Activities in Papua New Guinea

The third JCC for the Capacity Development Project for Operationalization of PNG Forest Resource Information Management System (PNG-FRIMS) for Addressing Climate Change met on 25th August, 2016 in the Boardroom of the headquarters of the PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA) in Port Moresby. The objective of the third JCC was to report on the progress of the Project and to make necessary amendment to the Project Design Matrix (PDM) and the Plan of Operations (P/O).

Participants to the JCC included officers from PNGFA, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) under National Forest Inventory Programme supported by European Union, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) supported by the World Bank, JICA PNG Office, Embassy of Japan, and Japanese experts of the Project.

At the beginning of the JCC, the Chair, Mr Goodwill Amos, and Acting Managing Director of the National Forest Service of the PNGFA congratulated the project team on the progress of the Project and expressed his expectation for the Project.

The Co-Chair, Mr Takashi Toyama, and Chief Representative of JICA PNG Office commended the strong ownership of PNGFA on this Project as a key for successful implementation and emphasized importance of coordination with other programmes on climate change and forestry as a global environment issue.

Subsequently, Mr. Nishimura, a JICA expert, reported the progress of second year including following items:

1. The Project established a new tool which enables officers of PNGFA HQs and area/provincial offices to access and browse the newly available spatial information such as satellite imagery, digital elevation model, Forest Basemap and attributes in logging operation plan & report;
2. The established tool mentioned above 1) made aware officers about the usefulness of the Project outputs for more directorates and branches in PNGFA than expected at the beginning ;
3. The Project is now considering a system which can exchange e-data including photos and maps among PNGFA HQs, area/provincial offices and project offices;
4. Drafting of factsheet series, which will widely disseminate the Project's outputs to public, is on-going.

Mr Katapa of the UNDP/FCPF programme emphasized the importance and relevance of data provision through PNGFA from the JICA Project activities to the process for developing a PNG REDD+ national strategy by the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) under the UNDP/FCPF programme.

Next, Mr Tatsuya Watanabe, the Chief Advisor of the Project, proposed the 3rd year annual work plan of the Project and active discussions by participants were made mainly on:
1) Identifying the concrete indicators to verify the achievement of ‘Overall Goal' after the Project completion.
2) Modifying some planned activities in PDM; and
3) Expanding the Project outputs to other provinces beyond the targeted pilot provinces.

During the discussion above, officers in PNGFA showed their strong ownership on the Project and their determination to disseminate and expand the Project's outputs after the completion of the Project in 2019. On the course of discussion, the meeting turned out to be a significant step to ensure the sustainability of the Project outcomes.

The Co-chair, Mr. Toyama, expressed an expectation for more results and outcomes of the Project in coming years, then thanked all the participants for their contribution in the meeting, and formally closed the meeting.