Date: 23 Jun 2009 Comments: 2 so far

The Government of PNG has established four “pilot” Projects under the  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for  Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) initiative and has confirmed their voluntary participation and commitment to real and measurable long term benefits of the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM).

In so doing, the Office of Climate Change and Carbon Trade was established, to facilitate the development of these projects.

The OCC has created a seven step process through which each Project must pass, to achieve independent verification and recognition by commercial interests.  To further enhance the validity of these Projects, it was decided to obtain dual certification under the VCS and CCBA protocols, in lieu of yet-to-be-established verification process for REDD, which is currently the subject of a some what heated world wide debate.

In a sense, what PNG is doing is to provide a road-map for the rest of the world in the potential development of the REDD verification process.

The most critical issue in each Project is the education and approval of the Indigenous Land Owners about the roles and responsibilities required to protect a Rain Forest against logging interests.  In this respect, PNG leads all nations, using a four level process of people to people consultation, which reaches into every level of every local community within every Project area.

To provide local authority independent of the PNG Government, and to ensure that the interests of the Indigenous Land Owners are protected at all stages, the final approval for a Project passes through the office of the Local Governor in each area, where the Project Developers must show that they have achieved the various stages of consultation, and have a legitimate right and mandate to act on behalf of the Indigenous Land Owners.

Once they have passed this stage, they are enabled to take their project to the OCC for endorsement.

Because this has never been done before, and because of the world wide attention the projects in PNG are attracting, the OCC has invited senior representatives from a recognized independent Verification authority to physically inspect and audit the processes used to achieve recognition of the dual verified carbon credits.  This is the highest level of verification any project in the world will have received since Carbon Trading began.

The issue is not about the commercial entities, the credits, the politicians, the illiterate and warped news reports, or the inaccurate and falsified blogs, or any of the thousands of vested interests vying for their 15 minutes of fame.

The issue is about keeping the Forests of PNG intact, and allowing the Indigenous Land Owners to continue to live their normal lives, while providing a carbon sink that could well help save the Earth from global warming.

And giving the Indigenous Land Owners a return for protecting the very thing they love the most – their forests.

When you talk to the People who own the forest, who rely on it and its biodiversity for their livelihood, you come to understand how tragic the rapacious logging has been over the years.

Millions of hectares chopped to destruction for short term gain by foreign interests, landscapes ruined for decades, and indigenous people disposed of both their livelihood and their homes.

The story can now be different, as illustrated by the 52 Incorporated Land Groups who own the 800,000 pristine hectares of natural tropical forest known as Kamula Doso.  These “ILG’s, as they are known, have formed themselves into a Corporation called Tumu Timbers, and have worked very hard for over two years with the OCC to produce the very first pilot project that is now being independently verified by both the VCS and the CCBA.

When this detailed and complex verification process is completed sometime in the next few months, it is expected that the VCS will issue on behalf of the people of Kamula Doso a number of Carbon Credits each representing one cubic meter of carbon absorption per year.

The process is very simple, and is as old as Time itself.  The trees, plants, and the biomass of the tropical forests pull carbon dioxide out of the air, and combine it with water and nutrients from the soil, and make oxygen, which is released back into the environment.  This natural process is called “photosynthesis”, and is the stuff of Life!

In the old way, the trees were willfully chopped down, and produced a small income for the local people just the once, but destroyed the forests in the process.  Sometimes it takes forty to sixty years before regeneration takes place to a sustainable level.  This means the forests are denied to the Indigenous people for generations at a time.

With the new way of saving the forests as a carbon sink, the people are well rewarded year after year, as well as enjoying the benefit of their forests remaining as they were naturally created for – to provide homes, food, and a livelihood for the indigenous people.

And to soak up the carbon monoxide created by industrialized nations like yours and mine.

If you can really find fault with the honest desire of the People of Papua New Guinea to save their tropical forests from logging, and help save the planet, then you are indeed someone who needs to take a walk – perhaps through the pristine forests of Kamula Doso, to see for yourself what we will all loose if the persistent attacks on the Indigenous Land Owners are allowed to continue.

For me, it is about the trees, and about my children being able to breath fresh air!