PNG Forestry Authority says if the government preserves all its 27.1 million hectares of rain forests for carbon trade, it will not gain an average annual revenue of K150 to K200 million.
“The price of timber at the world market is US$18 to US$20 per cubic metre compared with US$2 in the Pacific market or Euro 20 for carbon. Carbon trade is not as competitive as timber,” managing director Kanawi Pouru said yesterday.
Pouru said PNG had a total land mass of 46.4 million hectares (ha) and 27.1 million hectares, equivalent to 50% of the mass, was rainforest, adding 1.8 million hectares was protected, 14.6 for logging and 10.7 for reserve.
PNG, he said, was ranked the third largest area of rainforest in the world after Amazon Forest and Congo Basin.
The annual allowable logging, he said, under the forestry and logging act was 3.5 million cubic metres.
He said landowners had 80% to 90% business permits in the forestry sector, adding foreigners were engaged by the LOs because they did not have financial capital or expertise. Pouru was speaking to participants in Port Moresby at a workshop.
Joe Pokana, a senior policy analyst from the Office of Climate Change, said PNG was a world leader in pushing climate change negotiations.
Pokana said they were negotiating with the industrialised countries to increase the carbon market rate pending negotiations. He said by 2030, PNG would have reduced emission of green-house gas by 50%.
The impacts of climate change, he said, were the spread of diseases, food security, and reduction in availability of drinking water, among others.
Source: The National newspaper.
No comments:
Post a Comment