After their emergence by 200,000 years before the present in Africa, modern humans colonized the globe, reaching Australia and New Guinea by 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. Understanding how humans lived and adapted to the range of environments in these areas has been difficult because well-preserved settlements are scarce. Data from the New Guinea Highlands (at an elevation of ~2000 meters) demonstrate the exploitation of the endemic nut Pandanus and
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is committed to the establishment of a network of protected areas to fulfil national and international commitments. The primary objective of this assessment was to provide an updated set of conservation priorities by integrating Terrestrial and Marine Programme of Works on Protected Areas (PoWPA) in PNG; this set of conservation priorities (see Figure 1) can be used as a roadmap for meeting conservation targets that fulfill PNG’s global conservation commitments (e.g. under the CBD Aichi 11 targets) as well as national targets (such as the Protected Areas Policy).
Conservation of biological diversity is a foundation of ecologically sustainable development and is one of the three core objectives of the strategy for ecologically sustainable development. Biological diversity provide all our food and many medicines and industrial products. Biological diversity underpins human well-being through the provision of ecological services such as those that are essential for the maintenance of soil fertility and clean, fresh water and air. It also provides recreational opportunities and is a source of inspiration and cultural identity.
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is designed to safeguard the world’s biologically richest and most threatened regions, known as biodiversity hotspots. It is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International (CI), the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank.
The Department of Works is required to maintain a Corporate Strategic Plan which describes how the Department’s role, responsibilities and mandate will be delivered in the next five years. The Department’s Corporate Strategic Plan 2015 to 2019 is an important document in communicating priorities and responsibilities, both within and outside the Department.
Marine turtles have swum in the world’s oceans for over 100 million years. The only widely distributed marine reptiles, manyspecies migrate f or thousands of kilometres — and even across entire oceans — between feeding and nesting grounds. An integral part of coastal and marine ecosystems, they have also been fundamental to the culture of coastal societies for millennia. But human activities over the past 200 years have massively tipped the scales against the survival of these ancient mariners.
The province of Madang is nestled between the East Sepik, Highland, and Morobe provinces, and faces onto the biodiversity-rich Bismarck Sea in the northern part of Papua New Guinea. The Bismarck Sea is part of the Bismarck Solomon Seas Ecoregion (BSSE) that stretches from the Birdshead Peninsula in the province of Papua in Indonesia, across the Admiralty and Bismarck archipelagos of Papua New Guinea, to Makira in the Solomon Islands. The BSSE is referred to as the “Western Indo-Pacific cradle of biodiversity”.
A Basic Education For All (EFA) is critical if all citizens are to participate in a modern society. This is a right for all children, both boys and girls, in Papua New Guinea as stated in the National Constitution. A basic education is essential for the personal development of all people to provide them with the skills and knowledge to improve their quality of life.
PNG Power Ltd (PPL) is a fully integrated power authority responsible for Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Retailing of Electricity throughout Papua New Guinea and servicing individual electricity consumers. PPL services customers in almost all urban centres throughout the country encompassing industrial, commercial, government and domestic sectors. Where possible, the services extend to rural communities adjacent to these urban centres.
The Peer Review Team noted that the targets set by PNG appear overly challenging, given the current low starting point and PNG’s economic conditions. Furthermore, the feasibility of these targets are unable to be properly determined given the lack of thorough resource assessment. While a number of energy policies has since been developed to work towards the targets, stronger government commitment is necessary to drive these draft policies to implementation.
ExxonMobil PNG Limited (EMPNG) is committed to safeguarding biodiversity in areas where the company operates and, in particular, the biodiversity values in the Upstream area of the Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas (PNG LNG) Project. The Biodiversity Strategy and this Biodiversity Implementation and Monitoring Program outline how impacts on biodiversity will be assessed and managed.
Global and regional estimates of coral reef areas are of considerable value in different fields, including fisheries assessment, marine conservation and environmental change. Despite this, the available estimates of reef areas vary substantially, partly due to divergences in the definition of reef habitats but also because of lack of information about reef coverage and of cost-effective methods of reef mapping.
elasmobranchs from an artisanal fishery of Papua New Guinea. The study is the first in the region to provide biomass estimates based on species confirmation following examination of dried fins. Over 20 species of elasmobranchs were identified from 623 fins from the artisanal fishery in Milne Bay Province of PNG, with Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos and Carcharhinus melanopterus the most abundant species in the catches. Of concern, 21% of fins examined were from IUCN listed threatened species (Vulnerable or Endangered) with 8% of fins from the Endangered scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini).