Rod Holden wants to ensure Papua New Guineans landowners have the financial tools to save their forests. Photo: Global Witness Media Hub
An Australian businessman says he wants to ensure Papua New Guineans landowners have the financial tools to save their forests.
Rod Holden has been working with landowners' representative, Robert Mukoi, in Middle Ramu in Madang Province, to try and arrive at a sustainable development model.
PNG landowner looking to new strategy to save forests
Mukoi, who is representing about 19,000 people spread across dozens of claims, is striving to bring basic services to his region without destroying the surrounding rain forest.
But he fears it will come down to letting the loggers in because they are the only ones taking an interest in the resource.
He said a road connection would give access for basic government services to come in.
Mukoi said at the moment sick people have to walk or be carried to the nearest link, and that is often the river. If the forestry company was to come in it might be prevailed upon to build the road, though this seems unlikely.
The alternative is being paid to keep the trees in the ground.
PNG, ten or so years ago, tried to encourage a carbon sequestering concept called REDD+, which is defined as 'a framework to encourage developing countries to reduce emissions and the removal of greenhouse gases through forest management options.'
"Another possible approach is Natural Capital, which is defined as 'the value of everything that comes from nature - soil, air, water and all living creatures. Natural Capital gives people the essential means for life.'
"If society wants to save the forest then the global community has an obligation to help out developing countries which would be denying themselves access to a resource.
"We know that there are donor agencies and their funds out there in the world. And they've been talking about saving the jungle for the good of mankind, because as we see the world is dying slowly,' Mukoi said.
"We the people in the jungle living under those trees, we know what's happening. But we have needs also, what you have in the outside world, we also have those needs. And we know that our government cannot provide this. The alternative is to sell our trees to whoever can come and get it. At the same time, they should be able to give us basic infrastructures like aid posts for health services, schools, law and order."
"We have so many killings, so many rapes, fighting. So many things happening in the jungle. But because there is no road, how can we access? How can the government send in police, law in order to help?"
Mukoi has established links with Rod Holden, an Australian businessman who set a company called Curagaia, to foster the development of environmental impact investments for institutional investors. His website reveals an aim to deliver exponential systems change, to achieve true global sustainability.
Holden introduced Mukoi to the concept of Natural Capital.
"I explained Natural Capital accounting and the SEEA Framework [ System of Environmental-Economic Accounting] that has come out of the UN. It was launched in March 2021. And that's gradually going global. It's sort of designed to sit alongside the system of national accounts. It spits out GDP numbers, but also factoring in externalities. The true costs of using our natural resources actually gets borne by the companies rather than society," Holden said.
He said this also considers the drawdown of natural resources, "a country like Australia is a quarry and we mine everything, and we send it overseas and that is going to run out sooner or later. We need to take a long term view of Natural Capital, which essentially is nature."
Holden said all forms of capital - human, financial, intellectual, are all based on Natural Capital, so "long term stewardship of natural capital must be the first principle of all human endeavor for a truly sustainable planet."
He said there is already a value in a tree standing in the forest, not least what it contributes in terms of producing oxygen and filtering water and so on.
"So, the Middle Ramu landowners can get their schools, hospital clinics and roads if businesses like Holden's Curagaia can convince investors to buy their products which will then generate a return for Robert Mukoi and his community."