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STORY: FAO / FOREST INNOVATIONS
TRT: 06:03
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT FAO ON SCREEN / EMBARGO UNTIL THURSDAY 21 MARCH 2024 AT 09:00 ROME TIME, 08:00 GMT, 04:00 AM EST
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / TOK PISIN (Papua New Guinea)
DATELINE: VARIOUS, PLEASE CHECK SHOTLIST
7-10 FEBRUARY 2024, WESTERN HIGHLANDS, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
1. Drone shot over Papua New Guinea jungle
2. Drone shot over Papua New Guinea jungle
3. Indigenous Peoples, in full traditional garments with face paint, using a tablet
4. Indigenous man, in full traditional garment with face paint, using a tablet
5. SOUNDBITE (Tok Pisin) Besta Pulum, Clan Leader, Pundbe community: “This was my father’s land, it belonged to my father. Now it is my land and I am looking after it.”
6. Indigenous man with face paint , close up, looking around
7. Indigenous people in full traditional gear, crossing the jungle
8. SOUNDBITE (Tok Pisin) Besta Pulum, Clan Leader, Pundbe community: “Looking back, in the past if I wanted to look for my border, I would walk there. I would walk up the mountain with my water and kaukau (sweet potato) and go, go, go around my border.”
9. Indigenous person walking on path, wide shot
10. Indigenous person inspecting a plant, close up
11. SOUNDBITE (Tok Pisin) Besta Pulum, Clan Leader, Pundbe community: "If you give it [tablet/technology] to me, I’ll use it. I will look after my forests with it, all 745 hectares.”
12. Close up of Indigenous Person using tablet
13. Close-up of tablet, hand enters data collected in forest
14. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Julian Fox, Senior Forestry Officer, FAO: “We are in the midst of a forest data revolution driven by innovation and technology – and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is at the forefront of this. Here in PNG, we are supporting the government and local communities to collect new forest data to boost their efforts to protect, restore and sustainably use forests.”
15. Team of people working on the installation of remote sensors and taking measurements of their surroundings
16. Forestry officer in uniform looks at tablet, shot from below, looking up
17. Two tablets being used, shot from above
18. Pan-down, Sensor being installed on big tree
19. Hand measuring the circumference of a tree
20. Man raising a tape measure to measure height of tree
21. Close up of branch
22. Two parrots on a branch
FEBRUARY 2024, ATELIER OF DESIGNER SOFIA ILMONEN, HELSINKI, FINLAND,
23. Wide shot – designer sitting at her sowing machine in her studio
24. Close-up of hands using a sowing machine on a piece of wood-based textile
25. SOUNDBITE (English), Sofia Ilmonen, Designer: “I think using wood-based materials could be a game changer. People really want to know what their clothes are made of and chose better, more responsible options.”
26. Mid-shot of designer working at sowing machine
27. Designer unfurling wood-based textile
28. SOUNDBITE (English), Sofia Ilmonen, Designer: “The material is strong, but at the same time is soft. It has a really good drape and is easy to work with.”
30. Designer twirls a mannequin with a pink dress on, made from wood based textile.
31. Designer puts pink jacket onto mannequin.
32. SOUNDBITE (English), Sofia Ilmonen, Designer: “There is so much innovation happening in my field and it’s super exciting to be part of it. Knowing that while I work, I can do what I love...and to be able to do it more responsibly, it’s motivating.”
33. Close-up of black dress, made in wood based textile
34. Wide shot – designer fluffs up the skirt of a black dress
35. Slow pan up of two dresses, pink and black
36. Slow forward movement on black dress
FEBRUARY 2023, NANYANG TECHNOLOGY UNIVERISTY, SINGAPORE, GAIA BUILDING
37. Top-down shot of big empty room, with wooden walls slightly visible. A woman walks across the floor.
38. Pan up from the floor, the same woman keeps walking in frame, camera pans to reveal impressive wooden building.
FEBRUARY 2024, FAO HEADQUARTERS, ROME, ITALY
39. SOUNDBITE (English), Lyndall Bull, FAO Forestry Officer: “By 2030, we will have to house an additional 3 billion people. But the construction sector alone is responsible for approximately 37 percent of energy- and process-related greenhouse gas emissions. We need to try and find a better way to build housing, and this is where mass timber comes in, as it reduces the carbon footprint on the one hand and also stores carbon for its lifetime. Making wood-based constructions almost an extension of our forests.”
FEBRUARY 2023, NANYANG TECHNOLOGY UNIVERISTY, SINGAPORE, GAIA BUILDING
40. Some plants peering through wooden beams.
41. Wide pan across vast, wooden building.
42. Empty corridor shot, wooden panelling.
43. Wide shot of big, indoor wooden staircase. Same woman walks across the frame.
44. Reverse shot of woman walking onto staircase.
In Papua New Guinea, home to the world's third-largest rainforest, Indigenous Peoples are custodians of almost all the forested land. Now, they are being equipped with ground-breaking technology. These tools, which run on tablets or smartphones, will allow them to demarcate their forest and monitor the area to make sure that it stays healthy and intact from incursions.
Like his father before him, Besta Pulum has lived his whole life looking after 800 hectares of dense tropical forest about 550 kilometres northwest of Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, in the remote Western Highlands. The forest hosts a rich variety of animals and bird species, including the distinctive flightless wild cassowary.
SOUNDBITE (Tok Pisin) Besta Pulum, local Clan Leader, Pundbe community:
“This was my father’s land. Now it is my land and I am looking after it.”
Monitoring large swathes of thick forest can be hugely time consuming and challenging to do even for the more experienced.
SOUNDBITE (Tok Pisin) Besta Pulum, local Clan Leader, Pundbe community:
“Looking back, in the past if I wanted to look for my border, I would walk there. I would walk up the mountain with my water and kaukau (sweet potato) and go, go, go around my border.”
Besta Pulum can now look at high resolution satellite imagery of the forest, to help him pinpoint its boundaries, without having to trek for days.
SOUNDBITE (Tok Pisin) Besta Pulum, local Clan Leader, Pundbe community
“If you give it [tablet/technology] to me, I’ll use it. I will look after my forests with it, all 745 hectares.”
This technological innovation was brought about by AIM4Forests, a pioneering initiative launched in 2023 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Kingdom.
The project aims both to provide countries with the technological means to combat deforestation and to ensure the active participation of Indigenous Peoples in forest monitoring.
While Indigenous Peoples comprise just 5 percent of our population, they steward 25 percent of the Earth’s land.
Through projects like these, FAO is helping them to protect and sustainably manage their land.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Julian Fox, Senior Forestry Officer, FAO:
“We are in the midst of a forest data revolution driven by innovation and technology – and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is at the forefront of this.
Here in Papua New Guinea, we are supporting the government and local communities to collect new forest data to boost their efforts to protect, restore and sustainably use forests.”
On 21 March each year, the world marks the International Day of Forests. This year’s theme, forests and innovation, highlights the extraordinary new approaches that are being taken to restore, protect, manage and use our forests sustainably.
Innovations are happening across the globe, in very diverse fields.
In the clothing and fashion industry, where currently over 60% of textiles are plastic-based, new textiles derived from sustainable wood are being pioneered to replace some of these fibres.
Sofia Ilmonen is a Finnish designer working with these new materials.
SOUNDBITE (English), Sofia Ilmonen, Designer:
“I think using wood-based materials could be a game changer.People really want to know what their clothes are made of and chose better, more responsible options.”
Sofia has been creating award-winning designs with this revolutionary textile.
SOUNDBITE (English), Sofia Ilmonen, Designer:
“The material is strong, but at the same time is soft. It has a really good drape and is easy to work with.”
She is part of a generation of creators and artisans that are dedicated to working in a way that is mindful of the impact on the planet and its resources.
SOUNDBITE (English), Sofia Ilmonen, Designer:
“There is so much innovation happening in my field and it’s super exciting to be part of it
Knowing that while I work, I can do what I love...and to be able to do it more responsibly, it’s motivating.”
Another area of promising innovation is with buildings.
The construction sector is responsible for high greenhouse gas emissions. New advances in the use of sustainable wood show how it is possible to find better ways to keep up with the construction demand.
SOUNDBITE (English), Lyndall Bull, FAO Forestry Officer:
“By 2030, we will have to house an additional 3 billion people. But the construction sector alone is responsible for approximately 37 percent of energy- and process-related greenhouse gas emissions. We need to try and find a better way to build housing, and this is where mass timber comes in, as it reduces the carbon footprint on the one hand and also stores carbon for its lifetime. Making wood-based constructions almost an extension of our forests.”
The world faces unprecedented challenges and new solutions that can sustainably address these challenges are of crucial importance. In this respect, harnessing the power of sustainable wood offers an enormous potential.
Mandated by the United Nations, the International Day of Forests celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests each year. On each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns, to help bring attention to these vital natural resources.
Through its Forestry Programme, FAO seeks to have transformational impacts that benefit forests and forest-dependent people and help achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.
