Mambis Agroforestry Nursery Project

“This is the best breeding ground for a better tomorrow.”

-Peter Sambak Tanda

Director of Mambis Agroforestry Nursery Project

Papua New Guinea (PNG), one of the world’s most diverse nations, is home to over 800 unique indigenous groups, many speaking their own language.  Our country is a vast biological and cultural archive of great importance and value to the planet.  Most of our people live in rural areas and depend on subsistence agriculture, predominantly polycultures – in which multiple crops are inter-planted, and often vertically stacked, following the example of nature.  An example of this would be typical in a highland region home garden where we interplant banana with vining beans, corn, cabbage, onions, choko vine, and other crops.  Sweet potato, otherwise known as “kaukau,” is our staple food which is planted in mounds. Often times several species are  planted in the same mound.

Nearly all of our daily needs come from the garden or the forest: from daily meals; to cash crops such as coffee; to firewood for cooking; and finally, to lumber and other plant fibers for building.  Our population, like those of other developing nations, is increasing.  We the people of the highlands regions face many consequent problems. First, deforestation is one major problem that must not be allowed to continue.  The major causes of deforestation include: large-scale commercial logging; lack of sustainable forest management on the village level; tribal fighting; population growth; and pigs who roam freely eating young trees, thusly preventing the re-growth of forests.  The results are devastating.  Second, we are losing topsoil from erosion on a massive scale, threatening our way of life.  It is diminishing our capacity for raising food.  The worst example, however, are land slides which have even killed people, dragging away our houses and vehicles.  Landslides and massive soil erosion can be see virtually everywhere in the highlands regions.

One of the major goals of the Mambis Agroforestry Nursery Project is to begin re-foresting our local area.  We hope to produce enough seedlings to establish small-scale forest plantations, possibly integrated with agricultural cash crops.  This will create jobs for our community, thus helping to alleviate poverty in our region where many people survive on a few dollars per week.

Currently, our project has thousands of young tree and other plant species’ seedlings in the nursery. We have already planted thousands of trees, after much preparation which included fencing off re-forestation areas.

Project Goals / objectives

*Establishment of Nursery & Shed

An ideal site has been selected and we are in the process of building the shed.  We also hope to extend the existing nursery.

*Seedling production

The nursery currently houses approximately three thousand seedlings.  In the future, we aim to raise 200,000 seedlings of various plant species annually for planting and selling.

*Establish small scale forest plantations

About 60% of the seedlings produced will be used to develop small-scale forest plantings within the community.  The goal is to extend this to surrounding communities in the area.  The remaining 40% of the seedlings will be either sold or distributed to interested tree farmers to generate income for the project.

*Development of coffee & other cash crops

Cash crops such as coffee, cardamom, chillies, and others, will be planted between the rows of trees (integrated).  In some cases, due to lack of availability of land and / or the conditions of the land, such cash crops will also be planted without being integrated into forest plantings.

*Community Development

Community stakeholders may contribute funds annually to establish and sustain the project operations.  In addition, some funds will be sought from donor agencies from both within Papua New Guinea and abroad.  Income generated by the project will be used solely to promote its objectives.

*Job creation & equal opportunity employment

This project endeavors to create 15-20 jobs.  This will benefit the local community where jobs and income are currently scarce.  The project also edeavors to equally distribute all positions among male and female community members ensuring that local men AND WOMEN will be empowered with meaningful employment and the ability to sustain family and household needs.

The various programs at Mambis Agroforestry Nursery will be managed by both skilled and semi-skilled personnel under the board of directors.

*Education

We are currently teaching local villagers of all ages about the need for reforesting our region.  We have a primary school very near our project and the school children have been learning about their local ecosystems and how planting trees benefits them and future generations in many ways.  It is possible that some of these young people will be employed in the future with our project or similar environmental stewardship projects as a result of this learning.

Project implementation schedule:

2008 - Nursery development, seedling production (seedlings production will be continuous for the life of the project)

2009 - Forest plantation establishment (to be continued at least through 2012)

2010 - Agricultural plantation establishment (through 2012)

2011 -2012 - Continuation of the above activities

Expansion into other Districts

Once our local catchment is rehabilitated, we hope to expand our project into other areas where there is interest.  Once others see what is possible, we anticipate there will be a great demand as the general trend has been toward deforestation and the consequences are so problematic.  Planting trees, as we have stated already, will lead to greater prosperity for the people and the land.

Monitoring / reporting

We will furnish reports on a monthly or quarterly basis, highlighting progress to the board of directors and concerned donors.

The implementation schedule will be the yardstick by which we measure our progress as well as our success in restoring a sense of the sustainable, regenerative natural wealth that agroforestry can foster.  We are certain that the future health and prosperity of our country depends on it, and that this will be recognized throughout the Highlands Region.

Conclusion

As stated earlier, the project will be beneficial to most members of the Yakuman Mambis Clan as well as other neighboring tribes within the vicinity.

Conserving and regenerating our natural resources, and consequently enriching our health and economy sustainably is the way forward which should be encouraged at all levels of the community.

Unlike the mineral deposits we have in the country, well-managed forest resources are renewable, so that current AND FUTURE generations can enjoy and benefit from them.

It is our position, that governments should consider both large and small sustainable projects, especially in societies like ours that depend so heavily on what the environment provides.  It has been said that the forests are the lungs of the earth; our health depends on the health of the forests.

author – Jack Heimsoth

posted April 2009