Promoting a clean and green Earth Day 2011

Bank South Pacific’s Go Green ambassador Rachael Sapery James announced today the bank will be promoting awareness and conducting Go Green activities to coincide with Earth Day Friday 22nd April, 2011.

Ms James at Ela Beach today to launch the activities she has planned for Earth Day 2011. She is pictured with children, who were enjoying the sand and sea. Ms James gave them a pep talk on protecting the environment. Photo by BSP Media 

Activities planned encourage students and communities to look after their environment and the world they live in.
Ms James will host Earth Day events in her home province New Ireland with students from local schools and surrounding villages learning the importance of Earth Day’s vision of helping the environment via conducting tree plantings and clean-ups.
Through such Go Green campaigns it is envisaged students and communities involved can spur others how strongly they care about the sustainability of the environment.
“At BSP we recognizs today’s students are tomorrow’s environmental leaders.
“We are thrilled to be a part of Earth Day, which is observed globally and to help students and communities understand the importance of our environment,” said Ms James.
Her visit to Kavieng, is part of her current campaign during which she has already visited Goroka and Lae.
She will encourage school students to plant one tree of importance on Earth Day.
“Students gain education and awareness and appreciate the importance of planting activities, importance of trees in our environment- through celebrating by planting a tree on Earth Day.
This will be an ongoing campaign as part of the Go Green initiative. Earth Day is observed on April 22nd every year and is a day designated for fostering appreciation of the earth's environment and awareness of the issues that threaten it.
Earth Day is observed in 175 countries globally. BSP recognises that many environmental threats and challenges cannot be solved in just one day. Longer-term commitment and action is necessary to combat these problems and restore the environment to a balanced, healthy condition.
The long term solution is to change mindsets and attitudes so everyone takes responsibility.
At BSP we are doing just that, with all our staff, including promoting awareness in schools and in the community.

Airlines PNG gets new Dash 8

AIRLINES PNG (APNG) yesterday announced a further expansion to its fleet with the purchase of a De Havilland DH8-100 (Dash 8) aircraft from Canadian operator North Cariboo Flying Service, The National reports.
These announcements come on the heels of the recently announced financial results for last year and the airline’s K27.2 million improvement in operating performance from the 2009 financial year.
The aircraft will be delivered later this month and will bring the company’s total Dash 8 fleet to 12.
APNG also welcomed back earlier this month a Twin Otter (TO) aircraft from maintenance in the US while another TO recently bought in January was due to enter service later this month.
This would bring the TO fleet to 10 aircraft and the total APNG fleet to 22 aircraft.
As the largest corporate charter airline in PNG, APNG flies contract charters for almost every major resource company in the country and is ExxonMobil’s exclusive fixed wing charter airline for the PNG LNG programme.
While this involvement in the major resource sector growth has fuelled much of the airline’s expansion, scheduled services continue to grow at an encouraging rate signalling the general improvement in business confidence in the country.
“We have been greatly encouraged by the growth in the market and the feedback received from our charter clients in particular,” Scott Roworth, APNG chief commercial officer said.
“The airline’s charter customers have no easy task in making air travel decisions which ultimately affect their operating performance and bottom line.
To have the lion’s share of the charter market is a reflection of the commitment we make to serving our customers’ specific needs and understanding their businesses. Our fleet expansion plans will further improve our customer service for charter and scheduled service passengers alike.”

Terror on South Bougainville

By STEPHANIE ELIZAH
CIVILIANS in the Konnou constituency of South Bougainville are living in fear as armed thugs continue a killing spree that has been ongoing since 2006, The National reports.
In a most recent spate of killings, two people, including a Grade 6 student of Ugubagohu primary school, are dead and another is wounded and recovering at the Arawa health centre.
South Bougainville police commander Paul Kamuai confirmed armed thugs fired several shots at civilians last Saturday, killing the two people instantly and wounding the other.
He said policemen were immediately dispatched to the area to protect the villagers and investigate the deaths.
Preliminary reports received by police said the gunshot victims were drinking alcohol when the armed thugs shot them in the head and chest and wounded the other on the leg.
Commander of Wissai Liberation Movement Philip Pusua, who travelled to Buka yesterday to report the fatal shooting, said no one knew why the latest shooting deaths had taken place.
He claimed the criminals were followers of former combatant Damien Koike from Mohoroi village in the Tabago area of South Bougainville and alleged they were led by Koike who moved into Leulo village indiscriminately firing shots at civilians before fleeing into the unoccupied Siniminoi and Tonolei jungles.
He said 23 civilians, including women and children, had been killed by Koike’s band of criminals in the Wissai area.
Pusua appealed to the PNG and Bougainville governments and former combatants in Bougain¬ville to protect the people of Konnou.
“I call on the government that we are not fighting a war or have a crisis in the Wissai Konnou area, we are being surrounded by a bunch of criminals, murderers, killing human beings in cold-blood, criminals who don’t have any desire for humanity, people who listen to no men,” he said.
“I want to appeal to the government or the ex-combatants to come up with an appropriate solution or action to address this lawlessness.
“I think it is time we draw a line between political issues and law and order issues, or should there be a law for our government in providing welfare and security for its citizens,” he said.

Somare:Abal will continue top job

PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare said acting Prime Minister Sam Abal will continue to perform the functions and responsibilities of the office of the prime minister, The National reports.

Rudd drops in on PM … Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare got a surprise visit from his good friend and Australian foreign minister (and former Australian prime minister) Kevin Rudd while in Singapore on medical leave. Rudd was on his way back to Australia from duty visits to the Middle East and Europe. During the encounter, Sir Michael and Rudd also discussed the possibility of the latter visiting PNG next month. 

“I have accepted the decision of the tribunal and have served out the period of my two-week suspension from office as prime minister,” Sir Michael said.
“The country is in good hands and, while I am pleased that the period of my suspension is over, I will remain on medical leave until further notice,” the prime minister said in a short statement yesterday.
Abal, who is Deputy Prime Minister and Works minister, had been acting since Sir Michael was suspended.
“I take this opportunity to once again thank all the visitors and well-wishers, including those who are praying for my return to good health and speedy recovery,” Sir Michael said.
The prime minister, who is on medical leave in Singapore, said he had been visited by friend and former Australian prime minister and now foreign minister Kevin Rudd.
“During this period of infirmity, I was fortunate enough to be visited by my former Australian colleague, and now minister for foreign affairs, Kevin Rudd, on his way back from an official visit to the Middle East and Europe.
“We discussed issues surrounding my health and the possibility of a visit by Rudd to PNG in May.
“I reassured him that he is a friend of PNG and we will be looking forward to his visit,” Sir Michael said.

Ex prime minister fights for resources

By JEFFREY ELAPA of The National
“TODAY, I propose to transfer wealth to resource owners, to those simple villagers who are blessed with owning a piece of inherited customary land, many of whom remain poor – so they too can enjoy a worthwhile, more satisfying life.”
So saying, governor of New Ireland and former prime minister, and one of the longest-serving parliamentarians, Sir Julius Chan yesterday proposed before a parliamentary committee to turn the mining, oil and gas extraction regime on it head.
He proposes, among others, to:

*Wrestle ownership of minerals and oil and gas back from the state into the hands of customary landowners;

*Devolve resource development powers to the provincial governments;

*Have local companies be licensed to explore and develop mineral and oil and gas resources with management rights extended to foreign firms if no expertise is found onshore; and

*Streamline existing state agencies into two so that one engages in exploration and extraction activities and another being an investment house.

Sir Julius, who moved a motion on May 14, 2009, for a comprehensive review of the Mining Act of 1992, said in a hard-hitting presentation that PNG was a country in “crisis”.
“If we do not correct some serious faults and failures in the way we approach the extraction of resources such as minerals, gas and oil, we will not only continue to fail to deliver progress to our people but will put the very survival of our country at peril.”
He said history had shown that resource-rich nations like PNG did not often do well while resource-poor countries like Singapore and South Korea do very well indeed.
He said this was because of the effects of the “resource curse” linked to resource developments, which drive up the cost of doing business in the country so that all other sectors of the economy suffer while only the resource sector prospers.
While the “resource curse” could be beaten, as had been experienced in other countries, it could only happen in PNG with a quantum shift in the way the resources sector was managed from the legal and policy framework up, Sir Julius said.
He said the past ad hoc and project-to-project approach should be reviewed so that resource landowners and the provincial government take ownership of their resources.
He blamed the current regime on no particular PNG administration but on a historical accident where PNG had inherited an Australian colonial legislation that discriminated against and took ownership of minerals and hydrocarbon resources from landowners and vested it in the administration, later the national government.
From then on, he said, it was “a story of ineptitude, ignorance, robbery and deceit”.
“It is shocking such a story can be told; even more shocking that it is the truth. But, it is the truth.
“We – the state, the people – have been duped. I know it is uncomfortable, but we must face the truth.”
Sir Julius, a former prime minister and the minister for finance, said ownership of the resources by the landowners was important for the equitable distribution of benefits.
He said PNG had been described as a “mountain of gold floating on a sea of oil”, but the truth was that the wealth of the nation was squandered and, in so doing, condemned our people to poverty while others prospered.
“Without mincing words, our country has been systematically giving away its birthright.
“That is not rhetoric; it is literally true.
“We may be pardoned for this at self-government, at independence but, after 35 years, we should have matured.
“The national government either does not understand or does not care that the way it has structured the minerals, oil and gas industries – indeed, the entire renewable and non-renewable resource sector, including fisheries and forestry – is not only wounding the people of this country, it is robbing the state of what should be its legitimate incomes for the development of the country.
“How has this happened?
“Put politics aside. We need to take a bi-partisan approach to correct our mistakes.

On a wing and a prayer

By MALUM NALU

Paul Gilma graduated with a degree in tropical agriculture from University of Vudal (now University of Natural Resources and Environment) in 2006 but unlike his colleagues, who settled for cosy jobs in our towns and cities, he answered the call of the wild.



MAF Cessna loading coffee at Owena

 This young man from Nondugl, in the great Waghi Valley of Western Highlands province, decided long ago that he wanted to work in the undeveloped rural areas of Papua New Guinea, serving the people that time has long forgotten.

Paul Gilma (left) with a village elder in traditional clothing at Andakombi

That dream came true when, after graduation, he joined the Coffee Industry Corporation in Goroka where, with single-minded determination, he worked himself up to the position of freight surety co-ordinator.

Paul Gilma...enjoying the call of the wild

This job is not for the meek or faint-hearted, let alone the conniving “paper farmers” of Waigani, as it involves travelling to some of the most-remote and rugged terrain of PNG, where only eagles dare, to ensure that coffee from these areas - that are off the government’s radar – gets transported to market.

Coffee at rural Owena awaiting airfreight

There is so much coffee in these forgotten rural areas, estimated at 700,000 bags or almost the entire coffee production of PNG, that just rots away because there is no transport to market.
When Gilma flies in on a wing and a prayer on a tiny singled-engined Cessna 206, flown by dedicated missionary pilots from third-level airlines like Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF), New Tribes Mission (NTM) or Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Aviation, he is in his forte.

Coffee bags being unloaded from an MAF Twin Otter at Aiyura, Eastern Highlands

He is feted like royalty and the locals – who see outsiders only once in a blue moon – cook up a feast for him.
He spends days, even weeks, with these people, organising freight of their coffee as well as carrying out extension work as he awaits the next available flight to Goroka, which no-one knows when will arrive.
He admits that sometimes, when he is with these rural people, he breaks down and cries, as he thinks about what we people in town have.

Paul Gilma...a true champion of our rural coffee growers

“Sometimes, when I talk to these people, I break down and cry,” Gilma tells me.
“Some of these people have never been to town.
“Airplanes are the only means of transport

Coffee growers listening to Paul Gilma at Andakombi, Eastern Highlands

“We, in urban areas, have access to so many services, and yet, we still complain.
“These little people also contribute to the economy of the country, through their coffee, and yet don’t complain.
“They are my heroes, my driving force.
“Sometimes, I feel that I want to buy a plane for them, if I have the money.“When I go, they say ‘bosman bilong CIC I kam (the CIC boss is here)’, and they cook so much food for me.”

Paul Gilma teaching coffee growers about pruning at Andakombi

Gilma’s anecdotes could fill a whole book.
“Once,” he recalls, “I flew out to Owena airstrip in the Obura-Wonenara area of Eastern Highlands.
“From Owena, I walked for a day to Aziana airstrip.
“I stayed there for two days talking to farmers, walked back to Owena, and from there walked to Tainoraba airstrip.
“I came back to Owena and stayed there for three weeks, collecting data and organising farmers.
“That was the whole purpose of the trip.
“Sometime later, I flew to Simbari in Obura-Wonenara, where the MAF plane left me, and I walked with a group to Norambi airstrip.
“Another time, I went to Marawaka.
“After that, I went to Andakombi, which is on the border of Eastern Highlands, Morobe and Gulf provinces.

Paul Gilma (left) with CIC service provider Ekim Ulato at the headwaters of the Purari River

“I went there and gave them two days training in rehabilitation and post-harvest.
“I stayed at Andakombi for one week and came back in an SDA plane.
“Some of these people still go about in their traditional clothing.
“Sometimes, planes don’t even land in these areas, and as a result, coffee just rots away because there is no means of transporting it to town.”
The freight surety scheme has the fully blessing of the CIC board and is successor to the former freight subsidy scheme, which was also run by CIC.
“We identified the need to help rural growers who found it hard to transport their coffee to market,” Gilma explains.
“The programme was first started in 1999 as freight subsidy scheme.
“Back then, the government funded the programme.
“At that time, there was also the ‘Green Revolution’, and PNG Defence Force aircraft were used.
“The government subsidised 40% of total freight costs, and 60% was met by the farmers themselves.
“This was done from 1999 up to 2001, but by then, the money was not enough to cover all coffee-growing provinces in PNG, so subsidy funds were depleted, and the programme came to a halt in 2001.
“In 2002, the CIC board reviewed the freight subsidy policy, and revived it as freight surety or revolving scheme.
“Under this, there was no 60-40; growers themselves had to pay 100% of costs.
“Some farmers had the capacity to take their coffee to market, while others couldn’t.
“Under this scheme, CIC made upfront payment to third-level airlines.
“When farmers asked for assistance, we paid up front, and expected them to pay back the money.
“This is how our freight surety scheme worked.
“This was in place from 2003-2007.”
A spanner, however, was thrown into the works when airlines were not properly reporting coffee shipments, as well as farmers not wanting to pay the surety component, and the programme came to a halt in 2007.
In 2008, it was revived again under CIC’s incentives scheme, and in 2009, the full programme came under Gilma’s wings.

Paul Gilma talking to coffee growers at Simbari, Eastern Highlands

"In 2009, the full responsibility was given to me,” he says.
“We had not been very consistent in the past.
“Some farmers lost interest in the programme.
“There was no information going out to them.
“I had to start from scratch, identifying grower groups and mobilising them.
“We restarted the programme in only Eastern Highlands and Chimbu provinces, with only K200, 000.
“Since I came on board, there has been some difference, especially in volume.
“In 2008, only 23,000kg of parchment coffee was airlifted.
“In 2009, I tried my best to increase the volume, and we increased this to 53,000kg.
“Last year was about the same as we airfreighted about 50,000kg.
“We did not get any new grower groups or spread out to other provinces.”
Gilma has made a submission to the Department of National Planning and Monitoring for assistance, and K500, 000 has been approved for this year and K500, 000 for next year.
“We’re now looking at expanding to all coffee-growing provinces,” he adds.
“We want to delegate responsibilities to all provinces so farmers can access the service.
“We want to get as many growers as possible on board.
“We are also building the sustainability concept.”
Paul Gilma, one of the many unsung heroes of PNG, continues his labour of love for the forgotten rural people of this country.

Coffee industry welcomes World Bank project

By MALUM NALU

Coffee Industry Corporation board chairman James Korarome (left) and Rural Industries Council executive officer Graham Ainui (right) lead World Bank officials including project task team leader Mona Sur (lcentre) to Mark Solon Auditorium at University of Goroka where the launching took place.-Picture by MALUM NALU

Coffee industry representatives have welcomed the World Bank-funded Productive Partnership in Agriculture Project (PPAP), saying that it is long overdue and just what the industry needs.
Exporters’ chairman John Edwards, processors’ chairman Jerry Kapka, plantation representative Max Kumbamong, Western Highlands’ smallgrowers’ chairman Peter Kewa and Jiwaka smallgrowers’ chairman James Koimo were united at the launch of the coffee segment in Goroka on Tuesday last week.
“Our coffee industry is slowing down,” Edwards said.
“The PPAP is giving us another chance.”
Kapka, managing director of renowned Kongo Coffee, said a lot of money was going to be pumped into the industry.
“By the time this project is finished, we want to see coffee earn K2 to K3 billion a year,” he said.
“We want credible people to be involved in this project.”
Kumbamong said the government had failed the industry many times, such as the ill-fated national agriculture development plan (NADP), in which millions were alleged to have been stolen by “paper farmers”.
“This is a great opportunity for Papua New Guineans to benefit,” he said.
“Such plans are long overdue.”
Kewa said smallholder growers were facing many problems.
“Prices are not going down to the farmers,” he said.
“We need farmer training.
“We need group marketing.
“This is where World Bank can come in.
“We have to work together and make this industry develop.”
Koimo said the soon-to-be Jiwaka province had set itself an ambitious target of one million bags per year.
“We have set a target of one million bags per year,” he said.
“Jiwaka produce 40% of PNG coffee but is not receiving services.
“I think it’s best that CIC decentralises extension services to the provinces.
“It’s timely that the World Bank has come in and we want you to work with smallholder coffee growers.”