Papua New Guinea to take count of remaining forests

Forest in Papua New Guinea is not widely known to us scientifically forest inventory will  help us find out  more about our  forests  

By FIDELIS SUKINA

Papua New Guinea will be taking stock of the remaining forests in an effort to improve conservation and forest management.

Partners of the National Forest Inventory (NFI) project European Union (EU) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) converged at the PNGFA head office in Port Moresby, to launch a short film on the National Forest Inventory (NFI), which showed the progress so far on the 7.8 million Euro project (K22.8 million)

Minister for Forestry Douglas Tomuriesa said the Program was funded by the European Union and the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD Programme).

He stressed that the importance of forest inventory as a way forward for Papua New Guinea to take stock of the remaining forest resources.

“Carrying out a National Forest Inventory will ultimately assist us to plan for more sustainable forest management.”

“It is important to take stock of the remaining forest resources at no better time than after 40 years of political independence as forestry has been the main pillar in the countries Socio economic development.”Tomuriesa said

EU commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete acknowledged the country in taking the initiative for a forest inventory

“Why this is very important is because Papua New Guinea has more than 80% forest cover and 60% is undistracted however despite this the forest's are poorly known scientifically therefore the project is a fantastic opportunity to discover all these external forestry assets and to confirm the importance of managing sustainability for the benefit of PNG and the world as a whole, because sustainable forests are a key resource  for improving the quality of life.”Cañete said

Pacific Sub regional coordinator for FOA Gavin Wall congratulated PNG on their efforts to combat illegal logging by using the new National Forest Monitoring system

“My technical team at FAO headquarters consider the system as one of the most advanced and appropriate systems for UN-REDD participating countries it’s what forward thinking countries like PNG are benefiting from with partners who have the technical capacities” Wall said