A trip to Papua New Guinea by five New Zealand Maori with experience in forestry, fisheries and other businesses, has given locals a chance to voice concerns and gain advice from people with similar experiences.
The Pacific Cooperation Foundation organised the trip to Port Moresby and Madang last month.
Forestry consultant and climate change authority, Harvey Bell, says it was an opportunity to open a dialogue.
"We didn't want to go up there and tell them what they should be doing. What we wanted to do was just give them a bit of an overview of some of the things that were happening within Maoridom here, and then for them to come back to us. And they formulated the ideas of what they wanted to know a little bit more about, on the basis of their own experiences and things that are problems for them."
Harvey Bell.
