The first year of this project was occupied with the fuelwood survey, identification of community collaborators,, establishment of two nurseries and establishment of 11 model planting sites covering the highlands and National Capital Development to evaluate fuelwood species and systems.
The fuelwood survey aims to understand the flow of fuelwood and the business environment surrounding it. Approximately 3,000 questionnaires were fielded in the National Capital District (NCD), Lae urban and rural districts (in Morobe Province), Mt Hagen urban and rural districts, (in Western Highlands) rural districts of Henganofi (Eastern Highlands) and Chuave (Chimbu Province). These areas were targeted by the survey because they are known to be fuelwood-stressed. Different questionnaires were presented to urban and rural domestic fuelwood users to assess the physical and social dimensions of their fuelwood and general energy use. Fuelwood sellers were also surveyed. In-depth monitoring of the daily fuelwood use of a representative range of households was undertaken to corroborate the estimates of fuelwood use made in the questionnaires. Our NGO partner, Foundation for People and Community Development (FPCD) undertook the groundwork for this part of the survey. Further understanding of the fuelwood economy was gained through semi-structured interviews of commercial or industrial users of fuelwood (e.g. hot-food vendors, lime burners, plantation factories etc) and institutional stakeholders in the fuelwood economy. This work was done by partners at the PNG Forest Research Institute (FRI). At the time of reporting the survey material is still being collated and analysed.
The aim of planting fuelwood species over a range of field sites and systems to evaluate performance under different environmental and management regimes and to serve as model plantings for communities to evaluate for their own application. The key innovation here is growing trees as short-rotation coppicing (SRC) systems. The experiment is not just to see how the trees grow, but also how the landholders respond to these ways of growing trees
The project has established both densely-planted woodlots (1.5m * 1.0m and 1.5m * 2.0m) and contour-hedgerow, or alley cropping, agroforestry systems (double-row hedgerows with 0.5m along row and 0.6m between rows, distance between hedgerows vary between 5-10 m depending on slope). There are 6 sites in Western Highlands, 2 sites in Chimbu province and 3 sites in the NCD. The species being trialled in the highlands as SRC woodlots are: Casuarina junghuhniana, C. oligodon, Eucalyptus grandis, E. pellita, and E. robusta. The highland alley cropping species are Calliandra calothyrsus, Casuarina junghuhniana and Leucaena diversifolia. The lowland SRC woodlot species in the NCD are Azadirachta indica, Casuarina equisetifolia, Casuarina junghuhniana, Calliandra calothyrsus, Eucalyptus alba, E. pellita and E. tereticornis
The 'species of choice' for highlanders is the local Casuarina oligodon, known as Yar. Yar is an excellent firewood which can be burnt very soon after harvest, but unfortunately it does not coppice. So we are trialling Casuarina junghuhniana which is indigenous to Indonesia, highly suitable for firewood and charcoal and reported to coppice. It is not found in PNG. Our farmers have responded well to the nickname of 'Indoyar' for this tree and are very pleased with its early growth which has far exceeded both the upland yar and coastal yar (C. equistifolia). Calliandra calothyrsus prefers relatively low altitudes and planting it in the uplands at altitudes of up to 2,000m may be considered by some to be 'heroic'. But we hope that it will still perform well given the relatively favourable rainfall (annual average ~ 2,600mm) and temperature (average range 12 - 29C) of this region. So far, so good.
We sought to include indigenous high-altitude (>1500 m) species that could be developed as SRC firewood crops and farmers around Mt Hagen suggested Kumbuk (Thyllanthus flaviflorus). We have seen it grow well and fast from cuttings in a farmer's field but so far our efforts with this species have not produced plants.
The eucalypts chosen include those evaluated in international trials and for which genetically improved seed was used (E. pellita, E. camaldulensis), species with a track record in PNG (E. grandis, E. robusta). as well as the local eucalypt round Port Moresby, E. alba. These will probably best be kept in woodlot systems rather than the hedgerow systems because of their known competitiveness with agricultural crops.
So far the trees in the majority of sites are growing very well and even where they are not flourishing we are still getting good information.
Approximately 18,000 trees have been planted with the on-ground direction of our NGO partners HOPEworldwide (in NCD) and Peoples Action for Rural Development (in highlands). Both NGOs were trained in nursery management and raised the project's seedlings. Colleagues at FRI were closely involved with seed sowing, nursery training and tree establishment.