By Christiane Oelrich Dec 8, 2011, 11:43 GMT
Madang - Married couple Gamauva and Kamsom Sagig were sick and tired of the crowded living conditions and hectic life in their village.
They finally returned to their roots, to the jungle of Papua New Guinea (PNG), where Gamauva's ancestors lived for centuries.
From the clearing where they now live, at the Awame Creek, it takes one hour by foot over difficult terrain to reach the nearest settlement.
'But we only go when we absolutely have to,' Kamsom says, while her husband nods.
The two are around 50 years old - they are not sure. Their youngest daughter Anna, 17, lives with them along with 14 or 15 cousins, nieces, nephews and aunts.
The environmental Foundation for People and Community Development (FPCD) helped them return to the jungle. 'To know the forest, to care for it, to maintain the balance of the ecosystem, to fell trees selectively,' is how FPCD forestry engineer Brian Daniel describes its principles.
Forests like those in PNG are a key issue during the United Nations' climate talks in Durban, South Africa, which end on December 9. Some negotiators and climate activists are pushing for a higher profile for the REDD+ programme, which goes beyond the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation).
Some day, the Sagig family could earn lots of money through REDD+.
Forests absorb greenhouse gases blamed for global warming like a natural sponge, and the rapid felling of trees in the Amazon, Congo basin and other places allows more carbon emissions into the atmosphere. A considerable amount of greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere because their 'sponge' is disappearing.
Developing countries with rich forests are to be compensated for saving emissions by not destroying their forests, and by protecting and reforesting them.
The money would come from the emissions trade or from a fund financed by large carbon-emitting countries. Germany, for example, has set aside 30 per cent of the 1.26 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars) it is contributing to poor countries for adaptation and mitigation to be spent on REDD+.
However, there is controversy over how the projects should be implemented. How is it possible to make sure that REDD-protected forests are not logged?
'I fell trees only when I have a proper order,' Sagig says. The FPCD, which manages contacts to the dealers, helped him purchase a small sawmill with a micro loan.
That way, Sagig can saw the lumber down himself and get higher prices for it. 'In five years, I have paid everything back,' said the man, who gets up to 1,000 kinas (490 dollars) for a cubic metre of the up-to-20-metres tall merbau tree.
PNG's forests are being looted for their logs at a dizzying speed. In Ramu, a region about four hours away from Madang, the Malaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau has acquired several logging concessions at more than 100,000 hectares each.
'It is the last easily accessible jungle in the province. In 10, 15 years, it will all be gone,' Daniel says.
PNG has the world's third-largest tropical rainforest after Brazil and Indonesia. More than two-thirds of the country is still covered in forests. Some 15 per cent has disappeared since the early 1970s, according to satellite studies conducted by Phil Shearman, a lecturer at Papua New Guinea University.
Since 2003, the government has made 5.2 million hectares of land available for plantations. That is 11 per cent of the territory, and includes half of the accessible forest, the environmental group Greenpeace calculates.
Authorities are generous with licences, though 97 per cent of the forests belong to the 6.6 million residents who have been living there for generations, according to the constitution.
In June 2011, the Malaysian logging firm Concord Pacific was ordered to pay 225,5 million kinas in compensation to four tribes for illegal logging in western province. But the licence ran out, the firm is gone - and the victims will probably never see the money.
The PNG government established a climate change agency to coordinate the CO2 trade, but its activities were marked by scandal and corruption.
In October 2010, Greenpeace awarded PNG a 'golden chainsaw' for 'asking for REDD money whilst continuing with rampant logging, failing to respect indigenous rights and denying NGO input into REDD discussions.'
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