced eucalyptus and pines which are industrial hard and soft woods in high demand for infrastructure development.
As the end users are growing, the sawn wood demand is projected to double in the next 15 years.
From ecological perspective, these tree species can regenerate vegetation fast on degraded grasslands, enhance soil fertility and improve local biodiversity
Pinus strobus and pinus patula grow at a fast rate and are fairly long-lived trees that perform well in light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils, prefer well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. They can also tolerate drought.
The pine species improve soil fertility and local biodiversity and pinus strobus has chemical properties to heal fresh cuts and its leaves can be used as herbal medicine.
The project is in-line with PNGFA plans to replant 250,000 hectares of land in PNG by 2025 through reforestation and afforestation under its slogan Securing land, growing trees and manage them on sustainable level.”
It is aimed creating ecological, economic and social benefits through sustainable forest management practices.
The community tree planting project has provided direct and in direct benefits to some 15,000 rural people mostly subsistence farmers.
It becomes an integrated project creating incentives for local tree farmers to generate small cash incomes through bulb onion production to sustain their livelihoods while maintaining the trees as they need time to grow.