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31 March 2006

A bowl of soup from Papua

Posted by Hapsoro, forests campaigner

Sailing across the Pacific Ocean on board the legendary Rainbow Warrior is the most incredible thing I have ever done. Alongside Indonesia, this ocean stretches from Papua up to North Sulawesi. Some locals called the Pacific the "calmy ocean".

It is home to a highly diverse array of marine life. Playful dolphins, whales and various turtle species are easily spotted. Hundreds of colourful coral fish and many shark species live in the wide coral reef ecosystem.

We've left Manokwari and are heading to Jakarta. It is a long journey, because the Warrior sails slowly! We meet small fishing boats on the way. As usual, we offer a friendly wave as we pass. They are hard workers, whose life depends on the richness of the ocean. An Indonesian ballad that describes how the fishermen struggle in the ocean to feed their families crosses my mind.

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30 March 2006

"Stop trashing my forest!"

Posted by Brian, PNG landowner campaigning in Europe and the UK

Today I delivered a giant letter to a UK company, Alchemy Partners, asking them to stop trashing my rainforests for plywood. Alchemey's daughter company, Montague L Meyer, is selling this plywood - made from Bintangor and other tropical species - to the UK marketplace. Here's what the letter said:

For generations that stretch into the distant past my people have depended on the forest. It is home to our sacred sites and to our ancestors, and has always provided us with everything we need -our food, medicines, clean water, building materials for our houses, everything.

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A dolphin and the definition of illegal logging

Posted by Sophie, blogger on the Warrior

We are sailing through the beautiful area of Raja Ampati - characterised by small forested islands, coral reefs, lagoons and deep blues seas. The warm sweet smell of the forest wafts over on the breeze, together with the screeches and melodic calls of birds. The locals on board tell us there are two kinds of Birds of Paradise in these parts. In the distance we can see Marabu, dark mighty hardwoods, which are called 'Indonesia's mahogany". It's one of the main species targetted by illegal loggers in this area.

So what exactly is illegal logging? And what's the difference between illegal logging and destructive logging? It's not just when companies go in without permission (called having a concession) to areas and take trees. It's more complex than that.

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29 March 2006

A day of rest and remodelling

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

"Papua New Guinea is a Christian country," Boncy, a forester, explains to me. Indeed, missionaries seem to have done quite some converting in a very short amount of time. Boncy estimates that one third of the people (himself included) are Seventh Day Adventists.

Each month he donates 10% of his salary to the church for projects in "poor countries". But, what matters now is that he doesn't work on Saturdays. Some of the other foresters belong to churches that rest on Sunday. Since they operate as a team, this means there is no boundary marking on Saturday, nor on Sunday.

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28 March 2006

Beware the forest dwarf

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

"Oooooeeeee," Joe (from the White Croc clan), yells through the forest. Far away, Rocky echoes with a feeble "Ooee".

"He is lost," says Joe. "That's because of the dwarf. The dwarf that carries two palm leafs around." Joe explains that when you meet the dwarf in the forest, he likes to fool around with you and lead you to the wrong path.

The dwarf won't harm you, but will make you get lost. Joe says he once had to sleep a night in the forest because he got lost this way.

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A taste of the rainforest

Posted by Nigel, communications team leader

Arriving in PNG from an Amsterdam winter (it was snowing lightly the day I left) I knew things would be pretty different. But the weather was the least of it!

As the new Chief Media Officer at Greenpeace International, I leapt at the chance to join the GFRS on Lake Murray after only a matter of weeks in the job. During those weeks, I’d helped write reports and press releases about our project out here, but nothing had prepared me for how wonderful the real thing is.

One of the phrases used in those publications was that the ancient intact rainforests were the ‘supermarket’ for the Kuni and other tribes living here in Western Province. During my time here I’ve realised how true that is – except the technique of ‘checking out’ is a bit different!

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27 March 2006

But what about the crocs?!

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

After cruising for three hours over the lake, we finally arrive at the camp from the White Crocodile clan, where we will be demarcating a forest management area over the comming days. "Ok guys, have fun," says Nic a bit cynically, after we have taken our stuff off the boat and he is about to go back.

Jeff, the campaigner, only spent five minutes on land, but that was enough for him to find out that the camp was surrounded by crocodile nests! Furthermore, we are camping right next to a bush fowl nest, aka mungi nest - the infamous itching mites, and the camp has a serious fly population problem.

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Smile, please: Open day in Manokwari

It's “ Open Boat” day in Manokwari and there are hundreds of school children taking tours of the ship. There's a bustle of people, faces peering in every porthole, queues of kids at every set of stairs, and interested, inquiring people everywhere.

It's great that so many people are keen to visit the ship and find out what is going on. Being on the crew, I get a lot of attention. It’s a weird experience, being asked to pose for photo after photo, then signing the back of pictures of the Warrior. It started getting very surreal when a guy asked me to sign his shirt. I'm so glad I'm not a pop star!

We have a great group of volunteers from the local university to help us out, and lead the tours in Indonesian. As well as offering a tour of the ship, we have set up a photo display up on the bridge deck so everyone can see images of illegal logging and its affects on local communities.

Here, Yuyu, one of our volunteers, writes about his experiences at the open day and his feelings about illegal logging in Papua:

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26 March 2006

Cool school – the panel discussion on eco-forestry

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Rainbow Warrior

Here’s a summary of the panel discussion with the forestry students at The State University Of Papua, Manokwari., as mentioned in Ginger's recent blog.

Our campaigners, Hapsoro and Ginger made up the panel with Bustar, Abner, from Greenpeace South East Asia, as well as lecturers from the University.

Flo and I sat in the audience and nobody dared to sit beside us, maybe because we sat in the front row and that’s really uncool! People handed around the now familiar little red boxes we received at the welcoming ceremonies – they contain goodies! This one had water (very important in this heat), a bread roll with a chilli pepper sticking out of it and a glow-in-the-dark green cake. It looked seriously radioactive … tasted quite yummy though.

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25 March 2006

The hospital at Boboa

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

Totally improvised, with Sam on the guitar, Bart sings his farewell song: “When the coconuts fall, when the coconuts fall in PNG, there will be ecoforestry”.

It's Saturday, the day the 'big plane' (about 15 seats) comes, a day of coming and going and sitting for hours on the landing strip because the plane is due 'When the coconuts fall'.

By the time we get to the “airport”, Boboa's market has wrapped up. But, when Juni finds out we are looking for some veggies, she takes me to her brother who has a tree full of guave behind his house. Her brother works in the hospital, and after we chat he takes me on a guided tour of this nice little building.

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24 March 2006

From the forest to the sea...

Posted by Flo, activist on board the Rainbow Warrior

It's shaking. It's swaying. Moving left, moving right. A lot different from the GFRS, my home of the last few weeks. I moved on, boarding the Rainbow Warrior in Jayapura.

It's difficult to summarise what happened at the GFRS; so much happened. Just the return trip was an adventure, lots of near-misses. Did you read the post by Klaas earlier on, the other “White Papuan”? He very politely failed to mention the fact that I (!) almost flipped/capsized the boat on our last trip to the airport, and we almost got eaten by crocodiles.

Then the pilots almost missed the runway in Port Moresby, and I almost didn't get my visa to Indonesia – due to landslides and heavy rain crossing the border.

But here I am, on the Rainbow Warrior, where we have a fridge for once!

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Stay away from the drop off!

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Warrior

Some of us take advantage of a few hours break to go and explore one of the many coral reefs just minutes from the docks in Manokwari. With one of the local volunteers, we venture out in an inflatable to a little cove he knows where a reef stretches out to sea. We pass small islands covered in coconut palms, sheltering small villages. Little wooden fishing boats congregate over the shallows, fishing off the rich coral.

As we get closer we slow the boat right down and tilt the engine out of the water. Lookouts at the front keep us away from getting too close to the delicate reef. We navigate through to the shore and before we even get to the beach, we hear a whop sound as Chris rolls backward off the boat like a pro and swims off exploring. The rest of us pull the boat up on a white sandy beach lined with Jackfruit trees.

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23 March 2006

Manokwari welcome

Posted by Ginger, forests campaigner

As we arrived into Manokwari, we received another amazing Papuan welcome. Manokwai is a small town nestled in a bay. It’s surrounded by distant mountains.

As we pulled in, small fishing boats gathered around, and over 200 people gathered on the dock to greet us with smiles and waves.

The welcome began with the Hatam Meyah Sough tribe performing the Tumbuk Tanah dance. They start the dance with someone calling out a chant. As synchronized chanting begins, everyone links arms and stomps their feet, forming a tight circle.

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The spirit of Kiunga-Aiambak

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

"At night you should not come here," says Jamie. "On this spot, where we are sitting, a man died. A tree fell on his head".

We are sitting on the feeding road to the infamous Kiunga-Aiambak project.

This 2-kilometre wide “road” was built by a logging company, Concord Pacific. It was really just an illegal logging project. After a protracted legal battle, the project was finally declared illegal, many years later.

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22 March 2006

"Why is Greenpeace here?"

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

It is nice and cool in the 'men’s house' in the centre of Usikov village. The lack of walls allows for a fresh wind to blow in, and the palm leaf roof, which – judging from the black spider webs hanging from it – has been there for a while, does a much better job of keeping the place cool then the corrugated iron roofing from the school yesterday.

Albert picks up the blue line and spans it along the little sticks he just pushed into the ground. Slowly the boundary of his white-crocodile clan land appears. It is shaped like a rectangle, of which one of the long sides is full of teeth – the peninsulas that stretch out into the lake.

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21 March 2006

The dug-out canoe highway

Posted by Nic, GFRS co-ordinator

Yesterday we went to Miwa – a small village on the lake populated by the Begua. While waiting there for Simon and Linda from Barefoot, we were introduced to a pint sized cassowary... still a baby, five months after locals found it orphaned (most likely from a hunt).

Very funny little thing it was too ... pecking around the house, completely oblivious to all the people and the dogs. It may be eaten eventually, but they take a lot of care to rear cassowary, and it's 3-4 years before they're fully grown, a local tells me. In Australia – where I'm from – these birds are endangered, so it's taken some time to get used to the idea that they're eaten here.

Eventually our boat is loaded and we're ready to go ... and then a few more locals jump in ... everyone's keen to go across the lake to the demo milling site. A short ride later, and we're there. Tucked in a picturesque inlet, about two nautical miles from the nearest village (Kusikina).

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20 March 2006

Jayapura nights

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Rainbow Warrior

We leave the port walking through the gritty docks on a balmy evening. The hot smells of the city hit us and I feel like a real sailor. Actually, it’s more like my own South Pacific fantasy of a real sailor going ashore.

The headlights of cars and motorbikes stream by, their exhausts deafening and bewildering. By the shop-fronts men hang out in groups; playing chess, cards and other games I do not recognise. The marketplace is full of women laying out fruit and vegetables on mats on the ground in neat piles for sale.

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Avoiding turtle soup....

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

The kids are already waiting for us, as we paddle past the hunting camp. Some in a canoe, others sit in tree, or on a roof. Some hide under their mother’s skirt. Their fathers joyfully call out to invite us to come ashore.

The boys caught a turtle and the women made a wonderful turtle soup from it. They want to treat us to some. The invitation brings cheers from the Kuni men and the foresters. As a veteran vegetarian, I do my best to share their eagerness. Here in the Paradise Forests, there is of course nothing wrong with eating a turtle. This animal had a great life. Eat or be eaten, it's the law of the jungle, and that is exactly where we are! Still, I’d prefer to pass on the offer.

To avoid any awkwardness, I wander off to have a look around the camp.

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Farewell, Lake Murray

Posted by Karen, GFRS correspondent

I fly out over the Lake in the twin prop 26-seater. It came late, but it came.

I gaze down over the blue water and green shades of the forest, the grasses, the islands of this great watery expanse – trying to recognise the places I've been, the villages I've visited.

I'm sad to be leaving this world, this stunningly beautiful Lake Murray. And these great people, these big-hearted communities.

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19 March 2006

Where are all the big trees?

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

We are back in the area that we demarcated yesterday – a designated eco-forestry area. Today the foresters plot a straight baseline of 500 metres right across it. We walk along the baseline, planning to make an inventory of all the big trees within 10 metres on each side. But ... there are no big trees.

"This is a very young forest," says Sam, one of the foresters. There are many tall, thin trees. A few reach a diameter of about 30 to 40cm but only one comes above the required 60cm. Only those trees can be harvested. "There was a big fire here in 1997," the Kuni men explain. Ah, that explains why...

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18 March 2006

“Our first orders”

Posted by Karen, GFRS correspondent

We are waiting at Boboa for the plane to come back from its detour to Oboe and Kiunga and to fly us to Port Moresby. I’m leaving Lake Murray.

It's hot. We're sitting under a palm tree. It's really hot. There are circles of women gathered as well as Sep, his family, and all of the volunteers coming in and going out. Sep unfolds a sheet of paper with a handwritten order.

“Our first order,” he smiles. It's for 43 pieces of eco-timber (around 2 metre cubed) from the Snowy Mountains Eng Corp.

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A picture paints a thousand words

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

With a smile from ear to ear and shining brown eyes, the elderly deaf man makes enthusiastic gestures to us. He moves his arms around, makes a sign for beating drums, points at us and then holds his hands before his eyes as if holding a camera.

"He would like you to make a picture of him beating the Kuni drum,” one of the villagers translates.

"Of course! With pleasure!" When I take out my camera his smile grows even bigger. He signs us to wait and climbs into his house, reappearing with the Kuni drum and ... he’s wearing traditional custom! (A grass skirt with a big sea-snail shell between his legs).

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17 March 2006

Everything is covered with snow...

By Brian from PN, campaigning in Europe

Believe it or not, I have only seen snow like this on TV; children playing with snowballs makes me think of Christmas.

We've been to Belgium. Brussels is such a "European" city, it has many very old buildings with its style of architecture dating back to 14th and 15th century and many beautiful churches. This is one thing in Europe that has always fascinated me so much and now I'm seeing it with my own eyes.

The best part of Belgium is Brugge, an old city dating back to the 12th century; it has everything still intact, a tourist destination though. I spent half a day in Brugge being a tourist with Veerle from the Belgian office.

I've eaten more sandwiches and bread than I ever have before. Bread and cheese, bread and ham, bread for breakfast, bread for lunch ... I can't wait to eat taro with coconut cream when I get home.

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The pitter-patter of little feet

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

Two dragonflies, with velvet black wings and bright blue little bodies, fly around our canoe. We are paddling over a little river through green wilderness. Ferns, vines, big trees, small trees, palm trees – they all grow over, under, up and through eachother.

A warning comes from the bow of the canoe: "Tree!" A fallen tree crosses the little river like a bridge. There is just enough space for the canoe to pass underneath it. Our crew – two men from the Kuni tribe, who paddle the canoe standing up – simply step out of the boat, onto the tree, and back in on the other side. "I think you better sleep," Jamie says to me, meaning I should lie flat on the bottom of the canoe instead of trying to climb out of the canoe and risking an unwanted swim for us all!

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16 March 2006

The long ride back

Posted by Klaas and Florian, GFRS volunteers

“No fofogiàp!” I shout in fluent Koni in reply to Garex, one of the fathers of the Kuskus clan, when he wishes me a safe journey home. “No problem!” It makes the locals smile and wave even harder as our boat disappears between the trees.

Florian and I have worked with a few clans for the past three weeks, but this was the greatest experience. “Look at this, man!” Florian says to Aima, who’s driving the boat. It’s one of the arrows we received from the clan elder. It is used for hunting fellow humans. One of the elders, who is deaf, theatrically showed us that if you get hit with one, it will break at the tip and you will be buried with the point inside, because there is no way it will ever come out.

Impressed by the story and the gift, Florian whispers to me that he doubts we will get this over a European border. We’ll see.

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15 March 2006

Crew change on the boundary

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

It’s a 3-hour boat trip to the camp north of Lake Murray, where we go to pick up the team of Klaas, Flo and the foresters. They have just spent a week up there - next week it will be my turn.

The last part of the trip is especially pretty! We pass through a vast area of thick, flooded forest. It’s a jungle of plants, growing upon plants, growing upon plants, all searching for a little place in the sun. And there it is, our little light at the end of the green tunnel!

Dressed in shorts and Nikes (!), leaning on a long stick, blond Flo is waiting for us, surrounded by curious dark-skinned kids. "You look like a missionary, Flo!" I tease him. "Oh please, no!" he cries, and throws away his stick.

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Celebrating the arrival of the sawmill

Posted by Karen, GFRS correspondent

As our boat passes under a gateway of fronds, a wiry figure covered in pale yellow mud and painted face, leaps out from behind a tree, shouts and fires an arrow over our heads.

We’re arriving at Ogia, a village on the east side of Lake Murray, to celebrate the arrival of a sawmill.

A crowd surrounds us and we disembark to big welcomes and customary handshakes. We’re lead up the rise, along the rubber plant and palm frond alleyway to a grandstand built of bamboo, rubber plants and palm fronds adorned with flowers.

It’s shady and cool inside, and looks out over an enclosure built for the sawmill.

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Forum guests favour community solutions

Posted by Ginger Cassady, forests campaigner

Many exciting events have been planned during our time here in Jayapura, including an Eco-Foresty Forum organised by Bustar, one of our local campaigners. The idea behind the Forum was to bring local community members, representatives of non-government organisations (NGOs) and government officials together to discuss the future of the forest in Papua.

At the rate the forests are currently being logged, the intact forest of this region could be gone in less than 20 years. In a bid to address this grim situation, we invited all the players together to have an open dialogue on what lies ahead.

Many influential people from all over the region attended the Forum – including the Governor of Jayapura, the Provincial Forest Minister, spokespeople from NGOs and leaders of more than 15 Papuan tribes.

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14 March 2006

Looking through a landowner's eyes

Posted by Karen, GFRS correspondent

Last night Sep took us out to set the fishing nets. It was already late. The sun was low, the sky full of dappled clouds and the lake a deep dark green.

We head east from the camp, towards the sun, further up the inlet.

It takes three men to lay the nets; two to reel the green mesh out, and tie it to stakes driven into the shallow muddy bottom, one more to paddle the boat sideways. The net hangs from orange floats across the channel.

An eagle is perched on the highest branch of a bare, dead tree. The bright green grasses soften the darkness. Lilly pads cradle huge drops of water and a tiny sweet smelling white flower floats alongside. Two wild ducks take off, leaving concentric ripples in the dark water.

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Arrival in Jayapura

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Warrior

A black butterfly flits past and lands on the deck; soon mosquitoes and other insects are around. After a week at sea we are coming back to land. The days of walking around in shorts and sleeveless t-shirts are over – we’re covering up, to avoid malaria and other nasty mosquito-born diseases and out of respect for local custom.

It’s morning and already very hot as we pull into a stunning harbour of towering rock walls plunging into the sea with rain-forest clinging to every surface. We come in past floating fishing rafts made from wood, rope and bamboo looking like mini islands with fishing nets strung underneath.

We are arriving at Jayapura on the northern coast of Papua, just over the border from PNG. Today was an amazing day for Greenpeace South East Asia, for it is not just the start of the Indonesian leg of the Warrior's tour, it’s the launch of the forests campaign in south-east Asia as well.

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A forest dilemma

Posted by Florian and Klaas, GFRS volunteers

An evening radio broadcast ...

"And what if you sell your logging concessions to a Malaysian logging company?" Sep’s voice comes squeaking and rasping from the radio, tuned in to Karai National Radio ('karai' is pidgin for 'cry'). "Maybe you get some money, you buy some rice, you eat, you go to the toilet, and then? You have nothing".

Together with the boys of the Kuskus clan, Florian and I listen to this clear explanation, from the man who invited Greenpeace to help the people in this area of Papua New Guinea keep forestry management in their own hands.

There’s enthusiastic nodding all around from the listeners here, and many eyes beam when Sep mentions the different tribes and clans around Lake Murray. This is about their land, their forest. About them!

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13 March 2006

No rest for the cookie-maker

Posted by Sophie, blogger on the Rainbow Warrior

Moonlight spills across the open sea, from behind herringbone clouds it lights the ship eerily, revealing contorted figures on deck with limbs splayed in all directions, seemingly defying gravity as the ship sways.

It’s a moonlit yoga session. Surely, this doesn't happen on that many ships?

That was last night. Now it’s Sunday, the crew’s day off. The captain, mates and engineers still do their shifts – they have to make sure the ship is operating smoothly and staying on course – but everyone else gets to chill out.

Some lie in hammocks on deck, others watch DVDs in the mess, or exercise in the hold. I'm baking experimental vegan cookies in the galley.

While my cookies are in the oven I head up to the bridge where Dmitri, our Russian Second Mate, is on 'watch'. He is taking bearings to locate our exact position – we have GPS, but the old fashioned way is far more accurate.

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12 March 2006

Putting your eggs in one basket

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

At the foot of a tree, less than half a metre away from my feet, lie 7 pink spotted eggs in a small nest. I would have walked straight past if it wasn’t for Sep. “I knew there was a nest here because I saw the mother run away,” he says.

Even though we are actually in the middle of a egg hunt, we are not going to take these. We are after the bigger stuff: bush fowl eggs. Bush fowls have black feathers and look a bit like a big chicken on longer legs. Like chickens, they lay eggs the whole year round, but theirs are 2-3 times bigger.

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Flotsam and jetsam

Posted by Sophie, blogger on the Rainbow Warrior

We are off the coast of PNG, passing scores of little active volcanic islands. The sea is full of trees, shrubs and all sorts floating around. We see the mouth of the Seapik river – there must have been heavy rain onshore to wash stuff this far out.

Shannon, who works as a deck-hand, has some interesting information to share on the floating shrubs. Apparently, you often get all kinds of sea-life lurking below such things floating at sea. Little fish, being munched by big fish, being munched by sharks … all sorts. Sometimes, fishermen leave float bits of wood (complete with homing beacons), then come back later for an easy catch.

"So there might be sharks down there?" I ask, gingerly peering over the side...

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11 March 2006

Meandering through life on the Lake...

Posted by Karen, GFRS correspondent

We head up to Boboa, to the elementary school to talk to some of the village children about the forest. They are a little in awe of our big crew of seven – so many white faces – but Bart entertains them with drawings of worms and fish, birds and humans and an explanation of the food chain.

Back in the boat, we motor for about an hour before arriving in the village of Magipopo, where we pick up two women and their children, three men, sacks for sago, sugar cane, spears for hunting, and a cooking pot. We're off to Mumus, a camp where the people from Magipopo and Usokof go to make sago, their staple food.

We weave our way along the river for another hour to reach the camp.

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10 March 2006

It's so cold here!

Posted by Brian, PNG activist currently in Europe

After spending five days at the GFRS, meeting the Warrior in PNG and helping out with a school students' tour of the ship, I take an 18-hour flight to Holland - resting for only 2 hours beforehand.

At the Dutch Greenpeace office I greet my colleagues and am briefed about our meeting with the Minister for Land, Nature and Food Security.

Theo, a dedicated Greenpeace activist, gives me a tour of the warehouse. It's amazing, full of inflatables, high powered boats, mobile sleeping quarters and everything else - you name it!

Early in the morning we drive to The Hague for our meeting with the Minister. Outside, we display images of illegal logging in the Paradise Forests, and the plywood it produces. Thousands of employees filter in, and we hand them pamphlets.

It's snowing, and so cold I think I'll die! I meet the minister at 4:30pm in his conference room with the Dutch Greenpeace activists and the media. I deliver this message:

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A visitor from across the lake

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

The Lake is a perfect mirror. Over the mirror slides a canoe, from the hunting camp across the bay. The Kuni canoes are so narrow that everybody stands in them! The men from the hunting camp come to visit us every day and help with all possible things. Some days ago, a few of the women also came across to our camp.

Unfortunately they didn’t speak much English, but Sep told us they wanted to see what the camp looked like, as they had woven all the palm leaves for the roof - quite some work!

Today, an old man comes to visit. Curtis, our camp coordinator, goes down to welcome him, but the man ignores him and walks straight up to Bart and me, joining us on a bench. From his fibre bag he takes out a small package and unrolls it.

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9 March 2006

A peace treaty with a difference

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

Today we get up before the Birds of Paradise, for a very special walk. Sep, a local leader, takes us to the path over which, 7 generations ago, his ancestors reached Lake Murray.

As we walk through the awakening forest, he tells us how, a long, long time ago, all his ancestors, as well as those of other tribes, were locked up in a cave.

When a mythological figure dug them up, they all spread out over the forest. That was a time of many wars and Sep tells us that the Kuni wiped out several tribes. Until recent, they were still fighting with the Begwa, who today are their neighbours and friends.

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8 March 2006

Oh, buoy

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Rainbow Warrior

Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!

I scramble for my boots (in case of fire) and get myself on deck. I've been down below so I'm nearly the last there and people are already springing into action. Two members of the crew are getting an inflatable ready for launch while the Bosun operates the boat crane. Everyone else is pointing an arm out to sea. The First Mate gives me my orders: "Help the Captain steer to the man over-board. See where they are pointing? Point too." Peering out to sea I finally spot our "man over board" (a large orange buoy), and keep my arm furiously pointing at it as the ship veers around.

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Intimate encounters

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

"Look there, Klaas!" He slowly comes closer with his binoculars, focusing on the direction I’m pointing in. I just happened to look up among the trees next to me, and there it was...

What a beautiful animal!

"It's a dove," he says. But this is not your ordinary black and white spotted garden dove. This is a dove harbouring an ambition to win the next Miss Dove elections. It has a shining yellow belly, a purple breast and a blue back. Imagine having a few hundreds of those in your local main square. They would surely brighten up the town a whole lot!

Meanwhile, there is something creeping up my leg. I role up my pants and find my first bloodsucker.

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7 March 2006

Out to sea

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Rainbow Warrior

We're leaving Port Moresby, bidding goodbye to our new friends in Papua New Guinea (PNG) as we go. The sincere farewells show how quickly we've connected with people here. I'm a bit sad to leave. There's great things happening in PNG even though it's a difficult place to campaign in. As we part, we wish everyone at the GFRS the best of luck with the boundary marking and eco-forestry initiative.

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It's going to be a swampy ride...

Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer

"Fasten your seatbelts, there are two emergency exits in front and two in the back and it is 30 minutes to the next stop." The co-pilot repeats the safety talk in one breath, for the sixth time…

We are going to Lake Murray in the "big plane" (a 21-seat twin-otter). It stops almost every half hour. After the first stop, the quality of the landing strips diminish. Most are made out of beaten earth. One is actually in the middle of a swamp!

The villagers all come to welcome the plane and see what novelties it brings. We, the passengers, get off to stretch our legs and find a bush to use as a bathroom. At the third stop, the pilot gets into a fight with one of the villagers.

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6 March 2006

Tall tales from the fireside

Posted by Flo, GFRS volunteer

The waves are so high, they’re almost leaping over the sides of our little canoe. The head wind makes it very hard to steer. The canoe has such a low edge, it's easy to tip. “Please don't, this area has crocodiles!”

Late one night, everybody returned from the bush after a hard days work. Exhausted, we sat around the fireplace. Some were trying to roast their Mungi-bites over the fire. The heat comforted everybody; it had rained all day. Before long we noticed we were just about to finish off the last of our cream crackers.

We're running out of food!

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5 March 2006

Shore leave

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Warrior

Here’s a plan… Arrive in the tropics, having never been anywhere vaguely humid before. Long before you’re vaguely acclimatised, spend eight hours rugged up in the rainforest, trekking over steep hills.

We are about to depart from Port Moresby so a few of the crew took the opportunity to get into the forest and spend a day hiking along the notoriously hard-going Kokoda Trail.

Despite much overheating (collapsing in to a swollen heap and fanning myself with giant leaves), it was a totally amazing experience. Surrounded by trees with gigantic buttress roots and twisted vines, we watched butterflies flutter around and heard the calls of Birds of Paradise.

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The largest moth in the world and other discoveries

Posted by Grant Rosoman, forests campaigner

In Zeiva forest area, we found and photographed a Hercules moth. It’s a spectacular moth, reputed to be the largest in the world.

At 15cm wide, this one was as big as a human hand. Another example of the wonders of the Paradise Forests!

The team at Zeiva has completed the Forest Management Area (FMA) boundary marking and baseline inventory survey of the Begwa baramundi clan. International volunteers, Klaas and Florian, assisted with the survey, marking a transect through the forest and then identifying and measuring every tree over 40cm for 10m either side.

Part of the forest was badly damaged by the fires during the El Nino drought of 1997/98 but is regenerating very well. The most common commercial timber tree was New Guinea Rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus).

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4 March 2006

Dancing from PNG to Panama

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Rainbow Warrior

It’s open day on the Warrior, when groups of local school children, families, friends and colleagues from other NGOs come on board to visit. One visitor says he’s dreamed of coming aboard this ship for 30 years.

We're entertained by more fantastic shows by Papua New Guinean dancers. The dancers, from the lower highlands and are striking – with thick, bright yellow face make up and large, extravagant hats made from human hair and feathers. They had a little trouble getting onto the bridge in their oversized headgear!

I hear gaggles of laughter from the bridge and find Ronnie, our cook, entertaining a group of kids with his stories.

I've been hanging out with some of the landowners who’ve kicked large logging companies out of their forest and are starting eco-forestry projects. They are inspiring. I'm overwhelmed at their courage to keep resisting. They tell me intense, horrific tales about the corrupt actions of the logging companies and the police. These stories need to be heard. I will be posting them in detail soon.

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3 March 2006

A-hunting we will go

Posted by Klaas, GFRS volunteer

To supplement our diet of rice and bananas the boys go out to hunt regularly. Flo (from Germany) and I go along to help ...

Here’s how it works … One group goes out to chase the animals towards the other group. We hear their calls coming closer and Sep aims his one shot rifle. A cassowary runs through the dense undergrowth. Bang! A disappointed Sep looks at me. “I missed,” he says. The bird is long gone.

A bush fowl runs close past us, but reloading the rifle takes too long and besides, the bird is hardly big enough to feed 3 of us, let alone 15 people here now.

So we put out a fishing net. After one day it contains a saratoga and a catfish, but after another night there’s four saratogas and three catfish and one other fish (I forget the name).

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2 March 2006

Bird watching and bad puns

Posted by Grant Rosoman, forests campaigner

A number of rare or local endemic birds have been identified in Lake Murray. These are birds rarely seen elsewhere in PNG and would have birdwatchers flocking from around the world to catch a glimpse of them.

We are researching and gathering data on them, so standby for a story on this. Some of them we are identifying from hunting bags.

It appears there has never been a bird identification expedition in the Lake Murray area so the potential for rare and endemic species is high and the discovery of new species is a possibility.

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All hands on deck

Posted by Sophie, blogger on board the Rainbow Warrior

Today we have an onboard briefing about the Warrior’s trip for the crew and volunteers. There’s an AV system set up in the hold but it is sweltering right now and far, far too hot to spend more than five minuets down there without melting into a gasping puddle. Not so good for concentration!

When someone asks if there is a sheet or something to project slides of the forest onto the crew are like a slick machine; with hardly any discussion a sheet appears, plus magnets to attach it to the wall, hands on each corner helping it up, and an extension lead for the projector…

This calm teamwork is impressive. I can’t wait ’til we sail!

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1 March 2006

House building 101

Posted by Klaas, GFRS volunteer

Decorating the camp and turning it into an enjoyable place to stay is good fun. The boys are really helpful and they can make anything out of wood.

If I only point in the direction of something I want to make, there are already three of them standing next to me to help! This feels really comfortable. Of course I try to do certain things myself and the boys have a good laugh when I fail.

Then there is of course the boundary marking work, which Flo and I did yesterday for the first time. A village to the west of the lake is the first on our list. Some local boys came with us to start making the trail around their land.

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