Project Green Lung
By-line: Abagain MARA
Dikasuna Nature Conservation Inc. has placed its greatest hope for the future in Project Green Lungs, a reforestation effort designed to bring native plants back to life in Simbu Province.
Founder and CEO Kalale Kaupa described the initiative as the organisation’s beating heart. “Project Green Lungs is about reviving, protecting and ensuring the survival of native plants,” he said.
The project focuses on species that have supported communities for generations but are now disappearing. These plants, once common in local forests, provided food, natural medicine, and cultural value.
Kaupa said their loss is more than ecological. “When a native plant vanishes, part of our heritage vanishes with it,” he explained. “We must save what remains and nurture it for the future.”
To achieve this, DNC has built nurseries that now hold more than 10,000 seedlings, including Dame-Moge and Emny Awkola. The young plants are carefully grown in poly bags before being transplanted into surrounding forests.
The project also runs awareness drives in nearby villages, encouraging communities to participate in replanting while learning about climate change and the role of forests in storing carbon.
For Kaupa, the name Green Lungs reflects more than the trees themselves. It is about restoring balance to a landscape and giving the land its breath back.
“Forests breathe life into everything around them,” he said. “When we restore the trees, we restore the air, the soil, the animals, and the people who depend on them.”
Beyond ecology, the project is tied to livelihoods. Honey production, eco-tourism, and sustainable farming all connect to the restoration of the forest.
MR. KAUPA hopes the work will become a model for community-based conservation across Papua New Guinea, proving that protecting native plants can also sustain families and local economies.
As Kaupa put it: “Project Green Lungs is our gift to the next generation. If we fail to protect our native plants now, there may be nothing left to hand over.”
