A PAPUA NEW GUINEA COMMUNITY FACING CLIMATE CHANGE part 6

 

A PAPUA NEW GUINEA COMMUNITY FACING CLIMATE CHANGE

Picture captions

TOP - Batalomew Waka pointing to a coconut stump submerged by the sea.

MIDDLE - Part of a road eroded by the rising sea level.

BOTTOM - Children in Pokili area running along the beach.

 

Part VI

Batalomew’s experiences on climate challenges

Batalomew Waka, 65 years of age, is a strong advocate for environment conservation and climate change mitigation efforts.

As a village elder and awareness chairman of the Pokili Wildlife Management (WMA) in the Vavua LLG of West New Britain Province, Waka movingly tells how climate change is affecting the communities of Makasili, also in the Vavua LLG.

Here, the local landowners who once lived in harmony with their seas and had beautiful shorelines in their home fronts, are now being forced inland by the rising sea level. For Waka and his community, this is a growing concern as a result of climate change.

“During my early days, we had never seen any changes like what you are seeing here today’, Waka expressed as he pointed to the shorelines where stumps of coconuts remained submerged in the sea.

“The sea level rise is claiming our land along the coastline from Makasili to Pokili including our freshwater catchment areas as we watch helplessly. We feel disturbed by the rising sea level. This is a daily experience we constantly endure with in our lives. It is painful but is real”, Waka expressed.

Similar sentiments have been expressed by clan members of villages situated along the Makasili area where huge parts of their land are increasing claimed by the sea.

Besides the rising sea level, communities in between Makasili and Pokili are also being confronted by other development challenges. One of which is the intrusion of unsustainable logging operations for palm oil developments. These operations remain a threat to their pristine forests and the habitats living there in. 

“As the sea is claiming our land, large tracts of forests are being cleared for palm oil development which also remains a serious concern for us all. Currently our waters are no longer clean because of huge soil erosion through forest clearance for palm oil developments. Our people have to go very far to fetch clean drinking water”.

“During the rainy seasons, there are soil erosions from where timbers are harvested which also pollute nearby rivers downstream”.

Waka’s account of plight endured through the impacts of climate change and unsustainable logging remains a need for concerted effort and dialogue among especially the Pokili Community which has a large tract of secondary forest together with the local LLGs, Provincial Administration and other relevant authorities.

Amidst the development challenges, the Pokili community remains adamant that their last tracts of forests are kept intact and are managed in a sustainable manner for long-term social, economic and environmental benefits. They have taken a bold stand by committing a huge portion of 10, 535 hectares as conservation area which has been recognized and registered as the Pokili WMA.

During a Climate Change and forestry (REDD+) Media Training field trip recently, organized by the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) with the support of UNDP/Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), Waka and a few elders in his village were captivated when introduced to the concepts of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation known as REDD+. REDD+ is a climate change mitigation approach through the reduction of forest loss which PNG is undertaking through implementation of improved policies and measures led by CCDA.

“I’ve learnt a little about REDD+ through a few workshops in in Kimbe and Port Moresby and I’ve found it very interesting.

“The principles of REDD+ were community beneficial and if that works well with us (communities) in promoting and sustainably managing our forests and environment, we are willing to support because our forests, seas and the environment are the essence of our lives’, Waka said.

Waka said, as the village elder and awareness chairman of the Pokili community, it is their wish to see that human induced activities resulting in their natural environment which includes, the land, the sea and the forest are stopped.

“Life feels incomplete without any of these three’, said waka emphatically. I see all these children (as he pointed to the children running along the beach) and I am always concerned about what the future holds for them in relation to these challenges”, said Waka concerningly.

In bringing these concerns to light, Waka expressed the need to have their plight communicated at different levels to identify better options in mitigating the risks posed by climate change and the development challenges faced by their community.