Can okari nuts help keep forests standing on PNG’s Managalas Plateau?
If an okari nut falls in the forest, you’re definitely going to hear it. The oval crimson husk — larger than an adult’s palm — drops by the hundreds from the 30-metre canopy of the okari tree (Terminalia kaernbachii) between May and August each year. Native to the lowland rainforests of Papua New Guinea’s Oro Province, the tree was introduced to the Managalas Plateau several hundred years ago and has since become embedded in local diets and livelihoods. Over generations, communities selected trees … Read more