Douglas Tomuriesa

Tomuriesa raised this issue on the floor of Parliament today and further called for the overhauling of the selection process with the Higher Education on Grade 12 school leavers.

He said parents have invested more on their children and expected them to make it to higher institutions but that’s not the case after scoring good marks in their Grade 12 examinations.

About K60,000 was spent on the gardens through the sponsorship of various industry participants.

Forestry Minister Douglas Tomuriesa has a background in landscaping.

After being a Minister for the second term, he decided to put his skills into good use by changing the once bushy area of the forest authority into a blossoming garden.

Tomuriesa said his reason behind the beautification program is three-fold.

The argument stemmed from a question without notice raised by Ijivitari MP, Richard Masere, asking Tomuriesa to clarify the logging issue in the area.

When responding to questions from Richard Masere, Forestry Minister, Douglas Tomuriesa, said the project had been given the ‘green light’ with due diligent but was interrupted by the Provincial member, Gary Juffa.

“We have followed due diligence to award the logging permit and proper documents.”

Forestry Minister, Douglas Tomuriesa, said with the current situation of the economy, they must work together to ensure they participate in assisting the country.

The Minister said this should be done while ensuring the forests are looked after.

“I know the country has gone through a lot of challenges and you all know the economic situation the country is going through. But that does not stop us, as foresters, to contribute towards the recovery of this country, the economic recovery of this country.”

The Minster said this during a ceremony commemorating International Day of Forests yesterday (March 21).

Tomuriesa said conserving the country’s forests was everyone’s responsibility.

He said for too long, critics have been bad mouthing the Ministry and PNGFA that millions of hectares of the country’s forests were being destroyed, which is not true.

“And my challenge to them (critics) is stop this nonsense, get on a plane and fly down to Milne Bay. Stop this nonsense and fly into Western Province, Gulf Province and Hela… the forest is still there,” he said.

This immediately follows a successful patrol to Gulf Province.

Upon MV YWAM PNG’s arrival to Kaibola on Sunday, Member for Kiriwina-Goodenough Open, Douglas Tomuriesa, presented a cheque for K100,000 to YWAM Medical Ships on behalf of the Kiriwina-Goodenough District Development Authority (DDA).

He was fulfilling a pledge toward annual operational expenses for YWAM’s Training and Medical Ship, the MV YWAM PNG.

That's the finding from a new report by the NGO, Forest Trends.

The group tracked the flow of conservation finance under the UN conservation programme known as REDD+ between 2009 and 2014.

It identified US$45.3 million in total finance directed to REDD+ programmes in PNG, over half of which came from individual donor countries, with Japan the largest donor by far.

A senior associate in the REDD+ forest conservation finance tracking initiative, Brian Schaap said not a lot of resources are being deployed to conserve PNG's huge forests.

He dismissed a Non-Government Organization  (NGO) allegation that a quarter of logs exported from the country are illegal logs.     

“In PNG we have been accused for too long about illegal logging practices in the country.”

Mr Tomuriesa said that all logs exported from legal logging permit holders were  certified to international standard.  

“We are so fortunate that when our logs are cut, number one you have forest officers that go out and grade the logs, and check that the log is legitimate and from a consignment (permitted logging) area.