Green Light maintains a long-term link with the remote Bahinemo and Berinemo peoples of the Hunstein Range, Papua New Guinea. We define our link as:

A partnership to exchange environmental knowledge of both our worlds - in order to encourage our communities to act in a sustainable way.

In the Hunstein Range, the focus is on protection of the forest. In the UK it is about planting new woodland. While we alerted the Hunstein Range people to the dangers of industrial logging, they showed us the value of a life-style still in harmony with Nature.

Background

In 1988, Ric Edelmann and Nigel Hughes travelled to Papua New Guinea in search of primary rainforest. It had been their long-held wish to witness this most prolific and spectacular of ecosystems.

With local tribesmen, they trekked through the dense Hunstein forest of the Upper Sepik, home to several of the 34 different birds of paradise and many species of flora and fauna, then still unclassified.

They learnt that the entire region - 2,000 square miles of pristine forest was earmarked for the biggest logging operation yet to hit New Guinea. There and then they pledged to support the people in protecting their unique homeland.

This commitment led to the forming of Green Light Trust and the Hunstein Range remains the source of much of our inspiration.

Our early efforts were in awareness raising. If you've never seen a chain saw or a bulldozer, it's difficult to imagine what they can do. We produced environmental dramas that toured by dugout canoe. We facilitated 'exposure tours' for the village landowners to visit areas already devastated by logging. We brought in other organisations with specialist skills to explore alternative and sustainable village-scale enterprise.

In return, the people asked us about our own forests and urged us to replenish our own bit of mama graun (mother earth). We thus began Forest for Our Children, named after one of the environmental dramas. This in turn led to Community-owned Woodlands and the passing on global linking to other groups.

We also commenced our work in schools where our rainforest learning is still a part of Sensing the Rainforest. Over the years we have made repeated visits to the Hunstein Range, partly or wholly by raising personal funds. Several of our Papua New Guinean friends have also visited and worked with us in the UK. The main aim has been to support each other in protecting our environments for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

With the current awareness around climate change and the damaging effects of air travel, reciprocal visits are now made only occasionally and we rely more and more on letter and pictures, while against many odds the ongoing friendship between the Primary School in Lawshall and the school in the Hunstein Range continues to flourish.