Panels & Furniture Asia January/February 2021

ENVIRONMENT REPORT
Photo: ianknabel66 / Pixabay
A large number of the rural population lives primitively in tribes, and their main mode of transport is by boat
CLIMATE AND WEATHER
Apart from mountain climate in areas with
an altitude above 1,000 m, PNG experiences
a tropical rainforest climate, and is hot
and humid all year round. The dry season
runs from May to October, with August
onwards being the peak fire season, and
the rainy season runs from November to
April. Daily temperatures remain mostly
the same throughout the year, hovering
between a maximum of 23 degrees Celsius
and minimum of 30 degrees Celsius. The
daily maximum and minimum temperatures
rarely exceed 35 and 20 degrees Celsius,
respectively, and the average annual rainfall
is around 2,500mm.
ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
PNG has a dual-economy model that is
typical of developing countries. The mining of
natural resources leads the capital-intensive
and export-oriented economy, while selfsufficiency
of a majority of the population
keeps the internal economy running. The PNG
government has been actively introducing
new policies to promote economic
development, and according to World Bank
data, their gross domestic product climbed
to an all-time high of US$24.829 billion in
2019. 2 However, the country’s economic
and social development still lags behind
many of its neighbours in the Asia-Pacific
region, with 56.6% of their population living
in multidimensional poverty. 3 With a 2019
Human Development Index value of 0.555,
PNG ranks 155 out of 189 on the United
Nations Development Programme’s latest
Human Development Report. 4
Due to poor infrastructure, land transportation
is largely undeveloped both in rural and urban
areas, and the main transportation methods
are by air and water. Surrounded by water from
three directions and with approximately 5,152
kilometres of coastline, PNG is well connected
by sea to other regions and countries such as
Australia, Japan, Singapore, China and Taiwan.
CHINA-PNG COOPERATION
In 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping
announced the Belt and Road Initiative – a
massive infrastructure and development
programme aimed at strengthening economic
relations between China and its neighbouring
countries. Thanks to increased political and
economic cooperation between PNG and
China, trade between the two has grown and
flourished over the past decades. Convenient
access to each another via sea transport
routes, coupled with PNG’s rapid economic
development, was a warm invitation for
Chinese enterprises looking to venture where
natural resources are available in abundance.
In July 2016, Peter O’Neill, then prime minister
of PNG, paid an official visit to China, during
which both countries agreed to strengthen
cooperation in many areas such as trade,
agriculture, tourism, civil aviation and forestry,
among others, under China’s Belt and Road
Initiative and PNG’s Development Strategic
Plan 2010-2030. 5
The two countries seem to complement each
other in terms of forest resources management
and utilisation. According to figures in China’s
9th National Forestry Survey (2014–2018),
China’s forested area spans just 22.96%. 6 With
the implementation of the national forest
protection programme, timber production
dropped drastically and is not expected to rise.
China relies heavily on timber imports and is
the world’s largest importer of wood products.
With PNG’s abundance of natural resources,
and China having a wealth of experience in
managing, monitoring and conserving forest
resources, it is fitting that both countries work
together to leverage on their strengths.
RESEARCH EFFORTS
Background
In 2016, Shenzhen VivaFounder Investment
Holdings Limited (hereon referred to as
Shenzhen VivaFounder) and PNG’s Tangoy
Holdings Limited signed an agreement to
sustainably develop 780,000 ha of forestland
in West Sepik Province for large-scale
agricultural and forestry utilisation. Under a
joint venture company Tangoy VivaFounder
Holdings Limited, the project involved four
main sectors: 7
1. Forest resource management, including
logging and board processing
2. Forest resource development, including
the harvesting and processing of several
medicinal materials and spices (eg,
sandalwood, dendrobium, vanilla beans,
etc)
3. Construction of plantations and industrial
parks
4. Construction of relevant infrastructure,
including roads, bridges, ports, storage and
power, etc
The Academy of Forest Inventory and Planning
of China’s State Forestry Administration was
Panels & Furniture Asia | January / February 2021 27