Swire Shipping has donated 70,000 Kina (approximately US$24,080) towards the Lae National Botanic Gardens Advancement Programme, to help restore the city’s public gardens to their former glory. Considered a natural treasure, the gardens were once internationally recognised as one of the most beautiful botanical parks in the tropics, inspiring Lae’s nickname of the “Garden City” of Papua New Guinea. However, a lack of funding and government support has led the gardens to become neglected in recent years. The funding will be used for the development of four world-class landscape designs intended to showcase PNG’s natural beauty and diverse plant life, and to draw visitors back to the botanical gardens once they reopen later this year. The donation demonstrates Swire Shipping’s commitment to giving back to the communities in which it operates.


Tim Blackburn (second from left), outgoing Managing Director of The China Navigation Company presents the donation to Dr Martin Golman, Acting Director of the PNG Forest Research Institute. Also attending the ceremony are CNCo’s incoming Managing Director, James Woodrow (fourth from right), Graeme Davis (left), General Manager of Corporate Development, Swire Shipping (PNG), and Michael Loave (third from right), Gardens Curator, PNG Forest Research Institute.