In this paper we describe the construction of an online GIS database system, hosted by WorldFish, which stores bio-physical, ecological and socio-economic data for the ‘Coral Triangle Area’ in South-east Asia and the Pacific. The database has beenbuilt in partnership with all six (Timor-Leste, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea) of the Coral Triangle countries, and represents a valuable source of information for natural resource managers at the regional scale.
The effective management and conservation of biodiversity is predicated on clearly defined conservation targets. Species number is frequently used as a metric for conservation prioritization and monitoring changes in ecosystem health. We conducted a series of synoptic surveys focusing on the fishes of the Bootless Bay region of Papua New Guinea to generate a checklist of fishes of the region. Bootless Bay lies directly south of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, and experiences the highest human population density of any marine area in the country.
Understanding human drivers of exploitation within the context of historical baselines can assist in better management of natural resources. Retrospective studies provide insight into the scale, nature, and timing of human influence on reef ecosystems. Using Papua New Guinea as a model, we assessed human influences on the historical status of reef resources through time. Reef resources were divided into seven ecological guilds, assessed over seven cultural periods and in reference to seven types of human influences.
Sustainability is a balancing act with a triple bottom line. Now that Papua New Guinea is experiencing a resource boom, this is even more of a juggling act. As the world experiences food shortages, and Australia’s economy remains buoyant by a stream of Chinese mineral investment, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is caught somewhere between being mineral rich and rice poor. Now is exactly the right time to talk about sustainability in development.
This publication has been prepared through collaboration between United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Alluvium Consulting and expert partners. The project was implemented through SPREP with funds from UNEP and the Australian Government’s AusAID programme, via the International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative
The Isabel Ridges to Reefs Conservation Plan can be used to guide future conservation and development activities throughout Isabel. The plan allows stakeholders to visualise the location of conservation priorities for Isabel Province, the threats that the biodiversity of Isabel faces and what a successfully implemented protected area network across Isabel could look like under several different scenarios.
At the Special Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Leaders Summit held in Suva from 29-30 March 2012 leaders decided to develop a roadmap for the protection of inshore fisheries. To this end the MSG has established an Inshore Fisheries Working Group (IFWG) citing the need for a concerted and coordinated sub-regional effort in addressing inshore fisheries resources sustainability because inshore activities have direct impact on the resources which impingeon people’s livelihood and food security of most small island communities.
The South Pacifi c has experienced a remarkable proliferation of Marine Managed Areas (MMAs) in the last decade. These protected areas, implemented by over 500 communities spanning 15 independent countries and territories represent a unique global achievement.
Coral reefs are integral • to the cultures and nutrition of many Pacific peoples; this report was developed to assist reef conservation for those peoples. Most coral reefs in the Pacific remain generally healthy, with strong potential for recovery of coral, fish and invertebrate populations after damaging events. There are, however, many signs of decline, especially on reefs around population centres and in lagoons.
In this paper we discuss differences in the ways transnational conservationists and Melanesian farmers, hunters and fishers value ‘biodiversity’. The money for conservation projects in developing countries originates from people who are embedded in a capitalist system, which allows engagement with nature as an abstract entity. Their western education has given them a scientific/ evolutionary-based worldview, which attributes intrinsic value to all species (and particular arrangements of species, e.g. rainforests and coral reefs), irrespective of economic value or ecosystem function.
This report presents the findings of a socio-economic study conducted in six coastal villages in Kimbe Bay, West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. From west to east around the Bay the study villages were Kulungi, Gaungo, Tarobi, Baikakea, Potou and Baea. The central ims of the study were to provide information for the design and
implementation of a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) within Kimbe Bay and to give direction for future marine education and awareness campaigns for Kimbe Bay’s communities.
In 2008 we began intensive archaeological surveys at Caution Bay, located 20km to the northwest of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (Figure 1.1). We followed this with the excavation of 122 stratified sites in 2009- 2010, and detailed analysis of the well preserved and abundant faunal, ceramic and lithic finds has been continuing ever since.
Until the Caution Bay project, limited archaeological research in the Port Moresby region and, more broadly, along the entire southern lowlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) had been almost exclusively restricted to sites of the past 2000 years, representing that period after the arrival of ceramicists (Figure 2.1; Chapter 1: Figure 1.1).
In this essay I want to contribute to longstanding discussions about sexism and marriage, gender relations and sexuality, and prostitution and public health in Papua New Guinea (PNG). My contribution is aimed at two overlapping developments and discourses. First, since at least the late 1970s, calls have been made for the PNG state to erect and regulate brothels, ostensibly as a ‘public health’ measure to prevent the transmission of STDs, but also to sequester the signs of sexuality away from public view. Sex is bad, but prostitution is lust, being both unproductive and wasteful.
Until now, the evidence for imported obsidian along the south coast of Papua New Guinea has been limited to eleven excavated sites all dating after c. 2,000 cal. BP. Here we present new archaeological evidence for the sourcing and importation of 4,689 obsidian artefacts from 30 excavated sites at Caution Bay. pXRF analysis of a sample of the artefacts revealed that all but one came from a source on West Fergusson Island some 670 km away. During Lapita (here beginning c. 2,950 cal.
Archaeological investigations of human predation pressures on shellfish usually rely on measurements of complete shell specimens. However, most archaeological shell assemblages consist predominantly of broken shells, limiting measurable sample sizes, and thus potentially biasing results in cases where shell fragmentation is biased towards particular size classes (due to shell size¬fragility correspondences). This paper presents a recent application of morphometric analyses on the Batissa violacea assemblage from Emo, an early ceramic site from the Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea.
“Climate-induced migration” is often perceived as potentially leading to political instability and violence, and thus, as critical. Oceania is considered a prime example for this assumed linear causality, since sea level rise and other effects of anthropogenic climate change are threatening to displace large numbers of people in the region. The policy brief scrutinises this perception by critically engaging with the securitization of climate-induced migration in the Pacific region, with a particular interest in who defines what a crisis is, when and where. Its central claim is that wit
The Northern Bismarck Sea marine assessment was conducted in New Ireland and Manus Provinces between August 13th to September 7th, 2006. In New Ireland the survey covered the Tigak Islands, New Hanover and Djaul Island, while in Manus the survey was conducted predominantly around the main island of Manus. The survey team was comprised of international and local scientists, conservationists and Papua New Guinea fisheries’ officers.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in conjunction with Papua New and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) formally partnered in June 2015 to develop and implement a landmark biodiversity conservation initiative for Protected Areas in PNG’s Central Province (JICA, 2018). This initiative is formally referred to by JICA & CEPA as: ‘The Project for Biodiversity Conservation through Implementation of the PNG Policy on Protected Areas' (herein referred to as the ‘Project’).
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in conjunction with Papua New Guinea’s Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) formally partnered in June 2015 to develop and implement a landmark biodiversity conservation initiative for Protected Areas in PNG’s Central Province (JICA, 2018). This initiative is formally referred to by JICA & CEPA as: ‘The Project for Biodiversity Conservation through Implementation of the PNG Policy on Protected Areas' (herein referred to as the ‘Project’).