Much of our food is hunted and fished near the camp, as you’ve probably already read. Vegetables come from the market at Boboa village, our own little garden and the Catfish clan hunting camp nearby. There are plenty of things that are not available locally or are too expensive, so we receive supplies once a month from Port Moresby. The order comes by ship to the Fly River where a large canoe picks it up and delivers it to us. Generally, it contains fuel and oil for our boat, rice, mosquito repellent, cooking oil, kerosene for lamps, toilet paper and so on.

We have a ‘camp coordinator’ who has worked in the area, under similar conditions, for years. The person works for four weeks, then there’s a change and a new co-ordinator moves in. Each co-ordinator knows the local people, their customs and the area. In emergencies it can take up to 24 hours before we can get medical help to the GFRS, so the co-ordinator is well-trained in first aid. We have a large collection of first aid supplies and medicines for all possible ailments. We can even take blood samples and analyse them here at the camp. If needed, patients will be flown via Port Moresby to Australia to receive treatment.

I will soon leave the base camp with three other volunteers and join the foresters at the northern area of the Kuni tribe’s land. Here we will continue the boundary marking of the forest. Our days we will be spent in the forest and at nights we will stay in the specially built bush camp. We are going to carry a waterproof briefcase with us all the time, containing a satellite phone, GPS and first aid equipment for emergencies.

The work here is very time consuming and needs a lot of human resources. Luckily it is a success and the eco-forestry project is up and running. It is, in my opinion, the best alternative to illegal and destructive logging. I hope that the Finnish politicians back home start to slowly think about the import of illegal timber into Europe. Even though Finland is not a big importer of tropical wood we have a key role in this issue, as a member of European union. So far Finnish politicians and the forest industry have opposed any legal measures to stop the import of illegal timber into Europe. When I think about this I am ashamed on behalf of my home country.

See you when I get back for boundary marking.