Importance of Carbon Trading in Papua New Guinea

By James Aipa

It is indeed true that Papua New Guinea is a failed state. There is no democracy in the government today. There is hardly any service delivery to the vast majority in rural PNG.

Decision to bring Aussie Police personnel to PNG is on the right course. I opposed this in 2004, but I see the need to bring them back due to so much corruption at all levels, administrative to policing.

Wenge is PNG's hero; he has forever been our hero. His proposal for execution is at this time highly demanded in PNG. All those classes of people mentioned should go through the axe, NO mercy.

Carbon trading is an absolute joke in an infant country like PNG without experts. PNG needs those so called Academics at Unitech's Forestry Dept., Bulolo Forestry College, Forest Research Institute in Lae and the National Forest Authority and others who have expert knowledge about "Carbon Sequestration" to come clear about this issue and the negative impacts associated with storage of too much carbon in the soil.

From an agricultural viewpoint, in Soil Science, there is what we call a C:N ratio, ie: carbon to nitrogen ratio. The C/N ratio is very important in farming systems for agricultural productivity or rather in farming and/or forest ecosystems for sustainability of plant crop.

What is the C:N ratio of organic matter and why is it important?

Papua New Guinea's newest found friend, Steven C Rockefeller Jr attended briefings by the Forest Industry Association and visited the Rimbunan Hijau’s Panakawa integrated timber processing facility in Western province

The C:N ratio of organic matter means the amount of carbon relative to the amount of nitrogen present. There is always more carbon than nitrogen in organic matter. It is usually written as C:N and is a single number, because it expresses how much more carbon than nitrogen there is. For example if the ratio is 20, this means that there are 20 grams of carbon for each gram of nitrogen in that kind of organic matter.

If the ratio is 100, it means that there are 100 grams of carbon for each gram of nitrogen. So if the number is low it means that the amount of carbon is reasonably similar to the amount of nitrogen. If the ratio is a large number, it means that there is considerably more carbon than nitrogen. The C:N ratio does not tell us what form the carbon and nitrogen are in, just how much is there. The C:N ratio is important because of what happens when organic matter is incorporated into soils. First, the larger organisms like mites and soil animals break it into smaller pieces.

Then the fungi and bacteria start to decompose it (they secrete enzymes to break up the chemical compounds it is made of). When the enzymes have disrupted the compounds, the bacteria and fungi can use some of the parts released in this process as nutrients. For example, if the enzyme is degrading a protein, the microbe would be able to use the carbon, nitrogen and sulfur (if there is some) for its own cell wall structure and cellular contents.

Excess nutrients to the requirements of the microorganisms are available for other soil organisms or plants to use. The microorganisms can access nitrogen in soil more easily than plants can, so the plants sometimes miss out.

This means that if there is not enough nitrogen for all the organisms, the plants will probably be nitrogen deficient and nitrogen addition will be needed to meet the requirements of the plant. This is why incorporating organic matter into soils can change the amount of nitrogen (and other nutrients) available to plants. Incorporating organic matter that has a high C:N ratio will probably cause some nitrogen deficiency in the crops/plants, at least in the short-term.

Okay, carbon sequestration brings in billions, the question is: where do we get billions to substitute for nitrogen deficiency in crop/plants? That for sure will come from the poor farmer’s pocket to pay for those so called fertilizers.

Folks, we need to educate our people back home not to entertain those so called Konds, Roberts, and whoever is involved in “Carbon Trading” in PNG.

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