Oro leads sustainable natural resource management

June 3, 2024

31 6 minutes read

BY BARNEY ORERE
borere@spp.com.pg

The Sustainable National Land Use Policy 2021 aimed at developing the regional and national land use plan for PNG is coming on stream with a pilot program on the cusp of being trialed in the Northern Province.

A memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was signed in Popondetta, the Northern Province Capital on Thursday, March 30, 2023 paving the way.

In what has been hailed as a ‘historic first’, the stakeholders that are involved – Department of Lands & Physical Planning, Oro Provincial Government and United States Forest Service signed an MOA to seal the deal.

The signing ceremony took place at the University of Natural Resources Oro Campus, Popondetta.

It is anticipated that this technical cooperation among the Parties will result in increased success in sustaining PNG’s natural resources in perpetuity, recognizing the importance of the health of PNG’s natural resources for social, economic, cultural, environmental benefits among others for the benefit of PNG people and the global community.

LAND USE POLICY
The effort acknowledges the commitment and ongoing initiatives of PNG to promote sustainable natural resource management, the trial in Oro will lead to the Land Use Policy being implemented all around the country.

Oro has only one recognized protected area – the Managalas Conservation Area (MCA). Late last year, the Post Courier ran a series of three features in these pages to promote the MCA and the signing of the MOA significantly improves the Managalas people’s aspirations.

The United States Forest Service (USFS) will implement the sustainable land use trial through both national and sub-national approaches. The cross-cutting objective is to provide a platform and mechanisms for professional exchange of natural resource management professionals between the United States and PNG while fostering partnerships and collaboration between and among government entities and other stakeholders,
Several of the work streams to be implemented under the project will be in coordination and in collaboration with other donor projects.

The project approaches and objectives include:
 National approach and objective: Partner with National Government departments and authorities to support strategic development, coordination and capacity building for national initiatives
 Sub-national approach and objective: Partner with provincial governments, non-government and community service organizations to enhance capacity for monitoring, compliance and enforcement of land use and natural resource management activities and regulations.

The above objectives encompass working with the Department of Lands & Physical Planning and the Oro Provincial Government to implement the National land use Policy 2021 which is hoped to contribute to the overall development of the regional and national land use plan for the country. The land-use encompasses forestry, conservation, agriculture and physical planning among others.

The project is funded by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and implemented by the USFS within the US Department of Agriculture. It will end on March 30, 2004. But there are options to continue the technical cooperation into the future and venturing into other programs. It is the first time a government department of the United States is partnering with a government department of PNG and a province in PNG.

UNITED STATES FORESTRY SERVICE
The USFS is a land management agency with a pool of experts engaged in various aspects of forestry, natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, and disaster management in the United States and supporting and working in over 90 countries around the world.

As a land management agency with broad expertise in natural resource management fields, the USFS brings on-the-ground practical knowledge in managing natural resources for the benefit of people. The agency’s multiple-use mandate means that conservation goals are balanced with economic and development goals.

The goal of USFS programming in PNG is to establish a long-term collaboration with appropriate government agencies to support capacity development to strengthen land and natural resource management, environmental governance, and transparency.

MANAGALAS CONSERVATION AREA
Northern Province’s only recognized protected area; it is situated in the Afore Rural LLG of Ijivitari District. MCA was developed over 32 years by local landowners with assistance from NGOs and is PNG’s largest conservation area encompassing 360,000 hectares of tropical rainforest and land.

The local Managalas communities are protecting their land from large scale logging and agriculture allowing communities to use the forest resources and grow cash crops in a sustainable manner.

Northern Province is one of the least studied places in terms of biodiversity assessment. Most biological studies have occurred in the hinterland towards the Managalas plateau, the Kokoda area and Wanigela but the reports are scarce. One of the iconic species is the world’s largest butterfly, endangered and endemic to Oro. It thrives in the areas east of the Kumusi River across to Oro Bay and up to the Managalas plateau. The Owen Stanley Range is also a pivotal area for the archaeology of late Pleistocene occupation.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA
PNG has a landmass of 46.1 million hectares with 97 per cent under customary ownership. Currently 78 per cent or 35 million hectares of the landmass is covered by forest. Through this project, the USFS seeks to work with the USAID Lukautim Graun Project to support the Government of PNG (GoPNG) to implement and strengthen compliance with requirements defined in the PNG Timber Legality Standard including monitoring and compliance, and as required, enforcement.

This should assist PNG to broaden international market access for wood products and develop a trusted ‘PNG –brand’. It is also envisaged that this will encourage downstream processing.

The GoPNG has in place a national strategy for downstream processing of forest produce and a national reforestation and a-forestation strategy. These will drive change to reduce round log exports, encourage domestic processing and forest plantation expansion.

The forest resource exports of PNG are significant revenue earners for the country; K938 million in 2020. The GoPNG is focused on appropriate management as defined in the National Forest Policy 1991 and the Forest Act 1991 (as amended) and re emphasized in the Vision 2050, the Development Strategies Plan 2010-2030 and the Medium Term development Plan III (2018-2022),

DEPARTMENT OF LANDS & PHYSICAL PLANNING
Generally, land management in PNG is done by DLPP under the Lands and Physical Planning Act 1989, but DLPP only manages alienated lands. Given the sporadic development occurring haphazardly, DLPP is embarking on developing a national land use plan for the country.

In 2022, the National executive Council endorsed the National Sustainable Land Use Policy, an overarching framework to guide planned allocation, management and use of land in PNG. The policy was approved in 2012 but needed more regional consultation with landowners. The policy also compliments the Environment Act 2012.
ORO PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

Therefore USFS will partner with DLPP to pilot the implementation of the NSLUP by doing actual land-use planning in Oro. This will enable the Oro provincial Government to develop its land and resource maps which will be incorporated into the national land use map for PNG stored at DLPP and may include the provincial forest plan under the Forestry Act 1991 (as amended). Such initiative will enable Northern Province to become the green province in PNG and the Pacific, which is the vision of the province’s governor, Gary Juffa.

HISTORIC BACKGROUND
The Northern Province is historically a significant region in the modern history of Papua New Guinea. Oro Bay, also known as Dyke Ackland Bay, is the original location of the US army base during the Second World War where Allied ships were grouped. Three major battles were fought in places close to Oro Bay; that is, Buna-Sananada, Gona and Kokoda. The famous Kokoda Track, 96km long transects Northern with Central Provinces.

A small but significant agreement signing ceremony took place in Popondetta on Thursday March 30, 2023 to test the Government’s land use policy that was approved by Cabinet in 2021.

The policy – on sustainable land use and natural resource management – is to be trialed in Oro for 12 months with the assistance of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service International Program.

The trial program is a cooperative arrangement between Oro Provincial Government, USDA, Department of Lands & Physical Planning, Forestry, Conservation and Environment Protection Authority among others.

If successful, the methods will be introduced to other provinces.
During the agreement signing which happened at the University of Natural Resources and Environment, Popondetta campus, Managalas Conservation management delegate Damien Aseari appealed for cooperation from all stakeholders including communities on the land to give the pilot program the chance it deserves.

This was because the Government’s land use and resource management policy was at stake. The USDA involvement would provide the expertise to put the Government’s policy to trial. Mr Aseari said it was not about carbon trade.

The trial was being carried out in the Managalas area because Managalas has the largest conservation area in PNG that had been gazetted. The ceremony was witnessed by US Embassy economy chief Geoffrey Grimes and blessed by the Bishop of Popondota Lindsley Ihove. The agreement signing ceremony was live streamed.

USDA experts will arrive in the coming weeks. In-Country coordinator for USDA Biatus Bito described the agreement signing as a historic moment for USDA in PNG as it would be the first time to work with the Government of PNG.