When there is a drought, the creeks and streams dry up, stranding people and their canoes. It takes days to walk anywhere. For powerful, almost unarguable, geographic reasons, life in the upper Sepik has resisted meaningful economic development for thousands of years. There are lots, and lots, of crocodiles.

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After a day on the water, Nolwo reached Ambunti, a large village of around 2,000 people, where he spent the night. The next morning, he motored on. Nolwo was a prosperous and influential local figure. As well as running his boat, he was the chairman of a district of more than 30 small villages that included Kagiru. Even so, the trip was a major undertaking. The fuel alone wasgoing to cost around £200. At around lunchtime on the second day, Nolwo moored his boat and got on a truck bound for Wewak, the provincial capital and his destination, a four-hour drive away on the coast. It was at the market in Wewak, buying hardware, that Nolwo ran into another district chairman from the upper Sepik, named David Salio, who invited him to a meeting in a local hotel about carbon trading.

The In Wewak Boutique hotel is the smartest place in town. Set on a bluff just outside the centre it is a white, two-storey building with a small swimming pool and verandas that look out over the South Pacific. The meeting that night was organised by Stephen Hooper, a former Aussie rules football player and entrepreneur.