Villagers get training to save mangroves

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
PUMA Energy is cleaning up the oil spill on mangrove trees at Pari village in Port Moresby.
The company engaged Professor Augustin Mungkaje, a marine biologist with the University of Papua New Guinea, to show locals how to clean the mangrove trees by pruning them.
Puma Energy general manager strategy and external affairs Hulala Tokome told The National at the village yesterday that most of the cleaning up of the oil spill had already been done.
“The mangroves have pretty much been the ones that have held most of that spills. So you don’t see most of them on the beach,” he said.
“That’s why for us, the focus now is to address the mangroves. So there is no effect on the marine life or anything like that. The sea grass is all green now. Professor Mungkaje is training the people on how to look after the mangroves.
“What he’s done is pruning and then allowing the foliage to come through and then pruning again. It’s going to be done over a period of time and in phases. There is a group of people in the community being trained on how to do it.”
Mungkaje said: “It took us about a week to realise that the trees will respond. A lot of shoots are coming out. So let’s allow it to repair itself. All we are doing now is giving it a little bit of assistance. If we leave this for six months, all these leaves are going to come off naturally.”