Alien Invasion

The influx of Asians into PNG has been increasing steadily for the last two years. It is very difficult and often a lengthy process to get work or entry permits, visas and residency in other countries, even in Asian countries. But that is not the case in PNG especially with Asians.

The Somare Government made it very difficult for Papua New Guineas to get or renew their Passports. There are a lot of hassles one has to go through before obtaining one and in most cases, a document called “Certificate of Identity” is issued, instead of a real Passport. The Department dealing with the issuing of passports and entry permits is clouded with corruption as government officials are seen to proceed with processes on time if one uses the “master key”- bribe. There are agents who deal with passports, visas and permits, however, the charges are way to the roof.

Furthermore, there are number of applications for permanent residency by expats who have committed their lives in service to this country in private, public or the religious sector, but have been backlogged over the years. But that is not the case with Asians, they seem to have no problems obtaining PNG Passports, Entry Permits, etc. 

The Alien Invasion into Madang has been very phenomenal. For every single flight from Port Moresby into Madang, they (Asians) occupy 70 percent of the seats daily. No one knows whether they are coming in as workers for the Ramu Nickel Mine or the RD Tuna Cannery, or the Logging Companies or the Propose Pacific Marine Industrial Park or just aliens looking for a peaceful place to settle.  You don’t need a statistician to qualify the alien invasion. WE ARE BEING INVADED BY ALIENS and the sad thing is that, the Somare Government is seen to be facilitating that BY NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. If the Government has a different criterion for incoming Asians, we demand to know.

Those who are staying in Port Moresby can visit the Jacksons International Airport and for those who are staying in Madang can visit the Madang airport and judge for yourselves who are the human species that dominates the incoming flights.

This is not a racist propaganda, but this invasion is uncalled for. The entry permits has to be standardized and no special preferences should be given to a certain human species. It is simply biology that any invasive species that is not carefully monitored and controlled could potentially dominate and overpower the common species and take over.

Christmas Gift from "Santa Claus" Somare

                                                    

Oh oh oh oh! It’s Christmas! Monday 23 of November 2009, Somare Government’s extravagant purchase of the Falcon 900 X aircraft cost US$40 million (K112 million) landed at the Jackson’s International Airport. Despite many opposition, the government went ahead and bought this expensive jet.

An early Christmas Gift from the public purse, this jet will service a very few privileged who sit at the top of the pyramid at the expanse of the almost 7 million people of Papua New Guinea.

The Somare Government saw itself fit to deploy such an expensive expenditure in the height of the worst state of health, education and infrastructure conditions in the country since independence.

Hospitals, clinics and aid posts in rural areas have no medicine, schools have no proper classrooms, broken desks no learning materials, poor living conditions for teachers etc. Roads and bridges, the bloodline for the movement of goods and services into rural communities have deteriorated into unimaginable standards. Yet the Somare Government saw it so wise to purchase this fancy aircraft.

No doubt, it is very clear that, Papua New Guineans, your health and your children’s health, and your children education is not important as far as the Somare Government is concerned. It does not even care about the basic infrastructures crucial for servicing rural communities. This government is "Robbing the Poor  & Serving the Rich". Is this the kind of government the people of PNG deserve?

Now it is more convenient for Somare and his boys to do business deals and agreements in the skies.

Copy of Mekere’s speech at EFF's 10th Anniversary Dinner

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
Parliament House, Waigani, National Capital District
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Ph 3277 631 Fax 3277 632

Corruption, Civil Society and Good Governance
10th Anniversary Dinner – Eco-Forestry Forum
19th November 2009, Crowne Plaza, Port Moresby

Thank you Ken, Board Members, Thomas, Effrey and members of the Eco-Forestry Forum for inviting me to speak at your 10th anniversary dinner. It is an honour and a privilege.

I am disappointed that my co-guest speaker, Tos Barnett could not be here. Apart from my missing out on catching up with an old friend, reminiscing about the satisfaction and fun we had working to put in place good systems and structures of government in the early days of Independence, we will all miss the story Tos might have told us tonight. The Forestry Inquiry that he chaired uncovered the first big cases of corruption in PNG.

The Inquiry report documented what Tos described as “widespread malfeasance” - pervasive bribery and corruption; large-scale transfer pricing resulting in the loss of millions of dollars of export income, government revenue and royalties; non-compliance with regulations; extensive violation of landholders’ rights; and serious environmental destruction. The industry was, in Barnett’s words, “out of control”.

Let’s for a moment reflect on the pre-Barnett Inquiry era of the 1970s and 80s, and then what followed.

Before the exposures of the Barnett Inquiry, we had seen some questionable land deals, some petty embezzlement, the famous public service Diary affair, and misuse by some ministers of sectoral funds, soon known by all as “slush funds”.

But in those days, the total amount in a slush fund was at most one hundred thousand kina, for the whole country. Now, each Member of Parliament is in control of millions of kina every year. In those days, we did not have procurement and payment officers of government departments and companies fixing their own deals on each item procured or paid for. We did not have political parties controlling Supply and Tender Boards. We had proper contractual processes and checks and balances that largely worked, and protected the integrity and transparency of the system.

We did not have trust accounts with billions of kina stashed away, and Ministers roaming the countryside manually writing cheques and dishing them out as if the funds were their private savings. We did not have government agencies like IPBC hoarding and spending revenue that belongs to the state, to the people of Papua New Guinea. We had an Ombudsman Commission that took action; and Police Commissioners and Public Prosecutors who did their work without fear or favour.

The Barnett Forestry Inquiry reported 20 years ago. To me it is a landmark, a dividing point in the history of our country. Because while at the time it had major repercussions, we did not seem to learn from, or implement, its excellent recommendations. It resulted in the dismissal of one MP, and the resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister, which itself led to the dismissal of the Governor General. Some administrative reforms were put in place, but the very clear and detailed evidence set out in the Report was not taken up by prosecuting authorities, nor did the structure of the industry change. Those described by Tos as “robber barons” were soon at work again.

How PNG has changed in the 20 years since the Barnett Report. What was then a total scandal seems monkey compared with what is going on today. Corruption now pervades all sectors of government. In turn it has spread to the private sector; it affects every one of us in our daily lives. A friend, a very big businessman who grew up here and knows the country inside out, recently made the comment to me that it is very difficult to do honest business in PNG these days. And sadly, he is right.

In 1999, when my government came to power, there was so much to do. The country was virtually bankrupt and the kina on the verge of inconvertibility. Decision-making had been high-jacked by people outside Government. My focus of attention had to be on re-establishing an orderly process of decision-making based on process and professional advice, on stabilising the economy and government finances, on reforming the financial sector, and laying the foundation for both sustainable economic growth and for major reform of the public sector. In short, it was a period of reconstruction and rehabilitation for development.

In the three short years I had, there simply was not enough time to undertake all the reform necessary in different sectoral areas. For forestry, all I could do was to impose a moratorium on all new licences, increase taxes on timber exports (especially on logs), extend the SGS monitoring and checking of exports – and appoint the Eco-Forestry Forum to the National Forestry Authority Board. Discussions were advanced with the World Bank to fund a comprehensive review of the structure of the industry, an audit of all existing licences, a review of the fiscal regime for forestry and, most importantly, a stock-take of the remaining forest resource so that a Plan for a sustainable industry could be laid. Interim studies were completed, but not yet translated into law.

One of my greatest regrets in not being returned to power in 2002 was that I did not have the opportunity to undertake these more complex reviews and reforms.

Instead, the first thing the Somare Government did was to ingratiate itself to the forestry companies by reducing export tax. The moratorium on new licences was lifted. Section 59 of the Forestry Act, which provided for consultation with landowners on matters relating timber permits was repealed in 2005, and the Eco-Forestry Forum was removed from the Board to make way for a ministerial appointee. The Somare Government has conducted no audit of existing leases, to determine whether licence holders have fulfilled conditions of licences or not. There has been no analysis of ownership of forestry leases, to determine the real structure and ownership of the industry. No plan for sustainable exploitation has been developed. No action has been taken against lack of compliance with lease conditions, against violation of labour and immigration laws, abuse of human rights, or environmental damage. No monitoring of reforestation is taking place; indeed hardly any reforestation is taking place at all.

What Barnett detailed 20 years ago is not only relevant today – the situation is a hundred times worse. The control of the industry by one company is even more concentrated; the connections between timber companies and those in power have intensified; transfer pricing is still rampant; the majority of timber resource owners do not benefit from the industry; the environmental damage from uncontrolled logging has magnified.

Tos Barnett described the political accomplices of the timber barons 20 years ago as “corrupt, gullible and unthinking politicians”. I am not sure that today they could still be described as such. Corrupt yes, but not so gullible, and not so unthinking. Corruption has become, as I predicted in 1994, systemic and systematic. It is deliberate.

Removing export tax on logs is a deliberate act by the Government. Syphoning off timber revenue to Singapore bank accounts is a deliberate act. Corruption in forestry and throughout Government is systemic and systematic.

Every day we see it: politicians walking around with bagfuls of cash; their conspicuous spending on cars, houses, travel, gambling, women and drinking. We have a Prime Minister buying a private jet to spin around the world to sell more carbon credits; a Prime Minister negotiating to buy a satellite from India costing billions of kina; Ministers selling state assets cheaply, like the state’s shares in Oil Search; while children are not at school, aid posts are closed, health centres have no medicine, and roads have potholes like craters. It is all before our eyes. Who is taking action?

One shining light in this sad story of neglect and corruption is you, the Eco-Forestry Forum. You have shown through word and deed the importance of civil society in the quest for good governance. You actively engage in policy discussion, on forestry, environmental issues, on emissions reduction, carbon trading and on human rights. You campaign against illegal logging, and campaign for sustainable eco-forestry development. You involve landowners and rural communities in your work. You have taken the Government and companies to court, culminating in the landmark victories over Kamula Doso and East Awin. You have filed a constitutional reference challenging the validity of the Timber Permits Validation Act 2007 – another deliberate act by the Somare Government in support of questionable forestry activities.

You have a major role to play right now to protect forest resource owners from being seduced by the carbon credit cowboys who are carrying around their permits signed by the Prime Minister and his colleagues in the Kitchen Cabinet. What a paradox. On the one hand the Prime Minister, outriggered by his American and Italian logs, champions the REDD cause, while allowing uncontrolled exploitation of our forests by timber companies. On the one hand, we champion REDD and wish to trade our carbon credits, but we have no legislation or policy in place. In the face of chaos, we are vulnerable to sharks as well as cowboys.

To counter this and other misdeeds we need many more organisations to join you and speak out, engage in debate, draw out alternatives and options, protest about what we know to be wrong, and demand appropriate action by Government. Business people, workers, church representatives, media representatives, academics, students, professionals, community leaders all need to stop taking a passive role and play their part as responsible citizens. It is only when the people hold a government accountable, that it will be accountable.

Accountability requires commitment from the top, the leaders, and pressure from the people. NGOs, working together, drawing strength from each other, can make a difference for the silent majority to be heard.

I congratulate you on all that the Eco-Forestry Forum has achieved in its first ten years, and encourage you to keep up your fight. I assure you of my support.

Thank you.

Mekere Morauta KCMG MP
Leader of the Opposition and Member for Moresby North-West

Shits & Ass Holes

What is the Grand Chief trying to hide?

The Government plans to disband the parliamentary bipartisan committee investigating the anti-Asian rioting in May. It claims that the bi-partisan committee chaired by MP Jamie Maxton Graham has lost credibility.

The panel is seeking to establish what triggered the May 2009 protests and looting of shops owned and operated by Chinese in the Highlands and Port Moresby.

We know that the Government initially tried to shelve the issue by not funding the committee, however the Prime Minister was pressured to make funds available. Now we learnt that the committee would be disbanded by parliament.

Why are we NOT surprised Grand Chief! It was Somare’s government’s intention all along to hide the truth about the anti-Asian riots. We know that Somare and his government are in bed with the Asian and they will do anything to ensure that this love affair is not disrupted.

Well the fact of the matter is that, MP Jamie Maxton Graham and the bi-partisan committee have uncovered some serious issues relating to the anti-Asian riots that may bring to light things that Somare and his government do not want the people of PNG to know.

It is a shame for the government to question the credibility of the bi-partisan committee who has done a commendable job to bring to light the causes of the anti-Asian riots. What is the Grand Chief trying to hide?

Somare turning PNG into a Casino

The Somare led Government has turned Papua New Guinea into a Casino. With the natural resources boom in PNG, we see more mining licences being granted, new areas turned into oil palm plantations, loggers penetrating new forests frontiers, commercial fishing and now the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) projects.

The PNG government is signing all kinds of deals in a very short period of time as if the whole world will end tomorrow. The way these deals are done is like a casino, and it is very clear the Somare led government and his NA ruling party are gambling the future heritage of this country.

Do we need to mine all the mountains, and the sea floor, log all our forest, fish all our tuna, and drain out all our oil and gas to be developed? Have we not learnt from our African brothers that once had all the riches but are now plaque with HIV and Aids, riots, civil wars, corruption and starvation? Do we really think we will become like the first worlds? Have we not learnt from the Bougainville crisis? Have we not learnt form the pollution of the Fly River by Ok Tedi mine? Have we not learnt from the experiences of RD Tuna cannery in Madang? Have we not learnt from the RH logging operations in the Western and Gulf province? Have we not learnt from the Oil Palm problems in West New Britain?

Make no mistakes, the deals the government is signing is selling the rich heritage of this country cheap. For instance, the Ramu Nickel Project in Madang. The Chinese state owned Company, Chinese Metallurgical Construction Company (CMCC) owns 85% of the shares; Highlands Pacific owns 8% the rest of the 7% is shared between the government, MRA, individuals and landowners. And on top of that, they (CMCC) are given tax holiday up to ten years.

No country in the world allows a foreign company to own over 50 percent of mining shares, it is only happening in PNG. For such deals as these who stands to benefit? Definitely not the country and not the people nor the landowners. Would it mean that those who are facilitating these deals and signing agreements are stupid? Or would mean that there are significant commissions for those who facilitate these stupid deals and sign the agreements?

The government claims that landowners would benefit from spin-off business and possible employment opportunities. This is just a cheap cover up, to divert people’s attention from the real issues of equitable benefit sharing. In fact many landowner company are still struggling to get contracts and employment opportunities are only low paid wages. Is this what we deserve?

Palm Oil will Never be Sustainable

02.11.2009
RSPO is Greenwashing
For copies in Spanish, Indonesian or Italian, please email unsustainablepalmoil@gmail.com
2-11-2009

Open Letter to RSPO and WWF

Palm oil monoculture will never be

http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/news.php

"CORRUPTION" - Masterminded

Many people talk about corruption and it is a major issue for many developing countries in world. Corruption is responsible for many run down government services, cheap selling of natural resources, ineffective public service, shortage of medicine, shortage of essential school supplies, policemen on payroll of companies and the list goes on.

Often, the focus is on the problems associated with corruption and the parties involved. However, this may not be the only face of corruption, there is another face to it that plays strategically and tactically behind the seen.

I read a Book about Nelson Mandela and the struggle for Blacks to have equal voting rights as the white minority. That book opened by eyes to see the dimensions of the masterminds behind the suppression of the blacks struggle. While the African National Congress (ANC) and their leader, Nelson Mandela were involved in International lobby to force the white government to allow the blacks to have voting rights, England was pumping money into the Zulu Party to oppose the moves by ANC. Huge amounts of money were also pumped into underground killings and riots which were published in International media to discredit the ANC and lie to the world that the blacks were not ready to vote or have the country in their own hands. This was uncovered by the Truth Commission who did an inquiry into all the riots and killing in South Africa prior to blacks being granted equal voting rights as the white minority.

I believe, the various riots and crisis in Africa are manufactured by masterminds of the governments of the first worlds who do not want to see these countries have good strong stable governments who can control the vast natural resources. The political instability and in fighting in the African countries makes it easier and cheap for their resources to be exploited.

To put things into perspective, for those our us, who have not fought for our independence, our colonial masters made sure they put strategic controls in place before granting us independence. We do not have civil wars in Papua New Guinea, accept for the 9 years Bougainville crisis, however, we are rated amongst the most corrupt countries in the world. Sir Mekere once said that "Corruption has been institutionalized". The Transparency International is yet to raise issues of corruption despite of many happening in the country.

Donor agencies such as AusAid are continuing to fund land development programs despite the fact that the Department for Lands and Physical Planning is clouded with corruption with missing files, re-zoning public parks, most prime commercial lands in urban centres and cities go to Asian businesses. Interestingly the donor agencies, including AusAid, ADB, EU etc are not raising any concern about corruption in PNG. They simply brush it aside as an internal matter. Don't you care that the money you are donating is going to the dogs? For AusAid funds, don't you care that it is the Australian Tax payers money thrown into the hands of thieves?

Well if they do not care than, it sounds like the situation when ANC was struggling to get the blacks the voting rights. So someone is masterminding corruption in PNG. The corrupt the government of PNG is, the easier to control and manipulate. I believe Australia is benefiting for the corruption in PNG, because if we have a strong, vibrant non-corrupt government, with the resources we have, we can be more powerful than them and we can donate to them. Who says No?

Green Revolution - The Capitalist Propaganda

The World Wide Agriculture Movement called the Green Revolution which took off in a big way in 1960's was the result of the research that began in 1944, when the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican government established a plant-breeding station north-western Mexico.

The success in Mexico led to the establishment of another plant-breeding center in the Philippines which is known today as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

That trend reduced the diversity of grain crops especially Rice and Wheat. IRRI took control of the traditional varieties of rice from the Asian countries, as a result, the local farming communities lost control of the seeds which are now kept in a giant genetic seed bank. The rice seeds released by IRRI, despite being labeled as the high yielding varieties are susceptible to pest and diseases and requires heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers. Also these seeds cannot be kept for replanting as they will not produce well, thus the farmers are required to purchase new seeds every time.

This is how the capitalist world have introduced the globalized food system through reducing the diversity of seeds and traditional varieties which are tolerant to climate change and pest and diseases, so they make huge profits from hybrids, high yielding varieties and genetically modified seeds and the agro-chemicals. The seed companies such as Mosanto are big players in the globalized food system.

All over Asia, the peasants are rising and mobilizing to deglobalize the food system to harness the diversification of seeds which are in the hands of the farmers and NOT IRRI or Mosanto.

The Green Revolution is a Capitalist Propaganda for a Globalized Food System control by the minority. 2010 April 4 will be IRRI's 50 years of capitalist globalized seed bank. The farmers in the Asia-Pacific region are raising one voice - SHUT DOWN IRRI, Deglobalised the food system, Hand back the seeds to the farmers. It is a crime to take seeds away from the people and make profits out of their poverty.

Gone off the Course

(Reflecting on PNG 34th Independence Anniversary)

When the children of this land sang the National Anthem and lift the black gold and red flag on September 16, 2009, there was a sense of emptiness in the song. The lyrics sounded foreign as it does not reflect the spirit of the people of this country. Rundown education and medical facilities, high school fees, high cost of living, poor infrastructures, corruption and the list goes on.

Papua New Guinea’s National Constitution developed before the independence in 1975 was based on five key pillars set by the Constitutional Planning Committee quoted below:

“We hereby proclaim the following aims as our National Goals and Direct all persons and bodies, corporate and unincorporated, to be guided by these our declared directives in pursuing and achieving our aims:

1. Integral Human Development:
We declare our first goal to be for every person to be dynamically involved in the process of freeing himself or herself from every form of domination or oppression so that each man and women will have the opportunity to develop as a whole person in relationship with others.

2. Equality and Participation:
We declare our second goal to be for all citizens to have an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from the development from our country.

3. National Sovereignty and Self Reliance:
We declare our third goal to be for Papua New Guineans to be politically and economically independent, and our economy basically self reliant.

4. Natural Resources and Environment:
We declare our fourth goal to be for Papua New Guinea’s natural resources and environment to be conserved and used for the collective benefit of us all, and be replenished for the benefit of our future generations.

5. Papua New Guinea Ways:
We declare our fifth goal to be to achieve development primarily through the use of Papua New Guinea forms of social, political and economic organisation.”

The PNG Constitutional Planning Committee in 1975 also had a vision for PNG quoted below:

“We see the darkness of the neon lights. We see the despair and loneliness in the urban cities. We see the alienation of people that is the result of the machine oriented economy. We see the true social security and the people’s happiness being diminished in the name of economic progress. We caution therefore that large scale industries should be pursued only after very careful and thorough consideration of the likely consequences upon the social and spiritual fabric of our people. There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that a significant number of people who live by the fruits of multi-million dollar multi-national corporations live in misery, loneliness and spiritual poverty. We believe that since we are a rural based people, our strength should be essentially in the land and the use of our innate artistic talents” (PNG Constitution Planning Committee 1975)

The Constitution Planning Committee set the development path for PNG and its people in 1975 through the national goals and directives and its vision.

Quoted below are 3 of the quotes of 3 famous PNG and Melanesian Leaders:

“All of us in Bougainville, PNG and Melanesia; and everybody in the Pacific need our land. Our lives depend on our land and our resources which are our wealth. What do we (160,000 Bougainvilleans) need the biggest copper mine in the world for?”
Francis Ona

“Do we really want to become a country of big cities? In all the 700 languages of our country we have never needed words for air pollution, for slum or for unemployment. Do we wish to build the kind of country that needs these words?”
Michael T Somare (1973)

“The concept of land ownership goes beyond human existence, for while a person is a transient creature, land is permanent, irredeemable and non-disposable. Land is the link between the earth and the sky, the sea and the clouds, the past and the future. Because land is eternal, it is owned in a sacred trust for the succeeding generations.”
Bernard Narokobi


Reflecting on the 34th Independence Anniversary of this beautiful country (PNG), it is very clear the country has gone off the tangent. The leadership that had the bright and sharp eyes during the preparation stages of independence in the early 1970’s have gone blind and lost vision. In a very short period of a little of 30 years, the country has been ripped off big time by multinational corporations and few corrupt elites of this country. The future of this country looks bleak.

Addressing Climate Change in the Global Village

Climate Change is generally referring to the global climatic condition which is now affected and unstable due to an increasing level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere resulting in Global Warming and triggering extreme and unstable weather patterns. Burning of "fossil fuels" such as coal, oil and gas which contains carbon is a major sponsor of climate change. Burning them releases carbon dioxide gas. Since the early 1800s, when people began burning large amounts of coal and oil, the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere has increased by nearly 30%, and average global temperature appears to have risen between 1° and 2°F.
An important role of Carbon dioxide gas is trapping solar heat in the atmosphere, partly in the same way as glass traps solar heat in a sunroom or a greenhouse. For this reason, carbon dioxide is often called a "greenhouse gas." As more carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere, solar heat has more trouble getting out. The result is that, everything else stayed unchanged, the average temperature of the atmosphere has increased.
These have further aggravated, sea levels rising, natural disasters, crops diseases and pestilences and food security concerns are few examples. These are huge challenges impacting global politics, economics, industries, science, technology, and social patterns and cross cutting across the developed, industrial and the underdeveloped countries.

There is scientific consensus that Global Warming and Climate Change are global phenomenon; however the mitigations remain a challenge because it is not a pure scientific issue, but a scientific issue resulting from main streams factors such as political, economical and social decisions and human behavioural patterns and thus consequently having a major effect on these factors. To address Global Warming and Climate Change would require a total overhauling from all these factors which is adding the complex icing on the already complex scientific problem. This remains a huge challenge for the global community.

The developed countries, especially the Europeans are driving global campaigns on approaches to mitigate Global Warming and Climate Change while on the other end China and India are hungry for more raw materials for their huge and growing industries. The developing countries especially those who are vested with reserves of raw materials like Papua New Guinea are sandwiched in the middle of this two worlds whether to continue in exporting raw materials or stop. For instance the PNG’s timber exports is now challenged to stop logging and engage in a new and fast developing industry – Carbon Trade through what is called “Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)” a mechanism devised for rainforest countries through the Rainforest Alliance which the PNG government is leading.

Carbon Trade is about buying and selling carbon credits. The emitter pays for the credits created by another through reduction schemes and systems. There are many talks and discussions around carbon trade and its benefits in PNG, however not much attention is given on Global Warming and Climate Change – the underlying issue. For instance the Government established the office of Climate Change, Carbon Trade and Sustainable Development. This newly established office advertised 67 new positions, of which 64 were designated for carbon trade and only 3 positions for climate change. In essence it means that the major function of this office will be focused on carbon trade which is in fact a market based climate change mitigation mechanism, in simple terms, focus is on where “money” is. Market based mechanisms refers to taxes, levies, penalties and payments for emissions produced.

Now this brings on another question – will market based mechanisms effective enough to mitigate climate change?
Yes market based mechanisms can contribute to that effect but can not be successful alone if other approaches such as industries cutting down emissions and changing social behaviours of the people are not seriously considered. These are more moral and ethical issues. Nevertheless, it is a general practice for industries and business to include all their production costs on their products mark up and the consumers ended up paying for the all costs in prices of goods and services. There will be a sharp increase in the cost of goods and services and place like PNG will feel the heat of rising costs.

One important fact people must know is that, the current status of the global climate is a result of impacts over time and it will not be an over night experience for mitigation results to take effect. That means the effects of climate change and global warming such as extreme weather patterns will continue until the equilibrium is reached. How prepared are we as a country to handle climate change induced disasters such as in the Oro floods, Land slides in Simbu and the sinking Carteret Islands remains a huge challenge.

A friend recently attended a faith based conference on Climate Change in Nashville U.S.A hosted by the Climate Change guru and former U.S vice president, Al Gore. This friend of mine described the conference to be scientific and technical. However, the experts recommendations include, clean energy, alternative source of transport, organic food sources etc. My friend told the conference participants and experts that 90 percent of Papua New Guineans do not own cars and therefore use public transport or walk, the Bougainvillians are already using coconut oil to run vehicles and more than 80 percent of our population depend on their land for survival thus eat organic food. This shocked many of those participants and climate experts who gave him a look as if he was an alien from a different planet.

While facing the tide of the new industries developing from economizing environmental services and the efforts to mitigate Climate Change and Global Warming, we need to;
Understand what the underlying issue is.
Analyse how it is affecting or will affect us.
Analyse what opportunities that are evolving as a result of the issue and how best we can benefit from the opportunities without compromising the efforts to address the issue
Understand that the West does not have all the answers in the world, in fact their model of development and economic growth have contributed to the global climatic catastrophe.
Understand that moral and ethical issues have an important role in Climate Change and Global Warming mitigation and not only market based mechanisms.
Climate Change has clearly defined the world as a “Global Village” in its cross cutting effects, therefore with the huge challenges facing the global village, the model communities need to take the lead in showing the way

Reafforestation escalating in the Highlands of PNG

50 years ago, the highlands villages were enclosed by pristine forests. Today most of these areas are covered by grasslands (kunai). There are many contributing factors to that, but the most evident is the high population growth experienced in the highlands in the last 50 years.

Quite recently, there has been an escalation in Reafforestation in the highlands region. Communities and individual families are embarking on major reafforestation drive and huge amounts of grasslands have been reafforested. Consequently, tree seedlings are becoming an emerging enterprise as not many people are keen to do nurseries. Two years ago, a casuarinas seedling was selling for 50 toea in Mt. Hagen, now it has gone up to K2.00.

Whilst admiring the initiatives taken by the highlanders, what is the motivating factor? Why a sudden shift of the mindset? It seems that, the promises of carbon trade have settled in well in the highlands region – Money speaks.

I do not want to discredit the whole exercise as I also believe in reforestation and reafforestation exercises because of the many benefits, however my concern is, will money truly come to the highlands as promised by the carbon trade maniacs? PNG does not have a policy framework for carbon trade, and the global community is yet to decide whether or not to include the REDD initiatives for carbon trading.

On the global perspective, by now people should understand that money is not the solution to the global climate crisis; it is the moral values that count most. Simple things like respecting your neighbour, caring for others, taking just enough, changing your lifestyle, and putting the people and the planet before profits matters if anybody is serious at all.