Officers from Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) commemorated the World Mangrove Day by taking part in planting 5000 Mangrove seedlings at Dogura Beach in Port Moresby on Wednesday, (Nov 9th, 2022).
The Mangrove planting event was hosted by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and supported by key partners.
Jacinta Kull from CCDA during the event acknowledged TNC for the initiative in organizing such event.
“We are happy to be here to represent Government in terms of Climate Change and what we are doing here in PNG. Basically, one of our areas of support is in the REDD+, that is reducing emission from deforestation and degradation. We mainly deal with the policies, to have those right polices in place by the government to enable the implementation,” she said.
Mangrove is good for both Adaption and Mitigation.
For Adaption it is recommend for coastal areas because it is less cost.
It’s the least cost Method for costal protection for developing countries like Papua New Guinea.
Other methods for coastal protection like stone walling and others are expensive.
For mitigation, Mangroves absorb Carbon Dioxide faster than the trees in the forest.
The Nature Conservancy Country Director Jacqueline Nen said this event was supposed to happen sometime in July but because of elections and other reasons it was pushed back.
“Our plan is to plant 20,000 Mangrove seedlings over the next 2 years. By the end of 2 years, we will have planted 20 000 Mangroves, so today you are all here to help us and help the community to plant the 5000 Mangroves. This is not something that is impossible to achieve. If we can all do this every year, we can make it a bigger program,” she said.
“I want to acknowledge communities here in Dogura because they have taken ownership of the rehabilitation of the Mangrove. It has really been their project we are just supporting them,” Ms. Nen said.