REGION: West Papuans go to Papua New Guinea to learn eco-forestry

Port Moresby

Foresters, non-government organisation representatives, community leaders and donor representatives from Indonesian-ruled West Papua are expected to arrive in Papua New Guinea on Sunday.

They are on a 10-day visit to see and learn from the Papua New Guinea Eco-forestry Forum and NGO members involved in eco-forestry activities.

This is to help set up a similar organisation in West Papua.

The 14-member delegation includes stakeholders of a new NGO forestry forum being developed in the Indonesian province as it is granted more autonomy by Jakarta.

During the visit, the delegation will also be briefed on the progress of forest certification in PNG. They will visit a community scale project to become familiar with the activities of NGOs working with local communities.

They will also visit wildlife management areas, and other eco-enterprises such as eco-tourism and village guest house development.

The delegation will visit projects in Madang, Morobe and West New Britain provinces.

These include eco-forestry, eco-tourism, and community projects and wildlife conservation programme.

West Papua, a resource rich former Dutch colony bordering Papua New Guinea, was taken over by Indonesia in controversial circumstances and has a growing pro-independence movement. 

The current Indonesian Government recently granted West Papua more autonomy, allowed its name to be changed from Irian Jaya to Papua and gave the province a greater share of revenue from its resources.