Unanswered carbon trade questions

The National Weekender
ENVIRONMENT
A tribe’s quest to tap into the complex world exchange of standing trees for gas emissions

By GODFRIED ANGI
THE natural setting of this area is a real blessing from God who surely had a great hand in creating the place with an abundance of resources.
It is resource-rich and the people themselves are very hard working. It is rich in biodiversity with rolling lowland tropical rainforest right up to the foothills of Maramuni in Wabag, Enga. The area boasts an abundance of abundance of betel nut trees, coconut and sago palms. They grow wild like in plotted out plantation version of farming. It is also home to other cash crops such as cocoa and vanilla.
The society is patrilineal and live in family units making up clans organised into tribal groups. There is no chieftaincy like in many societies of Papua New Guinea but society is ruled and controlled by tribal warlords. The two major languages spoken are Mundugumua and Kenning along with other minor languages aside from English and Tok Pisin.

Project location and the the greater Sepik Plains. Yuat river (seen in foreground) flows into the Sepik near Angoram district station.

Boon Carbon Trade Project
Little known to the outside world a small group of landowners totaling approximately 1,000 members have taken a step forward to participate in a carbon trade project to trade in the Voluntary Carbon Trade Market. Landowners are from three clans of Taheart, Yausak and Yabilu of Kenning tribe in the Yuat LLG of Angoram District, East Sepik.
The clans have allocated 50,000-plus hectares of undisturbed tropical lowland forest to be developed as a carbon trade project. The forest is to be used as a means of capturing and storing carbon, better known as a carbon sink. Yuat river is the same river that is identified as Lai in Wabag, Enga. The project is located at Bun Village in the Yuat LLG of Angoram District.
The proposed project is under forestry, sub-category avoided deforestation under REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and additional forest-related activities that protect the climate, namely sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks)Voluntary Carbon Trade Market. The allocated 50,000-plus ha is to be reserved for a period of 40 to 50 years with an option for extension.
The area with be under “AVOIDED DEFORESTATION” to engage in voluntary carbon trade. This mechanism, known as “avoided deforestation,” would benefit Papua New Guinea to voluntarily reduce its deforestation rates, thereby generating at least two positive impacts: (a) an increase in the financial resources available to curb tropical deforestation, with expected positive side effects on biodiversity conservation, the environmental services provided by these forests, and sustainable development as a whole; and (b) a greater effectiveness of the global fight against climate change, because tropical deforestation contributes extensively to world carbon emissions.
The landowner company is yet to be registered with the Investment Promotion Authority. The company;

Funds and technical expertise
Designing and developing a carbon trade project takes a long time, requires a lot of technical expertise and considerable financial resources for the initial set-up. The project now faces the most challenging issue for its design and execution. Although the land available has been identified, with the Landowners Corporation and willingness to participate, they are left without funds and technical expertise available. The two items will either make the project or break it.
The landowners do not have the technical expertise and the funds available to set-up the project. Searching for technical expertise and finance assistance has been fruitless in PNG. The search has been extended off-shore and little success has been gain however pending further negotiations. Two off shore companies has express interest however their scope of assistance is limited as no funds are available for in country (PNG) registration. The project needs funds to complete the registration requirements of the Government of Papua New Guinea.

Rationale
To develop this project will enable a multitude of benefits for the landowners, the provincial government, the national government and the global community. The project will provide cash economy to the landowners and taxes to the government and will contribute to global climate action on reduction of Green House Gases. To the landowners, climate change is the least they can contribute. This project is a way of live that matters most to their lives and welfare of their families. It means improved living standards, school fees for their children, access to better health services, improved dietary habits and money to buy other necessities.

Transporting goods and passengers along the Yuat, a tributary of the Sepik.

PNG Government assistance
What is the level of support by the Papua New Guinea Government through its agencies such as the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority, Climate Change Development Authority and the Forestry Department? If you ask me, there is nothing for you at any of these government institutions and agencies. Every time you go seeking help, you are met by cold-faced officers who seek every available opportunity in what you are presenting to turn you away. What kind of government is this? Is it for the people of all categories?
The only thing they are good at is feeding you with information on the acts, regulations, policies and moratoriums. Unknown to you they are already getting ready to go on another climate change conference of and or other related meetings.
Why can’t they use some of that money to assist small rural people like us working on projects such as carbon trade which is more than justifiable rather than wasting money attending these meetings and not practicality transforming the resolutions taken at international meetings into action at the country level.
Who are we the small and minority of no bodies in the wilderness of PNG making commitment to assist the government to implement those undertakings? You don’t stand a chance as it is a waste of time to seek government assistance for it is not there for you. You either waste your time seeking assistance that will never come or resort to logging and forest destruction.

My story
Hear my story and learn from my experience. I have been given the responsibility by the landowners of the Boon Carbon Trade Project as the project manager.
Their choice for my selection is based on two reasons. The first is that I am a member of one of those clans involved in the project and the second is my educational qualification and experience in climate change issues. They see me as their salvation to drive that project through and deliver the goods to them.
Unknown to them is my most frustrating and difficult search for funds and technical assistance. I have been to relevant government departments and agencies seeking assistance but now regret having gone there. It was a mistake.
I made attempts at aid agencies but the answer has been negative. They don’t have any funding for such a project which is out of their scope of funding.
Well, if that is the case then stop preaching about climate change issues and let those small unfortunate and marginalised people harvest the forest resources for whatever reason they deem necessary. After all it is their forests and trees and who are you to stop them for doing so when you can’t even assist them and provide alternatives?
There is an intense level of expectation by the landowners for me to deliver them their project, hence money for school fees for their children and hope for a better future. They see me as their hope for a better life for them now and for their children and future generations.
How much I can do, I keep thinking to myself. Why did I ever accept the responsibility in the first place?
I was freely running around sleeping in friends’ houses having left formal employment nine years ago without anything to show for the 22 years I had served the Government and the people of Papua New Guinea.
Whichever way I consider my misfortune, I have to keep going as I owe these people for all the sacrifices and their struggles in caring and educating me to become a trained environmental scientist. I was their pride, they gave me the love, care and whatever little they had in sending me to gain that qualification.
But what did I give back to them for all their struggles, their sweat and tears and their dreams of a better life? I failed my responsibility and the trust they had in me when I worked for those 22 years.
It is for these reasons that I have to deliver their project or at least try to compensate them for caring and educating me. I am no Bill Gates, Donald Trump or James Marape, to work miracles for them, but at least it is worth the effort.
I am still seeking seed funding and a project developer to assist in formulating the project and prepare it for the carbon trade market. My search has been in vain so far but I am still searching.