Besta Pulum cannot contain his excitement about the tablet computer he is holding in his hands. “When I was young, I never saw that kind of computer. Now I’m seeing it; I didn’t sleep [from excitement],” says the community chief, who reckons his age at around 60.

Like his father before him, he’s lived his whole life looking after 800 hectares of dense tropical forest in the remote western highlands of the country, about 550 kilometres northwest of Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby.

“In the past, if I wanted to patrol my boundary, it was very hard,” he says. Within minutes though, Besta has understood that the aerial map of the forest on his screen will help him pinpoint the boundaries of his forest area without having to trek for days. He can now monitor the area using high resolution satellite imagery.

This technological innovation was brought about by AIM4Forests (Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests), a pioneering programme initiative launched in 2023 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the government of the United Kingdom.