An innovation by Daulo Commodities Cooperative Society LTD (DCCSL)
What is the innovation?
The DCCSL operates by unifying farmers locally, and coordinates sustainable initiatives in tree-planting, bulb onion farming and coffee farming as well as ecotourism approaches. We operate in the Daulo District of the Eastern Highlands Province, from our base in Keremu, Ward 1, Upper Asaro.
Our tree-planting initiatives use a mixture of native trees and commercial forestry trees, to build forest cover while providing livelihoods for local communities. The species we plant include Pinus strobus and Eucalyptus deglupta, which is native to the Eastern Highlands. Our bulb onion and coffee farming provide an important income stream, that again reduces the incentive for communities to undertake commercial logging in local forests.
How does this innovation resolve Pacific-related challenges?
Papua New Guinea is a global biodiversity hotspot, as one of the world’s seventeen megadiverse countries. The Eastern Highlands’ cloud forests act as habitat for species like tree kangaroos, cassowaries, birds of paradise and many more. Through discouraging logging, and increasing forest cover, DCCSL helps to protect this biodiversity.
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This can help to bring in long-term income to the area by attracting tourists for ecotourism activities, as the Highlands continue to grow as a tourist destination, due to environmental and cultural attractions locally like the annual Goroka Show.
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What’s more, this new forest cover acts as a carbon store, to address climate change, which is threatening local food security by significantly influencing weather patterns. The tree cover also stabilizes soil, preventing landslides which are common in Daulo’s steep hillside areas, especially in deforested grassland areas. The trees also provide other ecosystem services, such as helping to filter water, improving water quality, and slowing water movement through the landscape, reducing local flood risk.Â
Our bulb onion and coffee farming activities have a focus on smart agriculture, to create a top quality product and minimise environmental impacts. These products are grown using only chicken manure as fertiliser to comply with organic product regulations, and improve local soil fertility.
Ecotourism
As well as tree-planting, bulb onion and coffee initiatives, the DCCSL also incorporates ecotourism into services, via the Daulo Ecolodge. Started in 2023, the Ecolodge gives tourists with an insight into life in rural PNG, as well as providing information on forest loss and the effect that DCCSL’s tree planting work has both environmentally and socially in the area.
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 The lodge operates one to five night packages, which showcases PNG’s customs and traditions, and delivers unforgettable wildlife experiences in Daulo’s adjacent forests through hikes and other activities.
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 This brings money to local communities, including through employment of locals as guides, and helps encourage the protection of local forests and biodiversity.