Villagers shut airport

THE Tari Airport was yesterday shut down by villagers who are demanding K17 million in compensation for the land the airstrip is on, The National reports.

The villagers took over the airfield yesterday and issued demands for the Civil Aviation Authority, airlines and companies involved in the PNG LNG project not to use the airstrip.

Planes flying into the airstrip were diverted elsewhere.

A Twin-Otter belonging to Airlines PNG landed with some goods for the LNG project site.

A Tari town resident said villagers entered the airstrip and told the pilot of the aircraft that he was not to return again.

Passengers with tickets for an Air Niugini flight to Port Moresby were asked to go to Mt Hagen or Mendi to rebook.

An upgrade of the airport funded by the Southern Highlands government has also been halted.

Deputy Prime Minister Don Polye last night expressed concern about the forced closure of the airstrip.

“Such behaviour of the villagers is always a concern for the government.

“Closing the airstrip will not solve any problems.

“If they have a compensation claim, they should bring it through the proper channel.

“If it is genuine, it will be given due attention.

“The government will always try to address land issues through the proper channel and the villagers and their leaders must recognise this,” he said.

Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru was not available for comments last night.

Education Minister James Marape, who is Tari MP, said there could be no claim to the land where the “old” airport was.

Marape said landowners could claim compensation for the land to be taken up for the airport expansion.

“The old airport land has already been purchased, whatever the purchase price was in the past,” he added.

“No one can claim for this. For the land to be acquired for the airport expansion, we will discuss land acquisition with landowners.

“Evaluation and surveying for this and Tari town development is underway by a surveying firm. No one should close the airstrip.

“It’s been operating for 58 years and people should respect it.

“I’m speaking both as an MP and landowner of the town,” Marape said.

North Fly MP wants new Ok Tedi mine extension agreement

North Fly MP Boka Kondra has called for a totally new agreement if the mine life of giant OK Tedi gold and copper mine in the Western province is to be extended from after 2013.

Kondra noted with grave concern that there were some serious outstanding landowner issues that should be addressed properly before the Ok Tedi mine extension.

He highlighted that important issues to be addressed and built into the new agreement should include:

         Proper genealogical survey with full social mapping identifying all landowner tribes in project and affected areas for adequate compensation, royalties and benefit sharing arrangements;

         18% share equity formerly held by Inmet Mining Ltd to be given to an umbrella company representing all local landowner and affected communities; and

         A comprehensive environmental impact mitigation plan with no further disposal of toxic mine waste, tailings and sediments into the already heavily polluted Fly River system.

Kondra said these were pertinent issues that must be addressed fully by Ok Tedi Mining Company, BHP, PNG Sustainable Development Programme, National and Western Provincial Governments and landowners.

"Ok Tedi is an ecological catastrophe," he said.

"There should be no review or 10th Supplement Agreement, but a totally new agreement.

"Failure to do so will fuel existing tensions and landowner concerns.

"My people's concerns must be addressed. If not, the mine must close in 2013 as originally planned."

His comments followed the recent announcement by Ok Tedi Mining Company that it was examining new pollution controls as part of a feasibility study for a seven-year extension of the mine's life.

Ok Tedi mine started producing gold and copper in 1987 and was originally scheduled to close in 2013, but the company was undertaking a feasibility study to push that out to 2022.

The new mine plan would see output reduced by one-third, to around 100,000 tones of copper and 350,000 ounces of gold a year.

Ok Tedi Mining Limited managing director, Alan Breen has said that the new plan would not be the same as current mining operations.

"It's open cut mining which is quite different to what we are proposing in the future," he said.

"The feasibility study that we are currently undertaking would involve the operation of two small underground mines which produce very little waste and an open-cut operation which would produce a significant amount of waste.

"As part of the study though, we are looking at designing and constructing a stable waste rock dump at the mine which would prevent that waste flowing into the river system so quite a substantial change from our current practices."

The extension would create 14 million tones of waste rock.

 Currently waste rock goes into the Ok Tedi River but Breen says he hopes that will change.

"We are looking at designing a stable waste rock dump which would prevent that waste flowing into the river system," he said.

Breen says more engineering work must be done to discover if is the dump is feasible.

Ok Tedi currently generates 20% of Papua New Guinea's gross domestic product.

With big new projects like the PNG LNG project not expected to come on stream until 2014, the extension of Ok Tedi will be an attractive prospect.

Consultations have already begun but Breen says the process has a way to go.

"The process as it currently stands is that our people are currently doing the environmental impact studies and we are well down the track with those, we are probably 75-80 per cent complete on those." he said.

"The next thing we have to do is complete them by the end of October.

"We need to pass this information on to the state and they will have a team of independent advisers who will have a look at the information we have prepared and they will make recommendations and assessments, and provide them to not only government, but the communities.

"On the basis of that feedback, the communities then will have a decision to make on whether or not they can live with those impacts. "

 Breen said the study was to be completed by November 2010.

The company expects to finish consultations with communities and the government by the end of this year.

However, Kondra said in view of the extended mine life, it was imperative for all stakeholders to establish dialogue for a completely new agreement if the mine is to be extended after 2013.

Utilisation of agricultural biodiversity in times of need

By JEFFREY WAKI and SENIORL ANZU of NARI

PNG has a taro dversity of over 800 varieties

The United Nations proclaimed 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity, and people all over the world are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss.

This is vital for current and future human wellbeing.

 It is a concern that is uttered everywhere that rich diversities in biological resources are being lost at an accelerated rate because of human activities.

This impoverishes us all as it weakens the ability of the living systems, which we depend on, to resist growing threats such as climate change.

The biodiversity that is currently utilised and which is continuously sourced to bring about increased dependence on agriculture is under the greatest challenges.

Climate change is imposing an unprecedented threat to livelihoods and food security with great impacts overtime and across diverse locations globally.

This will seriously affect millions of farmers whose livelihoods depend on subsistence agriculture.

The Tsukuba Declaration on adapting agriculture to climate change unanimously declared that throughout the Asia-Pacific climate change will significantly increase regional temperature, reduce water availability and erode coastal land as sea level rises.

Papua New Guinea is known to experience cyclic dry and wet periods induced by El Niño and La Nina, which can severely cut back crop production by reducing the duration of cultivation and increasing threats from pest and disease occurrences.

In subsistence communities, a single crop failure can spell disaster for farmers and their families. Already, there appears to be an intensification of pest and disease problems in PNG, including late blight on potatoes, leaf scab on sweet potatoes, varroa mites attack on pollinator bees and cocoa pod borer.

There are projected reductions in the length of growing seasons which could force large regions of marginal agriculture totally out of production.

This could lead to a reduction in crop yield of up to 50% in some countries.

Hence, adaptation strategies are urgently needed!

The PNG agriculture sector needs to mobilise, prioritise and allocate its resources in anticipation of the predicted calamities.

In response, NARI is currently executing a study to match seeds to the needs of farmers for adaptation in times of climate change.

 In this new initiative, agricultural stakeholders of PNG and abroad are focusing on matching local varieties of sweet potato and taro with regions in PNG that are under threat from the phenomenon.

Sweet potato and taro have been chosen because they are PNG’s most important staple crops and that National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) also conserves highest number under ex situ (i.e. away from their native habitat) condition.

Sweet potato alone accounts for 66% of total staple crop production in the country while taro receives first and second staple status in most coastal regions.

This research supported by the Global Crop Diversity Trust (a multinational organisation) is underway in PNG to screen highland sweet potato germplasm for climate induced stresses.

Other complementary work includes an ongoing project on sweet potato pests and diseases, and sweet potato post-harvest handling.

For taro, a NARI project is identifying hybrid lines that are resistant to leaf blight disease and the Global Crop Diversity Trust project is underway on drought and salinity tolerance in the lowlands.

The project titled ‘Matching Seeds to Needs: using locally available varieties for adapting to climate change and improving the livelihoods of farmers in PNG’ was launched in June 2010 in Lae.

 The activities will be undertaken by NARI and key stakeholders over the next three years.

The initiative is funded by Bioversity International- UK to the value of US$300,000.

The other partners include the Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA), PNG Women in Agriculture Development Foundation (PNGWiADF), and the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT), Fiji.

Under this initiative, the regions in PNG under greatest threat from climate change will be identified by using the global climate models.

Varieties of sweet potato and taro that are well-adapted to the predicted future climates will be matched to these target areas so that they can continue to have optimum yields under future climatic conditions.

Seeds of these adapted varieties will be made available to farmers through community-based seed multiplication and delivery systems with the help of local community based organisations, churches and agri-businesses.

With seeds adapted to their needs, communities at risk will be able to sustain agricultural production despite changes in climatic conditions.

By working with the partners, including local communities and women’s groups, the project’s activities will strengthen the resilience of agricul tural systems by identifying more stress-resistant varieties of sweet potato and taro currently being conserved to ensure that small farmers who maintain native staple crop diversity do not fall deeper into poverty.

 NARI conserves up to 1,500 and 700 accessions of sweet potato and taro respectively collected throughout PNG in various expeditions.

Under the arrangement, Bioversity will be responsible for climate predictions and application of state-of-the-art models for identifying well-adapted crop genetic diversity.

NARI will provide crop passport and other associated information, planting materials and field personnel in conducting the various components of the project.

Both organisations will be responsible for identifying the most useful varieties with participation from targeted farmers.

The CePaCT will maintain elite lines selected through this project and make available planting materials and information to researchers and farmers in PNG and other countries.

Technical contributions, including training will be provided through complementary funding from the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

The PNGWiADF will play a key role in ensuring the participation of women farmers while FPDA will link communities on a broader scale with their established rural network in variety selection and dissemination effort.

By improving the resilience and adaptation of agricultural systems in PNG, this project will safeguard both food security and livelihoods of local farmers.

Bewani project sets benchmark for oil palm development

By SOLDIER BURUKA of DAL

  

The development of the 140,000ha multi-million kina Bewani oil palm project in West Sepik province will set a benchmark for agro-forestry development in Papua New Guinea.

A woman performing a fire dance

Abau MP Sir Puka Temu described the historic signing of the project development agreement last Thursday as a major achievement by the local landowners led by Vanimo-Green MP Belden Namah and their joint investor partners from Malaysia.

Sir Puka, who delivered the keynote address at Waramei in Bewani, told the huge crowd that the proposed oil palm development was the biggest in the province and PNG and would bring enormous benefits and boost the economy.

Prosper Group chairman Tee Kim Tee is all smiles flanked by the chairman of four landowner companies and officials at the signing ceremony

 He said the landowners, community and province would experience changes in their living standards, with improved infrastructure and better basic services.

The Bewani project, covering some 139,909ha and involving more than 120 incorporated land groups (ILGs) is a major impact project.

The company plans to develop over 80,000ha of oil palm, making this the single largest oil palm development in the country.

About 8,000-10,000 people are expected to benefit from the project.

Sir Puka said PNG was blessed with vast natural renewable resources as well as non-renewable resources; however, it was up to the resource owners and their leaders to work closely to make these resources to become beneficial and improve the lives of the people. 

company and landowner representatives join hands to seal the agreement

 He commended Namah for his initiative in supporting the oil palm project and ensuring that development took place in his electorate.

Sir Puka also praised the developers for agreeing to provide several incentives as part of the project agreement package, including a 15% free shareholding for landowner companies; a housing scheme to ensure majority of landowners had access to basic housing; provision of subsidies for education, health and church; and establishment of infrastructure and other basic services.

Namah said the agreement was far more beneficial for the landowners compared to similar agro-forestry agreements in other provinces.

He called on his people to give their full support and effort and work hard to make the project a reality and more successful.

He appealed to the people to change their bad habits like drinking and gambling and to focus on getting the project up and running smoothly.

Namah also called on relevant government agencies and the provincial administration to give their full support.

Chairman of Prosper Group of Malaysia, the major investment partner, Tee Kim Tee, said it was a historic occasion for his company to join with Vanimo landowners to develop the oil palm project which would bring benefits to the local people and community.

The oil palm development will create employment opportunities, boost infrastructure and provide basic services for landowners, community and province.

The Prosper Group, he said, had over 30 years experience in oil palm industry with over 32 oil palm plantations, seven oil mills and bio-diesel plants in Malaysia.

The vast experience and knowledge would be put to use in PNG to plant between 6,000-10,000ha of oil palm each year and build four oil mills, making Bewani project the biggest and most successful.

This young lass was among hundreds of villagers who attended the ceremony at Waramei

 Anglimp-South Wahgi MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham said oil palm had great potential in PNG and foreign investors were welcome to invest, however, authorities must ensure that land and resource owners fully benefitted from such development.

He said PNG has many natural resources which must be used wisely to enable the people to benefit.

Provincial administrator Joseph Sungi said 140,000ha was a huge area for the oil palm project and would not be easy to develop.

He said the developers would require massive labor to work on the project.

 He commended all the parties involved for having confidence in the Bewani oil palm project and assured them of provincial administration support.

Big interest in beekeeping in Goroka

By TELLA LOIE

A total of 50 farmers successfully completed a honey bee beginner’s training workshop held in Goroka recently.

The bee farmers and trainers outside  Goroka council chambers.-Picture by TELLA LOIE

The farmers, both men and women from the Goroka district, have had no training previously while others were newcomers to the honey bee industry.

The week-long training was funded by Goroka MP, Thompson Haroquave, and conducted by the bee team comprising of team leader and Eastern Highlands provincial apiculture officer Tella Loie, Isten Hailans Beekeepers Association chairman Jonah Buka, zone coordinator/beekeeper Wilson Tomato, beekeeper Aya Sam and Department of Agriculture and Livestock acting programme manager Joachim Waugla.

Loie and the bee team, which has conducted similar training in Madang and Bulolo, normally train 15 to 20 people but the Goroka one was a big surprise when 50 people turned up.

The one-week workshop enriched those who knew little about the bees while others were very excited about the new concept.

The farmers were taught all aspects of beekeeping, from goals and responsibilities to knowing the hive parts, what protective gear to use against bee stings, honeybee family, how to get started to site selection, beehive management, pests and diseases, swarming and swarm control, queen bees, harvesting, processing, packaging and marketing.

One condition for the participants to qualify for a certificate was for each participant to get stung by a bee.

This was to see if the ‘would be beekeepers’ were allergic to bee stings or not.

Loie said it was the first time that an Eastern Highlands MP had taken the lead to fund beekeeping training.

The MP had also funded a similar training programme on how to grow African yams, an initiative to prepare for the 2012 drought.

Loie urged other MPs to do likewise and fund farmer training programmes in various agricultural activities.

 Participants expressed their gratitude and appreciation to Haroquave for his foresight and vision for the people of Goroka.

Pulex Oti from Hegu village, Kabiufa, said beekeeping could be fun, enjoyable and very challenging if one was serious about it.

Pulex started beekeeping in 2003.

He currently owns 40 beehives.

He sells his honey to New Guinea Fruit Company based in Goroka.

He said the current price for the honey was K9 –K10/kg.

Oti appealed to participants to take beekeeping seriously as it was an impact project and fitted in well into the subsistent way of life.

Buka, on behalf of the participants, thanked Haroquave and the district administration for the commitment towards the training.

He said that the MP had purchased 120 beehives, a honey extractor, protective gear and others.

 He also thanked the bee team for giving the participants life skills training.

Lae farewells Kingal

No public viewing after body ‘had been outside for more than 72 hours’

By RIGGO NANGAN

The casket containing the remains of Joseph Kingal at the funeral service in Lae, Morobe, yesterday afternoon

THOUSANDS of Lae residents flocked into the Sir Ignatius Kilage stadium yesterday afternoon to farewell evangelist Joseph Kingal, The National reports.

The people were not allowed to view his body because it “had stayed out for more than 72 hours” after he died when his Toyota troop carrier flipped over four times at Mutzing on the Highlands Highway on Oct 18, officials at the funeral said.

The Joseph Kingal Ministry’s board had kept him at their headquarters at Omili and “petitioned God to return his spirit or give them a sign”.

Church officials did not clarify whether they had received any sign.

His white casket was surrounded by his wife Susan and children Shekiana, 14, Jordan, 10, Joshua, 8, and four-year-old Elshadai. All the children did not show any signs of injury.

Shekiana climbed steadily to the stage and delivered a poem she had written for her father while her mother sat with her head in a scarf under a tent nursing a broken arm and a strapped ankle.

Dignitaries, including Morobe Governor Luther Wenge and Dei MP Puri Ruing, were allowed to lay wreaths along with hundreds of other mourners.

The funeral costs, from the staging at the stadium to the flights to Port Moresby today and then Mt Hagen on Wednesday, were met by the Morobe provincial government.

Wenge’s reason: Kingal had started and based his ministry in Lae.

“Even though he was a Western Highlander, he was a true son of Morobe.

“We, Morobeans, had taken the Good News to the highlands, but he had brought it back to us and taken it abroad.”

Wenge also delivered a cheque for K10,000 to Kingal’s wife to cover costs.

Kingal was born to Tengi Koka and Kimnistengi in Gumanch village, Dei council area of Western Highlands, on Nov 25, 1969.

While still a student at Unitech in 1990, he was baptised at the Bumbu River and was said to have received a prophetic vision to preach the Word of God.

From 1996 to 2004, Kingal moved between settlements in Lae preaching God’s messages. It was during the time in the settlement ministering that he started focusing on ministering abroad.

With help of business friends in Lae, Kingal made his first ministry abroad to Brisbane, Australia, in 1997.

His ministry bought off the old Tanubada Dairy Product facilities at Ngamli Street, Omili, in Lae in 2004 to become the base of Joseph Kingal Ministry.

Ruing said on behalf of the family that they did not know how effective Kingal’s ministry had on people until the funeral where they saw people from all parts of PNG attending.

 “We, the people of Dei and Western Highlands, are surprised to see all these people here today.

“We can see the impact our son’s ministry has had on people,” Ruing said.

He said the families of Kingal were thankful to the Morobe government and its people for their generosity.

Ruing said his families and tribesmen dressed themselves in PNG colours to the funeral, instead of the normal body paintings with mud and clay, because the late pastor was a patriot and a Papua New Guinean.

A$24m micro-finance plan

By PATRICK TALU

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian government will support a A$24 million (K62 million) project to help rural communities in Papua New Guinea access credit and financial services, The National reports.

In a statement last Friday, ADB said the microfinance expansion project was  expected to generate jobs and boost growth in some of the country’s poorest and most isolated regions.

ADB said lack of access to finance is a major constraint to rural development in PNG.

It estimated that only 15% of the population had access to formal or informal banking facilities, and many parts of the country still used a non-monetary barter system for transactions.

“This project would help rural areas move from a subsistence to a modern cash-based economy and in the process it would increase incomes and reduce poverty by stimulating informal business activity,” Robert Wihtol, director general of ADB’s Pacific department, said.

ADB’s loan, from its concessional Asian development fund, covers 54% of the project cost of A$24.06 million.

The loan has a 32-year term, including a grace period of eight years.

Interest is charged at 1% per annum during the grace period and 1.5% per year for the rest of the term.

AusAID will provide a grant of A$6 million to be administered by ADB. The government of PNG and project beneficiaries will cover the remaining cost of A$3.09 million.

The project is due for completion by the end of 2017.

The project would extend and build on the experiences and lessons learned from ADB’s microfinance and employment project, also co-financed by the Australian government through AusAID, an eight-year project that began in 2002 and established a solid base for microfinance in PNG.

The new project would strengthen industry regulation and bolster the capacity of lenders to deliver a wider range of financial services and products in rural areas, with a focus on lending to micro and small enterprises, and especially to women, who struggle to access credit and income-generating opportunities.

“Making financial services more accessible to people in rural areas enables  them to save money in a more secure way, provides them with an efficient means of transferring funds for personal and business transactions, and allows them to borrow to start up a business,” Eugenue Zhukov, regional director of ADB’s Pacific liaison and coordination offfice in Sydney.