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A thesis in partial fulfilment for a degree in Ecological Restoration at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Government Report to UNCCD - prepared by the Dept. Economic Development and Environment. 2003

Map of the Nauru island landcover, with country-level summary of the different landcover classes and designation.

Map of the Nauru Island landuse, with country-level summary of the different landuse classes and designation.

Nauru, in the central Pacific Ocean, is a raised atoll capping a volcanic seamount arising from an ocean floor depth of 4300m. The land area is 22km, and the island rises to 70m above sea level. Drilling has proved dolomitised limestone of upper Miocene or younger age to a depth of 55m below sea level. Gravity and magnetic surveys indicate that the limestone probably overlies volcanic bedrock at a depth of about 500m. Reverse-circulation drilling and geoelectrical probes indicate that there is a discontinuous freshwater layer averaging 5m thick beneath Nauru.

The findings of this BIORAP survey have identified or re-confirmed the critical importance of the biodiversity and ecosystems of Nauru's terrestrial and marine environments and the urgent need for follow-up activities to manage and mitigate threats for their conservation.

With 3.8 million cubic meters of tropical wood exported in 2014, primarily to China, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has become the world’s largest exporter of tropical wood, surpassing Malaysia, which had held the top spot for the
past several decades.

Tropical forestry and logging are complex subjects, encompassing a range of diffi cult issues, including land ownership, the sustainability of natural resources, the impact on climate change, the social and economic impact of logging on isolated and relatively untouched, subsistence sector communities, and the protection of the basic rights of the people concerned.

Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) forests and forestry have played an important role in the livelihoods of the people of the country for many years. Forests have provided a source for food, fruits and nuts, building materials, medicinal plants, habitats for refuge and a wealth of other services.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has one of the most significant areas of tropical forest in the world. These forests are, however, under threat from commercial logging, clearing of land for agricultural commodities, mining or the expansion of small-scale agriculture to meet the livelihood needs of the country's largely rural population.

The Papua New Guinea Resource Information System (PNGRIS) is a micro-computer-based georeferenced
database containing information on natural resources, population distribution, rural land use, small-holder economic activity and land use potential (Bellamy 1986). It is compiled at 1:500 000 scale for approximately 5000 Resource Mapping Units (RMUs) covering the entire land area of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

PNG has a diverse and rich resource base for plants, animal and aquaculture genetic resources used for food and agriculture. These resources suppor the livelihood of the majority of rural population in the country. The safeguarding, maintainence and sustainable uses of this genetic diversity is essential for the current as well as livelihood security

Food is made up of three major components – proteins, carbohydrates and fats – and each is necessary for growth and healthy living. Although all three provide energy, carbohydrates, which consist of starches and sugars, provide the highest proportion of the food energy (or fuel) that human bodies need to function. Protein, used for building and repairing the body, comes from animal products such as meat, fish, and milk, but also from grains and vegetable foods. Small quantities of fats and oils are also important in a balanced diet.

The history of agriculture in PNG is about 10 000 years old. This history is reviewed here in the context of 50 000 years of human occupation of the Australia – New Guinea region. 1 More is known about what has happened nearer to the present, especially since 1870, than about the distant past. Much of the early history (prehistory) of PNG was unknown until about 50 years ago, but since 1959 there has been a lot of research on the prehistory of PNG, with a major focus on agriculture. However, this is a rapidly evolving field of study and our understanding of

Oil palm prices may hold up in the medium term, with strong demand from India and China. Yet, like other non-oil commodities, oil palm prices are likely to remain volatile, and to experience a long term relative price decline. (Chapter 3). World prices are not the main problem for small farmers in PNG. Three factors are likely to place a ceiling on the economic benefits for small farmers: (i) small farmers remain at the highly competitive end of a large grower market, with little market power, keeping them as ‘price takers’; (ii) a large monopsony (all

Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea, is a tectonically unstable, uplifting shoreline ringed by emergent coral terraces. The terraces were formed during episodes of rapid sea-level rise when corals constructed large, discrete coral platforms that were subsequently uplifted. Uranium series ages of four prominent Huon Peninsula last glacial (OIS 3) coral terraces coincide with the timing of major North Atlantic climate reversals at intervals of 6000^7000 yr between 30 000 yr and 60 000 yr ago.

Midway up the slopes of the Andogoro, Moirutapa, and Kundiman mountains that rise up from the surrounding floodplains and separate East Sepik Province from Enga and Western Highlands Provinces in Papua New Guinea, are the traditional settlements of the Upland Arafundi people (Roscoe & Telban 2004:94). Galleries of stencils

Peatlands are common in montane areas above 1,000 m in New Guinea and become extensive above 3,000 m in the subalpine zone. In the montane mires, swamp forests and grass or sedge fens predominate on swampy alley bottoms. These mires may be 4–8 m in depth and up to 30,000 years in age. In Papua New Guinea (PNG) there is about 2,250 km2 of montane peatland, and Papua Province (the Indonesian western half of the island) probably contains much more. Above 3,000 m, peat soils form under blanket bog on slopes as well as on valley floors.

Two of the unanswered questions of Papua New Guinea prehistory are: (1) whether agriculture was present
in the mid-Holocene not only in the highlands but also in the lowlands and Bismarck Archipelago and (2)whether the presence of agriculture might have been influenced by interaction between these regions. This paper addresses these questions through an analysis of prehistoric stone mortars, pestles and figures, which hold information on both style and function.