Completion report of the ITTO Project · The International Tropical Timber Organization signed an...

PD324/04Rev.3(F) Project Completion Report 1 October 2010

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Completion report of the ITTO Project

Sustainable Management of Tropical Forest Management of Tropical Forest Resources through stakeholder Agreements in Traditionally Owned Areas of Papua New Guinea. Host Government: Government of Papua New Guinea Name of the Executing Agency: PNG Forest Authority in Collaboration with The Nature

Conservancy. Name of the Implementing Agency: The Nature Conservancy in partnership

with the Government of Madang province and specifically Almami Local Level Government and the local Almami communities.

Project Steering Committee: PNG Forest Authority, Department of Environment and Conservation, Department of National Planning and Monitoring, ITTO, The Nature Conservancy.

Project number: PD 324/04Rev.3 (F) Starting date of the Project: 27

th November 2006

Duration of the Project (month) 36 months Project costs (US $) ITTO contribution US$452,596 and TNC contribution US $ 505,138 GoPNG Contribution (US $75,000) The ordinal number and type of the Report: Project Completion Report Project technical and scientific staff: Current Staff 1. Project Manager- Francis Hurahura 3. Conservation Officer- Cosmas Apelis 4. Francis Beibi- Conservation officer 5 Mainstreaming Coordinator- Theresa Kas 6. Community Conservation Adviser- Clement Kipa. 7. Project Assistant- Mary Kakat 8. GIS-Manager-Nate Peterson Former staff members: 9. Warren Jano- Conservation Planner 10. Sylvia Avitu-Communications Specialist


.11. Community Development Facilitators- Willy Biul, Benny Atigini, Ricky Alfred, Veronica Waila, Rabien Tamir, Peter Somok, Serah Marin, Maula Taugele, Samuel Pidi, Priscilla Sariman, Rose Koinari, Judith Jack. Alphonse Mopal Peter Moikia CCDP-trainer

Consultants 12. Policy & Legal Consultant- Dr. Eric Kwa 13. Collaborative Tool Development Specialist & Former Project Managers (Edward & Susan Mayer) 14. Business Development Consultant- Gethrude Karu 15. Research Conservation Foundation 16. Thomas Lalord Warr- Social Marketing Assessment Implementing Institutions PNG Forest Authority P.O.Box 5055 Boroko, NCD Ph: 3277841 Fax 3277 email: [email protected] The Nature Conservancy P.O.Box 217, Madang, PNG Ph:4222366 Fax:4223518 email [email protected] The place and date the report was issued. The reported is prepared and presented to ITTO by Francis Hurahura, Project manager based in Madang, Papua New Guinea in September 2010. Disclaimer:

mailto:[email protected]

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Acknowledgements: The funding was sourced through partnership agreement between government of PNG and International Tropical Timber Organization and The Nature Conservancy also contributed funding as well as the government of PNG signed an MOU with PNG Forest Authority to implement the project. The efforts of the PNG Forest Authority, Department of Environment and Conservation, Department of National Planning and Monitoring, Madang provincial government and administration and Almami local level government for its support to the success of this project and lastly and not the least, the Almami LLG conservation communities are hereby acknowledged, being the main partners who have made this project a Daun of the New Era. Various partners and stakeholders are hereby also acknowledged, that without your morale and technical support, success could not have been achieved and to name a few, FPCD, VDT, FORCERT,EU, WWF, VSO, CSO and CBOs in the Bogia district administration. The members of the Project Steering Committee and Multitechnical team members are hereby acknowledged for your efforts in guiding the project management and performing technical inputs respectively, your efforts is much appreciated. Lastly, goes to the Project Management team members for their tireless efforts for working as a team to achieve expected outcomes and making this project as success.,


LIST OF ACRONYMS ALLG Almami local level government CBO Community Based Organization CCBS Climate Community & Biodiversity Standards CDF Conservation Development Facilitators CNA Conservation Needs Assessment CSO Civil Society Organization DEC Department of Environment and Conservation DNPM Department of National Planning and Monitoring FMA Forest Management Area/Agreement FPCD Foundation People Community Development FSC Forest Stewardship Council GoPNG Government of Papua New Guinea ITTO International Tropical Timber Organization MOU Memorandum of Understanding OCCD Office of Climate Change and Development PEC Provincial Executive Council PNGFA Papua New Guinea Forest Authority PNG Papua New Guinea PSC Project Steering Committee REDD Reduced Emissions Deforestation Degradation TNC The Nature Conservancy TRP Timber Rights Purchase VDT Village Development Trust VSO Volunteer Service Organization WWF World Wildlife Fund


TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 6-7 1 Project Identification 7-11 1.1 Context 7-11 1.2 Origin and problem 11-13 2 Project Objectives and implementation strategy 13-16 3 Project Performance (Project elements planned and implemented.) 16-17 4 Project Outcome, Target Beneficiaries Involvement 17-22 5 Assessment and analysis 23-29 6 Lessons learned 29-31 7 Conclusions and Recommendations 31-33 Annex 1: Project Implementation Schedule 34-35 Annex 2: Conservation Agreements-signing photos 36 Annex 3: Map of conservation areas 37 Annex 4 Project financial Audited statements 38-


Executive summary Almost 90% of Papua New Guieans live in rural areas and rely directly on the natural resource base, in

particular forest resources, for their livelihoods. As the owners of forest rsources, their well-being and the

decisions they take concerning resource development are inextricably linked to the conservation of

biological diversity and to the sustainability of that resource. These communities are therefore critical to

any process that aims to address the management and sustainable use of forest resources and overall

development within PNG.

The International Tropical Timber Organization signed an agreement with Government of PNG and the PNG Forest Authority to implement a project PD324/04Rev.3(F) “ Sustainable Management of Tropical Forest Resources through stakeholder Agreements in traditionally Owned Areas of Papua New Guinea” the government through PNG Forest Authority further signed an MOU with The Nature Conservancy to implement the project. The development and specific objectives were to: DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE:

► Local forest owners in the Adelbert Range conserve and sustainably manage their forests to meet

livelihood needs of current and future generations. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE:

► Local forest owners in the Adelbert Ranges are effectively using conservation agreements and

management plans to conserve and sustainably manage their forests and meet their livelihood needs.

The project envisaged that the clans and communities were not conserving and managing their

forests sustainably for the future generations to be able to enjoy the products and services it

provides.The project objective was to ensure Local forest owners in the Adelbert Range are

effectively using conservation agreements and management plans to conserve and sustainably

manage their forests to meet livelihood needs of current and future generations.

The project was executed as originally planned under the two main outputs. The first output enabled

development of tools and processes allowing more than six clans ( 20) from nine communities to develop

land use management plans incorporating conservation priorities with support from the Almami

local level government, while the second output mainstreamed these tools and processes and lessons

learned to partners to implement conservation and sustainable forest management. Identifcation and

Establishment of compatible business opportunities and micro-credit scheme was slightly changed to

focus more on developing conservation cooperatives by the conservation communities as a mechanism

to provide sustainable finance to ensure conservation and sustainable forest management objectives are

achieved in perpetuity contributing towards improved livelihoods alleviating poverty.

The Government of Japan is the major donor of the project, supported by Australian donor, TNC and GoPNG contribution. The project recognises the importance of customary ownership over natural resources in PNG as the country takes the lead in the REDD initiative internationally, and the importance of linking national level priorities with needs skills of customary resource owners in sustainable forest management activities. The Adelbert range project is seen a significant learning opportunity on mechanisms for linking national priorities through the involvement of national government partners. How to maintain agreements with the partners, the community, and the government is important outcome of this project and the emerging REDD framework. The project is a potential model for scaling up to other parts of PNG. PNG has a lot more important natural resources beyond timber.


The Adelbert project, as actually implemented, has been in compliance with ITTO policy guidelines inrelation to ITTO Criteria and Indicators for sustainable forest management. In this, it was noted that a review of the potential for participating communities to participate in eco-forestry conducted for the project by the Foundation for People and Community Development (FPCD) found that the communities had met more than 70% of the requirements needed to participate as producers in the FPCD FSC Group certificate. The review further found that their potential to increase their participation in the process was limited more by the problem of road access than forest management or planning performance. With road access as the main hinderance to facilitate and effectively implement a viable eco-forestry model in areas designated for forest use in the land use and management plans, this option is not seen as viable option within the Adelberts project site in a short term, but would be considered in a later stage, until enabling conditions are favourable, but is feasible within Madang where partners, such as FPCD who are FSC certified are working with local communities sustainably managing their forest and generating revenue to address livelihood issues. As PNG is leading at the international level On efforts to reduce effects of climate change through REDD and REDD+ and the government through the office of the climate change and environment sustainability in the process of develop climate compatible development strategy and PNG Forest Authority launching Forestry and Climate Change Framework for Action, the tools and processes developed through the project forms the building block available that the government could use. Working with and through partners being the main strategic approach to scale up the adelberts model realizes the need to invest time and resources on most partners to be transparent, accountable and to promote good governance and capacity building need to be factored as a continuous activity, followed by monitoring and evaluation to determine their ability to manage own affairs independently. Sustainability post project as demonstrated by the Adelbert project must always be through People Empowerment for the People by the People to be self reliant rather than relying heavily on hand outs which usually weakens the brain power of intelligent people with talent to work towards their own destiny.

The Adelbert conservation cooperative model demonstrates people empowered to leverage conservation and sustainable forest management by complying to their land use management plans and producing a commodity (cocoa) that is organically grown and has a story and the story is, “ cocoa is grown organically by conservation communities who have developed and implementing land use management plans and have setside conservation areas legislated under environmental and conservation law” Funds generated will contribute towards sustaining conservation efforts and pay for social development projects to improve livelihood. 1.0 PROJECT IDENTIFICATION 1.1 CONTEXT

Major PNG vegetation zones are represented in the area, including six different forest types: flooded plain, strand, lowland rainforest, grassland, hill, and montane. This area has been long recognized as an extremely important storehouse of biodiversity. It is one of the most biologically rich parts of the country’s forests, especially in the mid-altitude habitats. The Papua New Guinea Conservation Needs Assessment (CNA) conducted in 1993 identified the area as a threatened lower montane forest region that is home to the Fire-Maned Bowerbird, PNG’s rarest bird species with the narrowest geographic range known for mainland PNG. Several timber concessions surround the Adelbert Range. These include, three Timber Rights Purchases (TRPs) – Kumil (operated by Bismarck Timber Industries), Gogol (operated by Jant) and Sogeram (operated by Madang Timbers) – and one unallocated Forest Management Agreement (FMA) – Middle Ramu. The main outcome of project’s intervention by working with the main partners of this project, being the landowners, government and other stakeholders is the development of land use management plans and setting aside of various land use areas of which core conservation area is part of the total area under sustainable forest management to ensure products and services forest is provided in perpetuity. Different landuse decisions were made by local clan members and leaders, based on local traditional, cultural and


biodiversity knowledge and these decisions were at times had to be verified through scientific surveys and information to confirm areas set aside for conservation as biological significant areas due to presence of declining population of selected focal targets for both flora and fauna. Community conservation engagement process facilitated enabled the clan/communities to understand status of selected focal targets for both flora and fauna, these being both systems and species of rare and endemic flora and fauna.

1.1.1 SOCIAL ASPECTS:

The project achieved both of its outputs being output 1: Six clans are prepared to manage theor forest

resource in the Adelberts Range according to agreed management plans, incorporating conservation

priorities, with support from Almami local level Government.

A structured and effective and efficient community conservation engagement and participatory process

was used to identify critical social factors that drive resource use and underpin local level governance. In

addition to the identification and use of the most successful community entry and engagement techniques

developed in PNG. The process as shown iin figure 1 has enabled resource owners to assess status of

selected focal targets selected to focus on to protect habitats and systems to ensure their population and

their condition is respectively not destroyed by over usage or high demand for local consumption in

relation to selected species of fauna, ie cassowary and tree kangaroo.

Delivery of social services by the government to the target beneficiary communities has been nil during

the duration of the project, apart from services which have been provided through project’s partnership

and collaborative arrangements and initiatives. These partnerships and workshops include, health and

sanitation workshops, health and hygiene, HIV/AIDS, gender workshops conducted in communities

funded by European Union as part of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project. To date there are 14

rainwater ctachments servicing nine clans with in Urumarav, Gurube, Avipa and Turutapa.

Figure 1: Rainwater Catchment at Turutapa village-Pabeberu clan

In addition, Mid-Wife training was conducted by Lutheran mission to selected individuals from the

conservation communities to assist mothers during birth delivery in remote conservation communities who

lack basic health facilities due to lack of road infrastructure which have not improved prior to project

inception, during and even now at close of project duration, road access to conservation communities

remains an issue, the government has to addressed.


The current reform system of the government which designed to empowered people at the local level to

influence and design development through ward development committees and feeding in to the local level

government plans and rolling in to district plans and forming Provincial Plans contributing to Medium

Term Development Strategies has not been effective due to financial constraints to finance, first training

of the man power to effect change and secondly to fund projects at ward level.

The Almami local level government over the project duration have been financially handicap to deliver its

obligation to its people whom were the target beneficiaries of the project. The project signed an MOU with

the Almami LLG to assist in implementation of the Environment and Conservation Law and through this

partnership the 20 clans developed their land use management plans and set aside conservation areas

declared under the Almami local level government Environment and Conservation Law and secondly,

under this partnership the conservation advisory committee established as per the Environment and

Conservation legislation worked with project personnel to ensure clans/communities resolved disputes

arising through the community conservation engagement process and respective clans proceed to

signing conservation agreements with the Almami local level government council president.

1.1.2 ECONOMIC ASPECTS

As discussed under social aspects, the government has not delivered and meet it’s obligation to provide service to its people within the project target communities. The road infrastructure has never been maintained over the last six years since 2004 and its condition has been deteriorating eversince making it very difficult for the Almami LLG communities within Mugumat Yakiba census division unable to market their cash crop in time to fetch higher price. Since the inception of the project and even to date, government has been unable to provide sufficient basic services, and one school in conservation area which closed in 2005 remains closed as of writing of this report and the children have not attended school eversince, apart from those whose parents had to make arrangements with relatives or even friends to look after their children on the coast, just to have access to education. Through the project, business consultant was engaged,to conduct start your own business trainings and micro enterprises were identified and listed as follows;

• Type No: • Trade Store 11 • Fermentries 8 • Piggery 5 • Screen Printing 1 • Arts & Crafts 1 • Tourist Rest House 5 • Sewing 4 • Mobile Market 4 • Noni Soap Making 1

Main limitation to expansion and success of these micro enterprises is access to start up capital and financial managerial skills to ensure funds are accounted and proper book keeping is done for every transaction that occurs. Through this project one fo the main challenge encountered is provison of sustainable financing mechanism to ensure conservation efforts and land use management plans are effectively and efficiently implemented to contribute towards conservation and sustainable management of forest resource, being the store house of endemic flora and fauna that needs to be protected Learning from past experience with foreign Aid funded projects, which often times struggle to find sustainable finance mechanism to finance ongoing activities, through this project clan/community members have been empowered to be self reliant to effect change by providing knowledge through start


your own business trainngs and working with them to organize in to conservation cooperative societies with the main objective to mobilize human resource, agricultural produce and finance. The cooperative model is a financing mechanism based on community mobilization working towards common goal of financial empower to sustain conservation efforts. Funds generated by Financial members through activities of the cooperative is aimed to address community development and social issues at the clan/village level, while at the same time pay for sustainable management and leveraging of conservation programs throughout the Almami LLG and Bogia district and lessons learned to be disseminated through out the province.

Figure 2: Conservation and Sustainable Development Financing Model.

1.1.3 ENVIRONMENT ASPECTS

1.1.3.1 BIODIVERSITY VALUE

The information in this section is based on studies commissioned by TNC in 1998 of species (birds,

mammals, butterflies and herptofauna) found or likely to be found in the area of the Adelbert Range

(Crome et al.,1999, and Leary, 1999), and botanical surveys sponsored by TNC in 1998 and 1999

(Takeuchi, 2000).1 The importance of primary forests to the survival of species adapted to living in such

forests and to the protection of streams flowing through the areas have been the most significant factors

arising out of studies in the area. Within the primary forest areas, habitat types of particular ecological

significance are the following:

Higher altitude forests: Studies have identified these areas as being particularly important because the primary forest adapted species tend to be from higher altitude areas. These include the bowerbirds.

Swamp forests: This habitat type was identified from the bird study as needing consideration because of the presence of the New Guinea Flightless Rail and the general paucity of understanding of swamp forests

Gallery forests: Although gallery forests are unlikely to have endemic species in their own right they can play special roles in the landscape. For example:

Flying foxes and other megachiropta roost in gallery forests

Gallery forests can be particularly rich in kingfishers, particularly the paradise kingfishers genus Tanysiptera


Frugivorous birds such as the Aplonis starlings often build large roosts and nest sites in gallery forest.

Gallery forests may be particularly important contributors to biodiversity by acting as refuges in drier times of the day and the year, and by providing fruit and flowers for nomadic frugivores and nectarivores.

Gallery forests have potential to act as movement corridors for forest species, and they have a large influence on water quality in streams.

Taxonomic studies showed that there is in an unusually high numbers of endemic species found

throughout northern New Guinea when compared with the rest of Melanesia. As much of the area has

been poorly surveyed it follows that further survey work is likely to identify substantial numbers of

previously unknown species. Studies commissioned by TNC in the project area found a considerable

number (20) of rare taxa and 4 new species, indicating that the area is home for restricted endemics

eliminated from other parts of their range. The importance of this area for speciation processes has been

highlighted. Successful conservation of the biological diversity in the Adelbert Ranges will also provide

useful lessons for biological diversity conservation and sustainable rural development in other areas of

the country that have high biodiversity. The model developed is the first of its kind in the country.

Through the project both community and biological focal targets were selected for protection based its

declining condition to ensure management strategies are developed to improve its condition. The

community targets do merge with biological targets and the community engagement process and

development of land use management plans have enabled the clans/communities to realize importance

of protecting and sustainably managing these systems, endemic flora and fauna.

Ethnobotanical surveys in the project area have identified many species of importance to local people.

These include:

Plants with food value – 22 species.

Medicinal or psychoactive plants – 14 species.

Plants for construction or implements – 22 species.

Plants for ceremonial, ritual or spiritual purposes – 14 species.

Plants with special value for wildlife – 28 species.

Plants to improve the hunting performance of dogs – 5 species.

Plants with other cultural applications – 21 species

1.2 ORIGIN AND PROBLEM: The Adelbert Mountain Range is located in Madang Province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It spans an area of approximately 400,000 hectares and ranges in altitude from sea level along the coast to 1600 meters above sea level. It is located between 145 degrees 0 minutes East and 145 degrees 30 minutes East and between 4 degrees 25 minutes South and 4 degrees 42 minutes South. Elevation ranges from 150 m above sea level along the Guam River Basin to 1,400 m above sea level along the ridges of the Adelbert Mountains. The site comprises the Western end of the Adelbert Mountains and is dominated by the Guam and Kumul River watersheds. The Guam River runs in a Westerly direction to the Ramu River and the Kumul runs East toward the Bismarck Sea. The site is bound on the Northern side by the coastal lowlands (See Maps 1 and 2 below). The site comprises the entire area of the Almami Local Level Government (ALLG) within the Bogia District, in the Province of Madang.


1:2.1 MAIN PROBLEMS:

Almost 90% of Papua New Guieans live in rural areas and rely directly on the natural resource base, in

particular forest resources, for their livelihoods. As the owners of forest rsources, their well-being and the

decisions they take concerning resource development are inextricably linked to the conservation of

biological diversity and to the sustainability of that resource. These communities are therefore critical to

any process that aims to address the management and sustainable use of forest resources and overall

development within PNG.

1.2.1.1 PROBLEM TO BE ADDRESSED

The Adelbert Mountain Range, is one of the most biologically rich parts of PNG’s forests. At the time of

project inception it was facing a range of threats as shown Table1: below.

TABLE 1: CHALLENGES TO FOREST INTEGRITY

Major threat Description

Unsustainable Commercial Timber Harvesting

Commercial logging based on current poor practices is expected to have a significant impact on gallery forests of the Guam River Valley. This would have a serious long-term impact on biodiversity in the area and undermine the potential for the development of sustainable livelihoods within the communities of the Adelbert Range.

Forest clearance for agriculture

This includes clearance for both subsistence gardening and coffee production, and results in loss and degradation of habitat. Typical system is 1-2 years use followed by 15 years fallow, resulting in an expansion of the area under agriculture as the local population grows.

Fire Fire is widely used for forest clearing, and often impacts much larger areas than planned gardens and coffee plantations

Over-hunting This threatens several heavily hunted species, such as the Northern Cassowary and tree kangaroos.

Timber concessions in buffer zones

Several timber concessions surround the Adelbert Range.

To address these challenges that are typical of many rural and forested areas of PNG, recent analyses and interviews with government officials and community stakeholders have identified the following root causes as illustrated below;


Figure 3. Problem Tree

Communities are not conserving and sustainably managing their forests for future generations

Loss of f orest

productiv ity

Loss of

ecological

serv ices

Loss traditional

v alues, leadership;

breakdown of

clan/kinship ties

Loss of

biological

div ersity

Lack of basic

serv ices and

transport

inf rastructure

Few

compatible

marketable

economic

alternativ es

No ward and LLG land

use/ dev elopment plans

and no understanding of

conserv ation role

Limited

capacity

in core

skills

Poor f ormal

institutional

leadership

National

gov ernment

policies

promote large-

scale use of

PNG f orests

Communities without

knowledge and skills to meet

modern land use challenges;

no common v ision f or future of

their f orests and how to work

together to achiev e it

Increased cash

needs of

communities

with changing

lif estyle

aspirations

Loss of important

resource base f or

sustainable

liv elihoods

2 PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

2.1 PROJECT RATIONALE:

The fourth goal of the constitution of Papua New Guinea states that:

PNG’s natural resources and environment [will] to be conserved and used for the collective benefit of us all, and be replenished for the benefit of future generations.

The principle elements of the legal and policy framework at the national level in PNG that give effect to

this goal and are relevant to this project include the following:

► National Forest Policy (1991); ► Fauna Protection and Control Act; ► Organic Law on Provincial Governments and Local-level Governments; and, ► Relevant sections of the Local-level Governments Administration Act of 1997. ► Environment Act 2000 ► National Forestry Development Guidelines October 2009 ► Forestry and Climate change Framework for Action 2009-2015

Root causes

Key problem

Effects


These Legislations and Policies provide important guidance concerning the management of forest

resources for biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest management to support livelihoods of

Papua New Guineas to alleviate poverty through provision of goods and services funded by income

generated from sustainable land use activities.

This national framework recognises the need for environmental protection and the conservation of

biological diversity in balance with forest management to secure a range of timber and non-timber

benefits for both local communities and the Government of PNG. While it provides support for the

establishment of sustainable forest management practices and recognises the need for sustainable

development of the forest industry at the provincial level, there has been little progress to develop

mechanisms for this to occur. This is largely due to the fact that the legislation only applies to State

owned land – less than 5% of all the land in PNG.

2.1.1 DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE:

Local forest owners in the Adelbert Range conserve and sustainably manage their forests to meet livelihood needs of current and future generations. 2.1.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: Local forest owners in the Adelbert Ranges are effectively using conservation agreements and


2.2 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY The principle components of the project strategy are outlined in Figure 2. As described below, the project strategy is expressed in two components – a site based strategy to demonstrate results and a mainstreaming strategy to apply successful strategies at other priority site in PNG. The site-based strategy in the Adelbert Range, involved specific community engagement techniques, the implementation of the Almami Local Level Government Environment and Conservation Law, the development and introduction of effective conservation area management and land use planning tools, the identification of incentives and compatible business opportunities and the development of sound partnerships and the strengthening of key institutions to address project sustainability. To ensure the approach developed is the most appropriate for PNG and can be replicated elsewhere in priority sights the project’s mainstreaming strategy will engage the different levels of Government and key NGOs in all relevant aspects of implementation.


Figure 4: Project strategy flow chart

Community engagement

IImplementing the Almami LLG Environment & Conservation Law (Conservation Agreements)

Conservation area management and land

use planning

Incentives and compatible development

options

Partnership development & institutional strengthening

Identify key components for success with partners

Provincial & National policy analysis and

response

Collaborative tool development with

partners

Private sector engagement & micro

economic policy support

Mainstreaming design & mapping of priorities

Adelbert Mountains Provincial & National

scale

2.2.1 OUTPUT1: Six Almami clans are prepared to manage their forest resources in the Adelbert Range according to

agreed management plans, incorporating conservation priorities, with support from the Almami local level

government.

2.2.2 OUTPUT2:

Lessons learned and mainstreaming activities designed to assist local resource owners and partners

implement the demonstrated conservation and sustainable forest management approach.

2.3 IDENTIFIED ASSUMPTIONS AND RISKS

The legal, clan institutions and socio-cultural risks are assessed as low, with supporting evidence given in

the table. The greatest local risk is the low capacity of ALLG and district government to fulfil their mandate

to support the sustainable development planning process. There is general support for the project

politically, but there may be inadequate resources, skills and accountabilities. These political and

economic risks are acceptable but substantial attention will be paid to these two areas of the project’s

activities.

At the provincial and national levels there is a risk that stakeholders and Government outside the Adelbert

Range will not wish to become directly involved in the consolidation of lessons learned and in the


identification of opportunities and priority areas for mainstreaming. Based on the interest expressed in the

development of this approach at Provincial and National levels and the direct links identified between this

project and the development of a Model FMA this risk is considered low. The project’s viability is based

upon using existing local institutions and their legal framework and processes for development planning.

This legislation has been passed by ALLG and is supported by numerous forest-owning clans. Therefore,

all conservation agreements will receive legal backing and acceptance by local, district and provincial

levels of government.

3.0 PROJECT PERFORMANCE The Adelbert project, as implemented, has been in compliance with ITTO policy guidelines in relation to

ITTO Criteria and Indicators for sustainable forest management. In this, it was noted that a review of the

potential for participating communities to participate in eco-forestry conducted for the project by the

Foundation for People and Community Development (FPCD) found that the communities had met more

than 70% of the requirements needed to participate as producers in the FPCD FSC Group certificate. The

review further foundthat their potential to increase their participation in the process was limited more by

the problem of road access than forest management or planning performance.

With road access as the main hinderance to facilitate and effectively implement a viable eco-forestry

model in areas designated for forest use in the land use and management plans, this option is not seen

as viable option within the Adelberts project site in a short term, but would be considered in a later stage,

until enabling conditions are favourable, but is feasible within Madang where partners, such as FPCD

who are FSC certified are working with local communities sustainably managing their forest and

generating revenue to address livelihood issues. With road infrastructure being the main constraint, after

considering various options to bring in cash income to the communities,planting, harvesting, fermenting,

drying and marketing cocoa came to be the viable option people can concentrate on, as one of a source

of revenue flow in to the community to meet basic livelihood needs and at the same time raise funds to

finance sustainability of conservation and sustainable forest management by ensuring various

clans/communities adhere to rules governing land use management plans.

3.1 REALIZED PERFORMANCE VERSUS THE PLANNED PERFORMANCE

3.1.1 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

Local forest owners in the Adelbert Ranges are effectively using conservation agreements and


► Six Almami clans are prepared to manage their forest resources in the Adelbert Range according to

agreed management plans, incorporating conservation priorities, with support from the Almami

local level government.

► Lessons learned and mainstreaming activities designed to assist local resource owners and

partners implement the demonstrated conservation and sustainable forest management

approach.


3.1.2 OUTPUTS AND ACTIVITIES as appearing in project document.

OUTPUT 1:

► Activity 1.1. Establish Conservation Agreements in accordance with the Almami Local Level Government Environment and Conservation Law.

► Activity 1..2 Identify and incorporate biodiversity priorities in land use and management plans at LLG, ward and clan levels

► Activity 1.3 - Develop and utilise community planning processes in the preparation of management plans

► Activity 1..4 Complete sustainable finance strategy and training in economically and ecologically viable enterprises

► Activity 1.5 Provide institutional support and training to ensure the effective implementation of the Almami Local Level Government Environment & Conservation Law

► Activity 1.6 Establish partnerships with other local groups, including World Vision, Lutheran and Catholic Churches, to improve health and education service delivery to support sustainable livelihoods.

OUTPUT 2:

► Activity 2.1 Identify and apply the key components for successful community entry and engagement with provincial and national partners, such as Government agencies, local and international NGOs, in at least three additional sites.

► Activity .2.2 Undertake a review, by the PNG Forest Authority, of national provincial policy and legislation to determine measures required to facilitate wide adoption of the approach being developed in the Adelbert Range.

► Activity .2.3 Exchange and consolidate lessons and collaboratively develop effective tools with partners for resource-owner based conservation and sustainable forest management working elsewhere in PNG.

► Activity 2.4 Identify and establish compatible business opportunities and micro-credit scheme, amended to support conservation cooperative.

► Activity 2.5. Identify and map priority sites and design a mainstreaming program. ► Activity 2.6 Review progress, identify lessons and measures to improve project output delivery

throughout each phase and independently evaluate project outputs.

3.1.3 SCHEDULE ( refer to Annex 1) 3.1.4 STARTING DATE:

► 30th January 2006, Government of Papua New Guinea signed the agreement. ► First Installment US$100,000 was received on the 27th November 2006

3.1.5 DURATION:

► 36 Months ( January 2007-December 2009) ► Extended to end of JUNE 2010 ► Further extened to end of september 2010


3.1.6 TOTAL AMOUNT OF EXPENDITURE; ANALYSIS OF APPLIED INPUT.

Source US$ ITTO 452,196 TNC 505,138 Gopng 75,000

Expenditure US$ ITTO 452,196 TNC 505,138 GoPNG 75,000 These figures will be confirmed by Final Audited Accounts by

December 2010 4. PROJECT OUTCOME, TARGET BENEFICIARIES INVOLVEMENT.

► Through project implementation all of the target beneficiaries were involved in making decisions of how the project was implemented to achieve expected outcomes. The local communities of the Almami local level government area and especially communities from Mugumat Yakiba census division were the primary target beneficiaries, the main reason being the ownership of the forest area this project covered being communally owned based at the clan level has to be respected and acknowledged through out implementation of the project.

► The Almami local level government involvement as per implementation of the Environment and

Conservation Law 2003 through this project by endorsing land use and management plans and siging conservation agreements with clan leaders has been huge milestones being achieved.

► The Madang Provincial Government involvement has been through adopting the Almami Environment and Conservation Law and developing a similar legislation at the provincial level to safe guard forest areas land owners wish to set a side for conservation and sustainable forest management and secondly was their involvement to get the draft legislation to the Ntaional level for consultation and feedback of which positive feed back was received to progress the draft bill for submission to Provincial Executive Council for deliberation.

► Involvement of the three National Government agencies, PNG Forest Authority, Department of Environment and Conservation and Department of National Planning and Monitoring and advising at the Project Steering Committee has made significant contribution towards success of the project and these three agencies and the government is commended for working in partnership and collaboratively with NGO, especially The Nature Conservancy and the Local Communities to make this project as success, being the first of its kind in the country to demonstrate that we all need to work together to be successful at achieveing huge milestones, one alone could not achieve.

► ITTO need to be commended for its trust and confidence to the implementing partners and providing the funding and The Nature Conservancy for providing the Match and government of png for its in kind and cash contribution. ITTO has contributed immensely not only with funding, but in providing technical advice towards implementation of the project.

4.1. INTENDED SITUATION AFTER PROJECT COMPLETION IN THE PROJECT DOCUMENT

This project has been designed to address the underlying root causes of biodiversity loss and unsustainable forest management, as well as reduce direct major threats, at the local level. It will be implemented over a three year period and will produce the following specific outcomes:


► Six Conservation Agreements signed between Almami customary landowners and the Almami Local Level Government.

► 200,000 hectares of forest in the Adelbert Range will be conserved and managed sustainably by local landowners with the support of local government.

► Almami LLG Environment and Conservation Advisory Committee established, trained and actively involved in assisting landowners to establish conservation areas, resolve boundary disputes and facilitate development of land use and conservation area management plans.

► An adaptive, participatory approach to managing natural resources, forests and protected areas will be adopted at the landowner level and encouraged by district and provincial governments in Madang.

► Local authorities in Almami and Madang will be better able to assess the impacts of land-use decisions on forest resources and biodiversity and be able to promote cooperation of governmental agencies, NGOs and land owners.

► Local communities at four sites will be engaged in sustainable economic alternatives including community forestry, eco-tourism, and sound agricultural practices.

► There will be effective monitoring and evaluation of biological impacts, improvements in forest management and local governance with lessons shared widely by stakeholders in PNG and through ITTO networks.

► A learning approach to the implementation of stakeholder agreements in the Adelbert Range will be in place and supported by local clans, Government and other partners.

► Lessons and tools developed from the project will be shared with policy-makers, partners, other interested communities and international donors to enable similar work to be implemented elsewhere in PNG on a larger scale and at lower cost.

► A national map of opportunities and priorities for the use of stakeholder agreements and similar community-based conservation and resource management will be available.

4.2 SITUATION AT PROJECT COMPLETION

► Total of 20 clans signed conservation agreements of which 13 clans completed land use management plans endorsed by Almami Local Level Government and signed conservation agreements with president of the Almami local level government within the project implementation period. Each of the nine conservation communities have conservation managers and monitors on a voluntary basis and it is anticipated that if financial situation of conservation grows, financial incentive for the monitoring work they do, will be compensated by funds generated by the cooperative.

► The Almami LLG Environment and Conservation Law is inforce through out the whole of Almami area, through the project 25 communities ( 43,200 ha) were consulted and community conservation development process facilitated and are involved in setting up conservation areas and of these 9 communities comprising of 20 clans signed official conservation agreement with Almami local level government and these nine communities have management plans for 18,000 hectares and 4,360 under core conservation area.

► As stipulated by the Almami Environment and Conservation Law, the Conservation Advisory Committee was formed and functioned during the term of the project and recently gone through relection of the committee members.

► Land use management plans completed for the 20 clans and posters completed as well. ► Publication of the tools and processes completed for adoption by community based organizations

and non government organizations. ► Nine conservation agreement signed communities have formed conservation cooperative

societies as long term financing mechanism through people empowerment to work the land in compliance to their land use management plans and raise capital to sustaian conservation efforts and address social development issues to contribute towards poverty alleviation and improved quality of life.

► Lessons learned through this project especially the community conservation engagement and land use management planning process and products backed by legal framework can now be useful or could informed the ITTO and National Government and its stakeholders and development partners that these tools and processes developed through the project form the


building blocks to any REDD, REDD+ or even REDD++ , that the national government is in the process of developing and on a positive note, it can be reported here that, the National Government through PNG Forest Authority, Departmemt of Environment and Office of Climate Change and Development have been in consultation with project management in terms of sharing experiences and dessiminating information.Presentation to the REDD+ sub-working group was done on the 23

rd of April 2010.

► The land use management planning model and process has been mainstreamed in to Department of Enviroment and Conservation through a project undertaken by The Nature Conservancy on program of work on protected areas (PoWPA) in the country and the government plans to mainstream PoWPA to provinces and provincial legislation for forest protection will be useful.

► Bismark Sustainable Development model was developed to also mainstream tools and process and initial 12 provinces in the Bismark archipelago were selected and three workshops conducted and out of them 4 provinces took the initiative to commit resources and these were East Sepik, Manus, West New Britain and East New Britain, to date ONLY Manus and East New Britain are progressing and for Manus, two LLGs signed MOU with TNC for two years to use tools and processes developed to develop reef to ridges management plans to contraibute towards climate change adaptation strategy.

4.3 PROJECTS SUSTAINABILITY

At the local level in the conservation communities, the biggest challenge executing agency had to deal with is question of incentives linked to land use management plans of which conservation setaside is part of the total management area. Local people have lived in such forested ecosystem for decades and accessed goods and sevices from the forest and to them importance of biodiversity is hardly recognized and not until need arises for particular species of flora and fauna its population diminishing is realized. The conservation communities during the life of the project never had provision of proper health and education facilities and had to migrate to coastal areas to live and support their children attend schools and also have access to health facilities and for those families who decide not to migrate, had to travel at least a day or two just to get closer to government services and secondly to market garden produce and cash crops ie cocoa to earn an income. The original plan was to identify and establish compatible business opportunities and micro credit scheme and funding was earmarked to initiate, as the project implementation progressed, options to create business opportunities were researched and feasibilities conducted. Two studies were conducted independently on potential for certified eco forestry activity and on eco tourism. Road access was identified as main obstacle to conduct a viable sawmill business, while the latter required infrastructures such as road, health facilities and basic hospitality management. In terms of project’s sustainability beyond its funding time, the project management decided to put a proposal to support conservation cooperatives registered by the conservation communities to the Project Steering Committee (PSC) for deliberation and approval. The 2009 PSC endorsed the proposal. Currently there are three conservation cooperatives registered namely; Miani, Mima and Adelberts. Miani is formed by conservation communities who speak miani language, while Maiya speaking communities formed Adelberts cooperatives, and Mima is formed by communities who have not yet completed the conservation engagement process. The project management assisted Adelberts cooperative to registered to international Fair-trade organization and first audit was conducted last year November 2009 and the cooperative management having working on addressing corrective action requests identified by the audit. It is anticipated that by end of 2010 Adelbert cooperative will become fair-trade certified ready to export fair-trade labelled cocoa products to international market. The project management and communities see this approach/model as people empowerment to work towards their destiny with out relying on donor funding to sustain conservation and sustainable forest management activities initiated through ITTO funding. Just recently,


in 18-25 July 2010 a business exchange trip to highlands of Papua New Guinea gave the opportunity to the board and management of Adelbert cooperative to see and listen first hand, success stories, challenges and lessons learn from cooperatives in Eastern Highlands province. The main lessons learned was to be stringent on financial management, accountability, good governance and community mobilization if change is to be realized at community level. Post project sustainability will be financed by Adelbert conservation cooperative directed and managed by empowered community leaders from the conservation communities and 9-10 october 2010 conference was held for existing sister cooperative executives to share experiences and lessons learned and it is anticipated that fair-trade market will be accessed by other cooperatives through Adelbert cooperative as long as they complete their land use and management plans and have set aside conservation area. Figure 5: Project sustainable Finance Model Table 2: Benefit sharing structure

Table 3: Detail cost structure

# Items %

1 Manager 3.6

2 Finance/ Admin 1.8

3 Transport 3.6

4 Communication 2

5 Office equipment/ supplies 7.5

6 Rental 1.8

7 Working Capital 68.2

8 Benefits for staff 3.6

9 Board Allowance 2.5

10 AGM 3.6

11 Community Service (Sports/youth) 1.8

12 Casual 1.5

Total 100

The cooperative will access premium price from international fair-trade market and premium money will be monitored by Fair-trade to ensure funds are used to pay for social development projects and this money should add to the 5% development levy and conservation sustainability will be financed through 3% of the gross revenue from each bag of cocoa sold.

# Major stakeholders

% break up agreed by Board

1 Exporter (Ramu Coops) 5

2 Adelberts Cooperative Society 62

3 Fermantry 15

4 Conservation Fund 3

5 Community Dev Fund 5

6 Profit 8

7 Stabilisation Fund 2

Total 100


5.0 ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS


PROJECT ELEMENTS INDICATORS

MEANS OF VERIFICATION

STATUS OF EXPECTED OUTCOMES AND

INDICATORS

Output 1 Six Almami clans are

prepared to manage their

forest resources in the

Adelbert Range according to

agreed management plans,

incorporating conservation

priorities, with support from the

Almami local level

government.

Six clans signed conservation agreement and each have developed land use management plans.

Almami LLG active support through ward development and environmental advisory committees, budget allocations

Written conservation agreements and management plans posters developed and disseminated to communities and being used.

Long term financing mechanism developed through conservation cooperative to financing sustainability of conservation efforts and also to address livelihoods.

Expected outcomes was exceeded. 20 clans signed

conservation agreements and land use

management plans developed and endorse by

Almami LLG.

Community-based approaches adequately

incorporate biodiversity conservation objectives

Communities are implementing their land use

practices according to their land use management

plans.

Activity 1.1 – Establish

Conservation Agreements in

accordance with the Almami

Local Level Government

Environment and Conservation

Law

Community meetings decide to establish Conservation Agreement

Demarcation of boundary for conservation area, and agreement of all relevant clans

Conservation agreement signed

Documentation of village meetings

Community letter to Advisory Committee

Letter documented in records of Advisory Committee Meeting

Written Conservation Agreement

20 clans signed conservation agreements and have

land use management plans. Clans have signed

conservation agreements with local level

government president as stipulated by Almami LLG

Environment & Conservation Law.

Activity 1.2 - Identify and incorporate biodiversity priorities in land use and management plans at LLG, ward and clan levels

Biodiversity and mapping tools used by clan members and accepted by ward and district authorities

Biodiversity targets identified and maps used

Documentation of village/clan decisions

Map records held by Ward and District Authorities

High biodiversity areas have been identified and

form the core conservation areas, clearly

demarcated in the land use management plans.


in community planning process

Activity 1.3 - Develop and utilise community planning processes in the preparation of management plans

Community planning a part of village decision-making

Management Plans with enforceable provisions completed for each conservation area

Management plans adopted by Almami LLG committees

Documentation of village/clan decisions

Management Plans recorded by Ward and District Authorities

20 clans completed land use management plans

and posters completed and being used at

community level.

Activity 1.4 - Complete

sustainable finance strategy

and training in economically

and ecologically viable

enterprises

Sustainable finance strategy developed jointly with partners

Training in economically and ecologically viable enterprises completed

Assessment report with viability recommendations

Field visits and interviews

Ward and District records

Conservation communities developed conservation

cooperative focusing on cocoa and linked to Fair-

trade market to access better price and premium to

invest in social development projects. Cooperatives

directors undertook field trip and exchange visits in

to the highlands to visit coffee connections who are

Fair-trade certified.

Activity 1.5 - Provide

institutional support and

training to ensure the effective

implementation of the Almami

Local Level Government

Environment & Conservation

Law

Institutional self-assessments and priority action plans implemented by each government committee, agency involved in new law

Advisory Committee ensures management plans meet agreed standards

Self-assessment scores and action plans

Record of decisions by Almami LLG

Management Plans independently reviewed

Five year rolling plan developed for Almami having

conservation as one of its objectives is incorporated

in to District plan and financially supported.

Activity 1.6 – Establish partnerships with other local groups, including World Vision, Lutheran and Catholic Churches, to improve health and education service delivery to support sustainable livelihoods.

Formal agreements in place with organizations to cover each of health, education, two livelihood strategies

Clan expectations of service delivery met

Formal service agreements

Agreed joint workplan

Focus group discussions

European Union funded through their rural water

supply and sanitation program funded rainwater

catchments for nine clans.Lutheran Health services

facilitated Village Birth Attendant training, Research

Conservation Foundation conducted environmental

education training for teachers in the Almami and

Bogia district.


Output 2

Lessons learned and

mainstreaming activities

designed to assist local

resource owners and partners

implement the demonstrated

conservation and sustainable

forest management approach.

Strong partnership developed at provincial and national levels to promote and implement effective stakeholder agreements

At least 3 districts with similar legislation and developing conservation agreements with clan forest owners

Records of agreements and meetings between partners

Legislative records

Map of priority sites

Almami LLG Environment and Conservation

law was mainstreamed in to West New Britain

on to a Marime project, which then was

replicated in to Manus marine conservation

area.

MOU has been signed with two provinces in

Manus province, through the experiences, tools

and processes from the Adelberts project will

be applied and broader landscape spatial

planning will be developed capturing reefs to

ridges concept.

Tools and processes will also be used to

through and with partners in areas identified as

biodiversity hot spots in the country through the

National Biodiversity GAP analysis.

Activity 2.1 - Identify and

apply the key components for

successful community entry

and engagement with

provincial and national

partners, such as Government

agencies, local and

international NGOs, in at least

three additional sites.

Partners agree on key components of success

Success criteria part of the mainstreaming campaign design

Record of workshop(s) and meetings between partners

Mainstreaming design

Community enagagement tools and processes

have been published to be distributed to partners

and stakeholders for application in the field to take

conservation to scale . The toolkit has four

modules, being,1. Legal Matters, 2. Partnership and

Mainstreaming, 3. Community Conservation

Development processes, 4. Sustainable Finance.

Activity 2.2 - Undertake a

review, by the PNG Forest

Review completed with appropriate recommendations and

Provincial and national government reports

Agreed measures and

Madang Provincial Forest Protection Law enacted

and gazetted. Other provinces adopt similar


Authority, of national provincial

policy and legislation to

determine measures required

to facilitate wide adoption of

the approach being developed

in the Adelbert Range.

options

Support measures and incentives identified

Key “champions” engaged

incentives

Champions actively involved in visits, discussions, workshops

legislation. (Manus and East Sepik)

Activity 2.3 - Exchange and

consolidate lessons and

collaboratively develop

effective tools with partners for

resource-owner based

conservation and sustainable

forest management working

elsewhere in PNG.

Tools/methods workshops convened

Conservation Area Management and Land-use Planning tools developed

Records of workshops

Tools and methodologies published and promoted jointly by partners

Record of community planning meetings

Community enagagement tools and processes

have been published to be distributed to partners

and stakeholders for application in the field to take

conservation to scale . The toolkit has four

modules, being,1. Legal Matters, 2. Partnership and

Mainstreaming, 3. Community Conservation

Development processes, 4. Sustainable Finance.

Activity 2.4 - Identify and

establish compatible business

opportunities and micro-credit

scheme.

Small business opportunities assessed for viability

Review of enterprise incentives completed

Small Business Forum and community exchange program completed

Micro-credit scheme established and disbursing seed funds

Review of compatible business opportunities and incentives

Prospectus for micro-credit scheme

Record of venture capital investments

Record of public private partnerships

Three conservation cooperatives have been

registered and one of them, Adelberts conservation

cooperative linked to Fair-trade market to access

higher and premium price for organically grown

cocoa coming from communities who have

developed land use management plans and set

aside conservation areas. Income from sale of

these products will provide sustainable finance to

conservation efforts.

Activity 2.5 - Identify and map priority sites and design a mainstreaming program.

Map of priority sites

Agreed mainstreaming campaign

Partners in at least 3 sites identified

Map published jointly

Mainstreaming design

Records and reports of partners

Three provinces were identified through Bismark

Sustainable Development Planning processes to

work with provincial governments to develop

sustainable development plans addressing, social,

environment and economic sectors. These three

provinces are, Madang, Manus and West New

Britain out of 11 provinces in the Bismark region.


Activity 2.6 - Review progress, identify lessons and measures to improve project output delivery throughout each phase and independently evaluate project outputs

Evaluated outcomes, impacts and enabling conditions for strengths and weaknesses of approach

Biennial evaluation of monitoring indicators, and TNC project audit

Six monthly project reports

Six Biannual reports were prepared and submitted

and 3 Audited Financial Statements submitted to

ITTO, Final Audited Financial Report will be

submitted in December 2010.


► The Government of Japan is the major donor of the project, supported by the government of Australia

and TNC. The project recognises the importance of customary ownership over natural resources in PNG as the country takes the lead in the REDD initiative internationally, and the importance of linking national level priorities with needs skills of customary resource owners in sustainable forest management activities. The Adelbert range project is seen a significant learning opportunity on mechanisms for linking national priorities through the involvement of national government partners. How to maintain agreements with the partners, the community, and the government is important outcome of this project and the emerging REDD framework. The project is a potential model for scaling up to other parts of PNG. PNG has a lot more important natural resources beyond timber.

► Adelbert project, as actually implemented, has been in compliance with ITTO policy guidelines in

relation to ITTO Criteria and Indicators for sustainable forest management. In this, it was noted that a review of the potential for participating communities to participate in eco-forestry conducted for the project by the Foundation for People and Community Development (FPCD) found that the communities had met more than 70% of the requirements needed to participate as producers in the FPCD FSC Group certificate. The review further found that their potential to increase their participation in the process was limited more by the problem of road access than forest management or planning performance. With road access as the main hinderance to facilitate and effectively implement a viable eco-forestry model in areas designated for forest use in the land use and management plans, this option is not seen as viable option within the Adelberts project site in a short term, but would be considered in a later stage, until enabling conditions are favourable, but is feasible within Madang where partners, such as FPCD who are FSC certified are working with local communities sustainably managing their forest and generating revenue to address livelihood issues.

5.1 ANALYSIS AND COMMENTS :

► The rationale of the project at inception phase clearly identified clear principles and the process through which root causes were identified is acknowledged that through implementation of the project and especially while facilitating community conservation development process all root causes were addressed to a certain extent and except root causes which require government intervention to address. The lack of continuous budget to the local level government to implement policies through delivery of goods and services have been evident through out the life of the project and this situation has not change till now.

► The project problem definition as “ Communities are not conserving and sustainably

managing their forests for future generations” in the project document is clear and the project objective and implementation strategy contributed towards reducing the rate of deforestation and forest degradation through development of land use management plans and set aside conservation areas to preserve and protection endangered endemic species of flora and fauna and also cultural and traditional values and breakdown of clan/kinship ties. Through project Implementation phase the linkage of how environment sustains life of both modern life style and traditional life style was emphasized through explaining how forests protect watersheds, protect soil fertility, shelters food & medicinal plants, and home of the various species of plants and animals the humans depend on for existence and one should plan well prior to developing any particular forest area to minimize impact to the forest ecosystem and the natural habitat it provides for species of plants and animals.

► One of the highlights that the government, donors, partners and stakeholders need to know of

that has been learned of this project is the question of sustainability. Past experience have shown that most donor funded projects collapses the moment funding ceases, even though the original intent was for the government to institutionalize successful components of the project.

► The project management change original plan of activity under output 2, activity 2.4 identify and

establish compatible business opportunities and micro credit scheme, to organizing the


conservation communities to form and registering in to cooperatives that will be managed after being empowered through capacity building by project management, government and partners to ensure their operation is managed in a transparent, accountable and promotes good governance, instead of creating dependency syndrome.

► The approach of conservation cooperative can be summarized as “ People Empowerment for the People by the People” ( this model is illustrated in detail in section 4.3)

► The project had to deal with lots of misinformation from external influence outside of the project

area and sometimes within the project area as well and main one was the assumption that the government will grab hold of the land as soon as clan leaders sign the conservation agreement with the president of the local level government and secondly, when the news about carbon trading came into the scene lots more people were misinformed that TNC will sell the oxygen from the forest area. This is just an example of how correct information could be misinterpreted and jeopardize implementation of the project.

► The project team used meetings and field trips to correct misinformations and some times tried to

trace back to the original source of the information and in most cases people have not admitted to tell the truth, one is because they do not know or they could have fabricated the subject.

6.0 LESSON LEARNED ► The project origin being an area formely acquired by the state through an Forest Management

Agreement and land owners withdrawing based on court decision 2003 provides a lesson on how land owners could withdraw from agreement with the government if the acquisition process is not done transparently and secondly the problem identification was very clearly outlined in the project document, and also root causes of the key problem “ Communities are not conserving and sustainably managing their forests for future generations” stating clearly the effects this problem if not addressed would result in being;

Loss of productivity

Loss of ecological services

Loss of important resource base for sustainable livelihoods

Loss of biological diversity

6.1 LESSONS LEARNED FORM THE PROJECT IDENTIFICATION, DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

Highlights of lessons learned will be listed based on experience and challenges implementing the project to achieve the objective and expected outcomes under the two main outputs.

6.1.1LESSONS LEARNED –PROJECT DEVELOPMENT.

► In the 1990’s, many of these communities were a part of a Forest Management Area (FMA),

and their lands were slated for timber harvesting. Although the communities wanted the

roads, schools and health facilities promised in return for their timber, they did not fully

understand the effects that timber extraction would have on their land, resources and way of

life. Working with TNC these communities decided to withdraw from the FMA in order to

pursue a different course of action that would preserve and sustain their natural environment

and foster self reliance, while retaining community control over their land and resources.

► The inability to implement a system of successful protected areas under the existing legislative framework opened an opportunity to design new mechanisms for legally setting aside land for conservation within the country’s traditional land ownership systems. To be successful, such mechanisms needed to recognize traditional ownership, link permanent conservation protection with a return of control and responsibility over their resources to the clans, and provide opportunities for compatible enterprise and sustainable development to landowners. In partnership with traditional land owners of the Adelbert Mountains, Almami


LLG, and Madang Provincial Government, The Nature Conservancy and the UPNG School of Law pioneered two laws designed to accomplish these objectives. (: Almami Local Level Government Environment and Conservation Law 2003 and Madang Provincial Government Forest Protection Law 2007)

► The Government, NGOs and development partners must empower resource owners to ensure they become financially independent by providing expertise to strengthen their capacity in terms of accountability, transparency and promote good governance, by linking communities to partners whose mission is to provide such services.

► Biodiversity conservation is not high on the agenda at the community level, provision of proper health and education facilities and road infrastructure is in dire need by the communities and this is common through out most rural areas in PNG.

► Conservation, sustainable forest management, REDD, REDD+ REDD++ project has to have open and transparent financial benefit sharing structure linked to provision of social development projects and the model has to be linked back to forest conservation and sustainable forest management if effects of climate change has to be addressed through reducing emissions of carbon dioxide through deforestation and forest degradation.

► There is evidence of very high hand out mentality and the project had to struggle with; as expectations by the communities were beyond the scope of the project.

► Prior developing a project proposal for conservation, sustainable forest management, REDD, REDD+ or REDD++ project, all anticipated partners and stakeholders to the project has to be involved to develop project objective, expected outcomes and implementation strategy.

► All possible risks need to be identified and as group identify management strategy to manage the risk.

► Detail of project outcome has to be detailed out and discussed to minimize misconceptions and to address high expectations.

► Source of funding must be made transparent and any counterpart funding in-kind and cash contributions need to be stated.

► The project objective and expected outcome has to be explained very clearly to the clan leaders, community members, ward members, LLG president and administration, Provincial and District administration.

► To implement a project with clans/community participation requires huge investment of time and resources.

► Project can have very clear workplan and time lines, one should always take in to account that projects time line is not the same as clans/communities or even governments time frame or schedule. It is therefore, recommended that contingency plans must always be at hand so that work progress, in addition, multi technical team as established for this project must be established in future projects to meet twice a year, this is to advice and assist the project management team in implementation.

► This should be always be explicitly developed exit strategy and communicated prior to project implementation.

6.1.2 LESSONS LEARNED – PROJECT OPERATION.

► The reform system of the government is a very effective and efficient structure on paper, and it has been realized that the system is not functional due to funding constraints and secondly, most of the ward members and ward development committee have never given induction courses to ensure they become effective at the power base of the government sytem, where decision should be made on resource use, finance use etc.. for development to take place.

► Lack of capacity at the LLG level still remains both financially and human resource. It is recommended that the organic law on provincial and local level government needs amendment to abolish district headquarters and empower LLG to manage own affairs.

► Post project sustainability is dependent of how effective conservation cooperative is to be managed and lesson learned is not to rely heavily on government officers to provide on going


technical advice on business management, but rather link to other NGOs who have expertise to provide advice as part of their organizations workplan.

► Success of conservation cooperative will finance conservation program and fund social development projects, but will be lmited by production of cash crop it sells and cooperative has already commenced to network with other cooperatives in the district to mobilize the product as well as expertise and share experiences and lessons learned amongst each other to achieve their goals.

► For the conservation cooperative is to produce organically grown cocoa in compliance to their land use management plans and market the product to international fair-trade market in order to fetch higher base price and access premium to sustainable conservation efforts as well as pay for social development projects to improve quality of life, because sometimes healthy and educated citizens can manage the forest sustainably.

► Partnership is an important tool for progress and success, as practical and real outcomes are being seen and felt. It increases the resources, and also improves the capacity that are lacking.

► Partnership are most successful in those areas with strong and willingness on the part of committing and sharing resources by both local people and government authorities such as the LLG.

► Additionally, the continuing encouragement, praise and supervision are essential for a strong and committed partnership as we have seen with TNC and LLG.

► An important precondition for success has been good communication and trust between ALLG and TNC.

► Other important areas include a common understanding and acceptance of the roles and responsibilities by both parties.

► Ongoing management and administrative support is a key issue. ► An important issue here is to identify ways of over coming barriers that may otherwise affect

the partnership between both parties. The solution is to address these issues, concerns and challenges in a manner that satisfies both organisations.

► To make an impact on these issues, it is therefore necessary to significantly improve the outlook for redirection and a concentration of effort on efficient and effective approaches, processes and workable models of partnership strategies.

7.0 DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

► The project designed to achieve both the development and specifc objectives under two expected outputs 1& 2 respectively. Output 1 focus on activities to develop tools and processes and testing them through participatory approaches with communities, have proven to be successful which lead to communities conducting simplified conservation action planning by selecting focal biological and community targets and assessing their status of conditions and if population is declining, as in most cases, strategies to mitigate threats was developed in the land use management plans for implementation to reverse the condition of particular species or system back to favourable condition.

► Partnerships were developed with a number of organizations aimed at sharing lessons learned,

experiences and challenges, to collectively discuss and develop strategies, depending on degree and nature of these challenges. Output 2 focused on mainstreaming tools and processes and the project achieved expected outputs successfully. The planning process developed through the project was mainstreamed in to 12 provinces in the Bismark Archipelago (see appendix…) of which only four committed to progress this process in Manus, Madang, East New Britain and West New Britain. Two local level government has already signed MOUs with The Nature Conservancy to develop broader landscape ( reef to ridges) land use management plans. To provide legal backing of these processes, review of national policies and legislations concluded with medium term strategy aimed at developing provincial forest protection law, while long term plan is to amend the forestry act 1993 to carter for forest conservation as the (1991) current forest policy stipulates forest conservation and the forestry act does not. The organic law on provincial and local level government under section 42 (1) (s) and (y) was utilized to develop Madang


Forest Protection Bill, which is still pending PEC endorsement prior enactment by the Minister for provincial and local level government affairs.

► In terms of dessimination of tools and processes developed through the project, local non

governmental organization ( Research Conservation Foundation) was contracted to publish the A training manual for clan based conservation practitioners, which comprises of four modules ranging from legal, partnership and mainstreaming, community conservation development process and sustainable finance. This manual is targeted at partners working with forest communities and once used and feedback received, revisions should be included in second edition.

► Sustainable Finance model through conservation cooperative has been developed and

transparent and accountable benefit sharing structure developed, with the main objective to sustain conservation and sustainable forest management strategies and also to address social development issues in the communities to improve quality of life, and most importantly comply to land use and management plans to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide through reduced deforestation and forest degradation.

► The project had very effective Project Steering Committee which comprised of ITTO, TNC,

PNGFA, DEC, DNPM, Ministry of Agriculture of Japan, Japanese Embassy in PNG and Australian donor. This committee meet annually and so far had four meetings beginning may 2007.

► To provide advisory role to the project management, a multi technical team was formed in 2006

and comprised of PNGFA, DEC, DNPM, PNGFRI, MPA, BDA, ALLG and TNC. This team met twice annually during the life of the project.

► The success of the project has been very much dependent on effective Project Steering

Committee supported by Multi technical team to provide advisory role and more importantly the project team must be commended with the partners the communities for making this project a success, even though it is complex in nature. The core management team comprises of all PNG nationals.

7.1 CONCLUSIONS

► As PNG is leading at the international level On efforts to reduce effects of climate change through REDD and REDD+ and the government through the office of the climate change and environment sustainability in the process of develop climate compatible development strategy and PNG Forest Authority launching Forestry and Climate Change Framework for Action, the tools and processes developed through the project forms the building block available that the government could use.

► Publication of the tools and processes in to four modules enables partners both CSOs, CBOs, Government ( Academic, Research Institutions and Statutory organizations) to access and use it to work towards their goals and especially to leverage conservation and sustainable forest management towards reducing carbon dioxide emissions through reduced deforestation and forest degradation to address effects of climate change and contribute towards biodiversity conservation and improve quality of life for target beneficiaries.

► Working with and through partners being the main strategic approach to scale up the adelberts model realizes the need to invest time and resources on most partners to be transparent, accountable and to promote good governance and capacity building need to be factored as a continuous activity, followed by monitoring and evaluation to determine their ability to manage own affairs independently.


► Capacity building and strengthening needs to be linked to existing service providers such as NGOs and Institutions. Example, VSO international has been consulted and agreed to assist build capacity of the cooperative society to be accountable, transparent and promoting good governance in managing their own affairs.

► Sustainability post project as demonstrated by the Adelbert project must always be through People Empowerment for the People by the People to be self reliant rather than relying heavily on hand outs which usually weakens the brain power of intelligent people with talent to work towards their own destiny.

► The Adelbert conservation cooperative model demonstrates people empowered to leverage conservation and sustainable forest management by complying to their land use management plans and producing a commodity (cocoa) that is organically grown and has a story and the story is, “ cocoa is grown organically by conservation communities who have developed and implementing land use management plans and have setside conservation areas legislated under environmental and conservation law” Funds generated will contribute towards sustaining conservation efforts and pay for social development projects to improve livelihood.

8.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

► The government of PNG through PNG Forest Authority and Office of the Climate change and

Environment sustainability should select the Adelbert project area as a REDD/REDD+ demonstration area and conduct initial project status analysis as per IPCC guidelines and CCBS standars to determine requirements to be meet to qualify for REDD or REDD+ project.

► A follow up project using experiences and lessons learned needs to be developed by the government through PNGFA and DEC to combine REDD+ and biodiversity conservation and this project should comprise of three main components: These components should be 1. Enhancement of livelihoods, 2. Carbon accounting and carbon conservation 3. Biodiversity conservation.

► The follow up project proposal need to be developed by government taking the lead the partners, (TNC and others) contributing and the project site would not necessary be Adelberts alone, but also look at other sites example, grassland reforest in central, FPCD sites, VDT site in Madang and Ramu Block 2, Yasitu Natres.

► The Project Steering Committee recommended that Project Management prepares a submission to the National Forest Board to inform them of the project completion and also for the board to recognize successes, lessons learned and challenges and see how the tools and processes could be used to assist the government in its efforts to develop National framework for REDD/REDD+.


ANNEX 1: IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE

Output/ Responsible Schedule (in months)

Activities Party 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Output 1

1.1 Consult, agree and sign

conservation agreements

Project Manager, Almami LLG & Almami Clan

Leaders

1.2 Identify and incorporate

biodiversity priorities in land use and

management plans

Conservation Planner/ Officer, Almami LLG,

Ward Councillors & Almami Clan Leaders

1.3 Community planning processes to

prepare management plans

Conservation/Planner Officer, Almami Clan

Leaders & Community

1.4 Development of sustainable

finance strategies

Project Manager, CCD Facilitators & Almami

LLG

1.5 Conduct Institutional Self

Assessment and training

Project Manager, Almami LLG, Ward councillors

and Ward development comm.

1.6 Establish partnerships with other

local groups

Project Manager /Partnership coordinator

Output 2

2.1 Identify and apply successful

community entry and engagement

approaches with partners

Project Manager /Mainstreaming coordinator

2.2 Review of national provincial

policy and legislation

GoPNG/ Mainstream Coord (PNG Forest

Authority, PNG ITTO committee)

2.3 Consolidate lessons and develop

effective tools for resource-owner

based conservation

Mainstreaming Coordinator/ Local universities

and National Experts

2.4 Identify and establish compatible

business opportunities and micro-

credit scheme.

Mainstreaming Coordinator/Business

Development consultant

2.5 Identify and map priority sites and

design a mainstreaming program

Project Manager (National Forest Service, WWF

and Conservation International)


2.6 Review progress, lessons and

measures to improve project output

delivery & independently evaluate project

outputs

Project Manager, Monitoring and Evaluation

team


ANNEX 2: CONSERVATION AGREEMENT SIGNING PHOTOS


ANNEX 3: MAP of Conservation areas


ANNEX 4: Project Audited Financial Statements

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