UN supports ‘green’ plan

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday July 1st, 2013

 THE Climate Change and Development Office and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are  in support of Papua New Guinea’s Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme.

The signing of a letter of agreement   in Rome last week paved the way for the release of K185,000 in instalments by FAO to OCCD to develop PNG’s REDD. 

OCCD’s executive director Varigini Badira expressed satisfaction that the OCCD had achieved much in three years and established multi-stakeholder technical working groups on mitigation, adaptation, REDD and national consultation. 

“These REDD initiatives are the source of knowledge and technology sharing necessary to scale up REDD regionally, nationally and internationally,” he said.  

“PNG has instituted its REDD 

programme with the highest degree of professionalism and in this respect, the initiative is a model of sustainable management and with FAO’s support coming in. This will no doubt assist us to set up of our own credible system for the measurement, reporting and verification of REDD activities in the country. 

“These are necessary processes required to set-up the system which will be utilised to monitor our greenhouse gas emission activities,” Badira said.

The UN-REDD programme was set up in 2008 to help countries with tropical forests to establish a fair, equitable and transparent REDD regime.

The programme aims to support the Government to further progress its efforts towards REDD readiness and places heavy emphasis on the development of a National Forest Monitoring System and measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) for REDD for PNG as an important complement to PNG’s domestic climate change efforts. 

Its objectives is to ensure that by 2020 PNG will have an operational NFMS that will enable it to participate internationally in REDD systems.

Pest control … A GJW Pest management workman fumigating an imported container at Voco Point in Lae, Morobe, before the owner was allowed to unload the cargo.