Collaborative Workshop

TESS Hosts World Bank and FAO Workshop to Boost PNG’s Forest Carbon Data

23-25 September 2025: The Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) welcomed the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to a dynamic three-day workshop at James Cook University’s Nguma-bada campus in Smithfield this week.

Co-organised by the World Bank and FAO, the event brought together forest inventory and GIS officers from the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority and the PNG Forest Research Institute. Participants received hands-on training in calibrating and analysing spaceborne lidar data (Global Ecosystems Dynamics Investigation - GEDI) alongside PNG’s National Forest Inventory data. Their shared goal: to create highly accurate, near real-time forest carbon stock data for any area of interest in PNG and make it publicly accessible online by 2027.

The workshop forms part of the World Bank’s Technical Assistance Program to PNG on Carbon Finance and Sustainable Forestry—requested by Prime Minister Hon. James Marape—to help generate high-integrity emissions reductions and open new opportunities for carbon finance in the forestry sector.

Speakers to the workshop included: Julian Gonzalo (World Bank); Elizabeth Kaidong (PNG Forest Authority); Hitofumi Abe, Masamichi Haraguchi and Lauri Vesa (FAO); Adrian Pascual (University of Maryland); Lucas Johnson (Oregon State University) and William Unsworth (Center for International Forestry Research). Professor Bill Laurance (JCU) also delivered a presentation on the global impact of unmapped forest roads and their destructive effects on PNG’s forests.

The timing of the workshop coincided with Papua New Guinea’s celebration of its 50th independence anniversary, underscoring the country’s progress and commitment to sustainable resource management.

TESS extends special thanks to Hitofumi Abe, Chief Technical Advisor on National Forest Inventory, and Nigel Baro from the FAO Papua New Guinea Office for their close collaboration making this workshop a resounding success.