Grassroots solutions
p. 17 · Read in the full issue
IN Gumi village in the Morobe High lands in Papua New Guinea villagers are seriously considering an end to logging.
Not because of destruction of their forests but because they are making more from butterfly ranching - an industry which depends on the forest for its existence and which, if the forests are preserved, will continue to make money long after the area is logged out.
Butterflies and insects, destined for collectors and zoos around the world, are now worth around $A750,000 in export income to PNG each year.
They join a host of other non-timber forest products which hold enormous potential to stop forest destruction by replacing logging with grassroots indus tries which provide an income to cash
hungry villagers.
Other non-timber forest products which are already, or could be, har vested directly from the forest include rattan, betel nut, gums and resins,
massoy bark, edible nuts, plants with pharmaceutical applications and plants such as orchids which are suitable for potting.
As well, additional income can be made from handicrafts, nature tourism and small-scale logging with portable sawmills which allow single trees to be taken in a way which does not jeopardise the future of the forest.
None of these alternatives are a passport to instant riches but they can provide a good income and one which will act as an incentive for people to stay in their villages instead of joining those clamouring for government services and job opportunities in the cities.
In PNG butterfly farming, which has a well established and efficient marketing structure, is probably one of the easiest industries to join.
According to Peter Clarke, manager of the Morobe based
Trading Agency (IFTA), which oversees
all rJNG s insect exports, anything which ‘is big, beautiful or ugly is saleable’.
By far the most common insects ranched in PNG are the huge birdwing butterflies, one species of which ranks as the world s biggest.
Birdwings feed on aristolochia - a common vine which is easy to grow and thrives in secondary growth areas as well as its usual habitat deep in the forest.
SA3O 40* k utter % ranching a villager needs only The IFTA or other environmental organisations such as the Wau Ecology Institute will send out a handbook. Then it is plants 3 mattCr ° f P lantin S out some of the butterfly’s food Once the caterpillars have turned into pupae the villager olaces them inside a small cage where they can hatch away rom wind and predators which might damage their valuable vmgs.
The specimens are then sent to IFTA, which sells them to iverseas dealers or frames them for sale in PNG or abroad.
A new and lucrative market is developing for live specimens or T butterfly houses at zoos around the globe. xn an industry in which prices are easily damaged by wersupply this development, which requires the dispatch of resh pupae stocks every month, is a boon.
Butterflies are ranched in 14 or 15 of PNG’s 19 provinces
with around 800 villagers making between $lOO and $10,500 a year.
Rattan also has great potential. In Indonesia rattan exports have been worth as much as $BO million a year and total non-timber forest product exports, $154 million.
Although no official figures are available m PNG leading non-timber forest product specialist, UPNG’s Dr Simon Saulei, estimates there may be as many 50 PNG companies export
ing rattan.
Betel nut from the forest is also sold widely for local use.
Portable sawmills are used in PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and elsewhere.
So far they have proved their value in contributing to villagers’ decisions not to allow large scale forest destruc tion by big logging companies and in providing timber for local communi ties.
As a source of sawn timber for a wider market or for export they have fallen short of expectations. This has been for a number of reasons all of which may be solvable. In particular there have been problems with milling not reaching the consistency or quality required for overseas market.
While there is undoubtedly a market for ‘ecologically sustainably produced rainforest timber’, for which the environmentally aware in western countries will pay a premium, getting into that market still presents problems. So does proving one’s timber has not damaged the forests, particularly m the face of growing evidence that badly used portable sawmills are doing just that.
Both Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands are attempting to deal with these problems.
PNG is supporting a major survey of its estimated 700 portable sawmill owners. It aims to establish just how the mills are being used and what can be done to ensure they are
both profitable and environmentally friendly.
Solomon Islands is basing part of its strategy to curb the excesses of foreign logging companies around promoting small mills and has introduced new timber milling guidelines which ensure consistency in milling standard for export.
Right across the Pacific rainforests are being felled by big logging companies before scientists have had a chance to catalogue the resources they hold and before national government’s have had a chance to consider whether, in the fong run, more might be made from them through alternative uses.
The same traditional economic models which have failed to take account of the value of the forests in food, sustenance and shelter to the hundreds of thousands of people who still live a mainly subsistence lifestyle have also failed to measure the potential of resources being lost forever as the forests
disappear.
A project being funded by Australia’s overseas aid agency, AIDAB, is attempting redress that. It plans to catalogue all the resources with economic potential available in PNG’s forests and to establish marketing plans for the most
promising.
While the forest’s economic value is only a small fraction of its total worth, for those who live and work there, and to humankind which depends on its existence to limit global warning, it is the factor which is most likely to preserve it for future generations. n