Comments

Good article!

Jonathan, i have no comment for you but just appreciate you and your care. You are a wonderful person. I am also a candidate for seasonal job from solomon islands. I just wonder how some for us (relatives, friends, wantoks) already there and what they experience or facing right now. Some may be happy and some are just sad. Jonathan if had any vacant please give to me. I wish i should work for you or any one like you

Thank you for this astute and timely contribution. As Australian security concerns in this region intensify, we need a more nuanced and imaginative strategic narrative. The impulse to “shape” the region, while understandable from a Defence point of view, sets the wrong tone as it can undermine the task of listening and respectfully engaging with regional partners.

Hi Bal, Thanks for the comment. Don't quite understand your first sentence. Per the title, this is just evidence from Tonga and for sending households, and I think the design and what we can infer from these comparisons is pretty clear above. This paper here, which is Hiroshi's masters' thesis work in progress actually, doesn't use a worker survey, but I reported in an earlier blog an initial look at some household reporting of these figures, how much is sent, and so forth. There, you'll see the average worker appears to be sending back more than they would have earned before moving. Whether they have enough to "go beyond" very much depends on the characteristics of the household being supported and much more. In many cases though, it appears to be a matter of tastes and preferences (e.g., buying different and better things), as you'd probably expect, rather than a ladder of needs and wants. In terms of net fortnightly incomes before and after tax and deductions, we have a separate worker survey as part of the PLMS for workers from three countries in both Australia and New Zealand which has all this information, and we are in the process of contrasting the household and worker reports at the moment. These findings will all be detailed in a forthcoming report joint between the centre and the World Bank, in a few months, and of course some more detailed papers for journals. I have a separate project where we are looking at this at a higher frequency in Fiji, weekly, so a pretty rich picture for workers from four countries now. Cheers, Ryan

Thanks for this analysis, Madeleine. However, one political issue that always seems missing in the aid debate(s) is explicit support by the Foreign Minister for the results of our aid program. And regularly highlighting the positive outcomes. Not the "in principle" statements of the obvious, so beloved of politicians. Not trumpeting the annual dollar amounts in the aid budget. Especially – not going along to a recipient country and announcing the commencement of an Australian aid project. With many coloured pictures. The public debate about the merits of aid has moved on (slightly) from the "all aid is wasted" nonsense. But Foreign Ministers and not the "Minister for International Development" need – regularly – to publicise why aid is necessary, useful and achieves the reduction poverty in a recipient country. In my 36 years of lobbying on the benefits of Australia's aid, I have never heard a Minister say that.

Hi Ryan and Hiroshi, curious your research focuses on how seasonal workers supports "everyday expenses", a line of conclusions can generally be applied to many other countries in the Pacific. However, have you find out what they, the seasonal workers, net incomes fortnightly are? Are you able to obtain payslips and ascertain average net income amount your research participants? The conclusion about not venturing into investments can be also be explained by the above inquiries. They might not make enough to go beyond funding "everyday needs". So I think the conclusion is incomplete without these data.

Thanks Lde. We are also puzzled by the fact that the April Salumei project remained on the Verra registry for such a long time, and we do not know why the registration has only been suspended this year.

But again in most homes parents are not properly educated to teach their children on the benefits of having a clean environment. I reckon that the best approach would be educating (through awareness) the general public, this includes all age groups.

Hi all, Iam Kenn Mondiai, Iam a Forestry Officer been in the sector for 35+ years. In my honest opinion all Projects (REDD+, Green Carbon and Blue Carbon) are like a CARGO CULT ..... Carbon Promoters and Marketers are cheating our People in PNG, with their Sweet Talks of BIG MONEY....and in actual fact they are not delivering on their sweet talks. They and their people in the middle are the ones benefiting most due to the ignorance of our people.. and off course the Public Servants in Government and the Politicians. The next thing that we must all know, it that, the forest and trees were on the peoples land for generations and because of this so called Carbon Trade and Offsets ....we have Foreigners flooding our shores and going into rural remote areas trying to setup carbon Projects. Carbon Trading and Offsets does not do anything good for the Land and Resource Owners (People), the Promoters of Carbon Trade are actually not doing anything .....they are fooling our people in collusion with the Government Agencies and Politicians. The PNG Government MUST STOP CARBON TRADING and look at setting up more Community Conservation Area Projects where the people will be incharge and promoting sustainable agriculture, ecotourism and Government putting into the rural communities infrastructure. Our people must not be misled , fooled and exploited by Foreigners on some Cargo Cult idea that does no good for Planet Earth. Carbon Offset is a TOTAL LIE ..... The Big Polluters keep pumping GHG into the Atmosphere and Local Communities in PNG are promised BIG MONEY, but the Middle People Cheat them and give them Peanuts ....at the end of the day, POLLUTION KEEP GOING INTO THE ATMOSPHERE.

Hi Sarah- I really do, however, the needs are much greater than just the capital. The intent of ours and other REDD + projects is to help the ILGs utilize the capital they receive to create other livelihoods that will provide a monthly income also. Our plan is that 20% of the 56% of net revenue due to each ILG is used for projects that impact the entire clan positively. We had 4 clans purchase boats with the funds they received from the first distribution and others have built community centers. The remaining 80% goes to each individual. Our project is directed towards the individuals as it is their land, their trees. We looked at it as if we made a deal like this in the states, what would we expect. We adjusted it a little for the costs of doing business in PNG, however, even with the reduced price of our credits this year, we still think the distribution will be over k400 per person - twice the annual family income from the New Ireland Provincial Government numbers. It would have been closer to k800 before the 4 Corners Article. The strange thing is that the carbon stock and the credits are still the same, however, the market perception of what they are has been altered. The question on the bamboo is the carbon stock (total value of the planting) and how much that is. If you think about replanting a qwilla tree, it grows over 100 ft tall and can be over 100 cm dbh. If you have 20 to 25 of these per ha plus other trees, how many bamboo trees are needed to get to the same carbon stock?

Hi, I am from Papua New Guinea within the Salumei REDD project area. I have never seen any benefits for resources owners and God as a land owner. VERRA must come over to Papua New Guinea and verify April salumei REDD project. Why Steven Hooper and his Papua New Guinea college stole from the poor land owner when his county is well developed and they earn so much money from this poor people.

What are the significant achievement he created for Papua New Guinea.