Although the Project start date was 1 January 2008, delays in obtaining signed Project Agreements between the contractual parties meant that research activities of the project did not commence until the end of May 2008.
Village Development Trust (VDT), which was included as one of the partner organisations in the Project Proposal, did not sign the agreement and withdrew from the project.
Good progress has been made in overcoming the delayed start-up of the project and the work is on track for the delivery of the planned outcomes.
The project commencement trip to PNG was undertaken by members of the project team from the University of Melbourne, in October - November 2008, when the following activities were undertaken:
Visits to PNG partner organisations to assess their facilities, discuss the project program and budget.
Visits to selected timber processing and manufacturing companies, small landowners and portable sawmills to develop an understanding of current major issues and strategic directions of PNG forestry and timber sectors.
One day intensive workshop "Project Introduction Workshop" involving all project partners and invited industry members which was organised at the PNG Timber and Forestry Training College. The workshop introduced the project program and detailed activities, and addressed wood processing and manufacturing topics, such as product design and development, portable sawmilling, wood drying, wood preservation, furniture production, OHS and product quality. The workshop allowed its participants to openly discuss the project research program as well as brainstorm various options that should be adopted in order to maximize benefits to PNG timber industry and small communities.
The formation of the Project Steering Committee. The Committee was established at the workshop to represents the interests of all interested parties.
The visits and discussions allowed development of the recommendations on enhancement of PNG education, research and training programs and improvements in forest and wood products industry. The outcomes have been presented in the Project Report No1 "Project commencement visit to PNG and recommendations on improvements in PNG downstream processing forest and wood products industry".
The Steering Group has directed researchers to meet with the Minister of Forests and his staff with the objective of discussing vision statements and recommendations so that they are consistent with the National policy. This will take place during the next planned visit to PNG.
An important part of the project is a research study undertaken by a Master's postgraduate student at the University of Melbourne, Peter Edwin, a staff member of PNG Timber and Forestry Training Centre. The objectives of this research study are:
to develop methods for assessing the PNG timber species for various wood products and wood service conditions (e.g. indoor, outdoor) under different climatic conditions (e.g. tropics, sub-tropics, and dry climate),
to carry out the laboratory tests on PNG timber species to determine their technological characteristics,
to develop protocols for testing of PNG lesser used hardwood timbers.
So far a qualitative analysis of field data was undertaken based on questionnaires, field visits and interviews with three stakeholders namely; training institutions, wood processing industries, and community - based forest resource owners. The field visits and interviews were conducted to collect data on the utilization of forest resources, the processing and manufacturing facilities and types of wood products produced for various markets. This study was conducted in Morobe and Madang provinces in PNG. The selection of timber species for testing was based on the outcomes of the survey that indicated which timber species would be in demand from both the timber millers and the forest resource owners' views. The study will have significant values to the ACIAR project and consequently to the PNG timber industry as knowledge of the species' properties will enable the determination of their potential applications and markets.
The development of a detailed program for enhanced training, education and research to support the development of wood value-added industries is in progress. A detailed inventory and technical status of research equipment available at PNG FRI has been completed. This information will enable the determination of priorities for the equipment that needs to be repaired and renovated as well as for new equipment that needs to be purchased.
PNG partners identified wood bending as the priority value-added technology to be introduced to PNG training and subsequently to the industry production methods. A research study is being carried out by Paul Aoae of TFTC with the aim of investigating the suitability of PNG timbers for wood bending. An intensive program of tuition on the fundamental and practical aspects of wood bending will be provided to Mr Aoae by the researchers at the University of Melbourne in the coming weeks.