Open dialogue on oil palm development in East New Britain has been made possible for all stakeholders through the support of the Australian Government and ENB provincial administration.
For two days major issues regarding oil palm development specifically in Sinivit and East Pomio local level governments were discussed, debated and possible scenarios on improvement were given by participants.
Deputy Administrator for ENBPA, Levi Mano in his opening remarks stated he hoped the expected outcomes of the workshop will be realised into guiding policies. He explained that oil palm is an introduced crop in the country since the early ‘80’s, and since being embraced into the province, has generated what he described as a ‘controversy’.
He said ENB has always been into cocoa and copra, then coffee and balsa, and now oil palm. “I think it is time we make our position clear about oil palm in the province, and develop policies to guide its development,” he said.
He further explained that it is important to take note that oil palm development has seen both Sinivit and East Pomio LLGs develop at a rapid rate in the last 10 years.
The workshop saw major players in the oil palm industry in Papua New Guinea such as New Britain Palm Oil Limited [NBPOL] and Tzen Niugini Limited under the East New Britain Group of Companies present how as industries they expect cooperation from the government and all other stakeholders to build capacity for sustainable and responsible development.
Their presence, as well as those of various senior officers from relevant government departments from both the National and Provincial level, and from the West New Britain provincial government, raised the standard of dialogue and has enabled the first ever pilot workshop on oil palm development in the province to form a baseline data of the beginnings of standard guiding policies on oil palm development.
Non-governmental organisations such as Barefoot Community Services, Wide Bay Conservation, were pleased to be involved as it has allowed for understanding of efforts taken to bring in, monitor and maintain development in East New Britain by all stakeholders.
For Chairman of the Qaqet (Baining) Stewardship Council, Nicholaus Leo and Executive Officer Boniface Setavo, it was important that resource landowners be included.
This was evidenced by a turnout of small oil palm estate owners, village oil palm (VOP) owners, and local leaders and members of different integrated land groups (ILG’s) from Sinivit and East Pomio. Towards the end of the two day workshop, there was integrated planning process by all participants who developed decision making tools to assess the social, environmental and economic benefits available currently and possible in the future in oil palm impacted areas.
Facilitator Nate Peterson was impressed with the amount of thought and strategies put in by participants during this pilot planning workshop.
Peterson is with The Nature Conservancy [TNC] and is one of the facilitators from both TNC and CSIRO which is Australia’s natural science agency, who are assisting with the coordination of decision making in East and West New Britain.