Staff of the PNG Forest Authority are being taught to use drones in their line of work.
The use of drones is being introduced to the organisation to help with manpower in monitoring the vast forest vegetation at selected plantations and projects around the country.
Sixteen staff of the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority are currently attending a Drone Usage for Forest Monitoring Training Workshop in Port Moresby.
The two-week workshop ends this Friday, 1st of March.
The workshop participants are from the Southern region office based in Port Moresby, Area West Regional office in West New Britain Province, Eastern Highlands, Bulolo forest plantation in Morobe, Kuriva forestry project outside Port Moresby, and offices within the PNGFA headquarters.
The training is being held under the PNGFA/Japan International Cooperation Agency project titled: Capacity Development for Operationalisation of PNG Forest Resource Information Management System for Addressing Climate Change.
The workshop facilitators are therefore from both the PNGFA and JICA.
The training has a week of theory exercises followed by hands-on training using the drone at Kupiano in Central Province.
The PNGFA believes that PNG is blessed with a wide expanse of forest which would support human life through its wise use, in harmony with environmental benefits.
However, logistical limitations hinder PNGFA from fully managing the forest.
This training is aimed at addressing manpower and technology constraints with the participants handpicked from the different forestry locations to learn and upon their return, share their knowledge; increasing PNGFA’s capacity in the long run.