Papua New Guinea’s forest is unique, because about 97 percent of the forested land is customary owned.
This was emphasized today at the official opening of the new National Forest Inventory (NFI) office building in Port Moresby.
The new office building was funded by the European Union through the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as its implementing agency.
The opening of the NFI building coincided with the launch of the National Forest Inventory Project and the REDD+ Monitoring web portal.
The aim of the NFI project is to improve the understanding of PNG forests for better planning and management.
The inventory project also aims to identify economic and social values of forests in PNG and to contribute to international actions to combat climate change impacts and biodiversity loss. This has been made possible with assistance from development partners.
EU Ambassador unveiled the plaque and presented the office building on behalf of EU to the PNGFA and the people of PNG. He said the EU is looking to continue its support for PNG in the area of forest management.
PNG Forest Authority Managing Director, Tunou Sabuin, said it would be good to have all key stakeholders housed in one location for better coordination.
EU is funding the multi-purpose NFI project with 5.8 million Euro (K18.8 million) and UN-REDD with US$2.2 million (K5.1 million) while FAO of the United Nations is providing technical support to the project.
