Assessing the Capacity of Papua New Guinea to Implement the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
BioRAP Project Papua New Guinea pilot study : Classification procedures and preparation of files for TARGET analysis Note: DEM, Climate Surfaces, Species, Environment Domains Maps were generated prior to these analysis
Background
1996-2000: The PNG Forestry Authority (PNGFA) with support from CSIRO developed the Forest Inventory Mapping (FIM) System to specifically map forest and vegetation types using forest mapping units or boundaries (or FMU) derived from aerial photography in 1973-4 at 1:100,000 scale and other relevant map overlays.
A Milestone Report for Department of the Environment (November 2017)
A Final Report for Department of the Environment and Energy (October 2017)
The BioRAP Toolbox constitutes a complex series of computer programs (ANUDEM, ANUSPLIN, ANUCLIM, PATN and TARGET). This was first assembled in 1994 – 1995 by the Environment Resources Information Network (ERIN), Great Barrier Reef Management Park Authority (GBRMPA), Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies (CRES) of Australian National University and CSIRO (Division of Wildlife & Ecology).
The Conservation Needs Assessment (CNA) for Papua New Guinea was requested by the government of Papua
New Guinea and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The CNA was implemented by the Biodiversity Support Program, a USAID-funded consortium of World Wildlife Fund, World Resources Institute, and The Nature Conservancy, in collaboration with local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), museums, and academic institutions.
Considered as one of the world’s biodiversity rich countr
ies, Papua New
Guinea ranks among the megadiverse countries and the last frontiers for
biodiversity conservation. This land of diversity hosts 6
-
8% of the global
species, hosts one
-
sixth of known languages, and rivals Borneo, the Amazon
and the Congo in t
erms of biodiversity wealth. PNG comprises the eastern
half of the largest tropical island on earth, along with hundreds of smaller
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.
PNG Threatened Endemic Plants and Animals Species. This was published as part of 5th CBD National Report.
Fifth National Report on the Species richness of PNG and world higher vertebrates
The total area in PNG gazetted under Conservation for both marine and terrestrial environments only represents about 3.8% of the country's land area.
Comparisons of the countries with the largest forest areas (representing 90% of the global primary forest area reported to FRA, 2015
Figures are for wild and ranched species of both freshwater
and saltwater crocodiles
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.
Tonda Wildlife Management Area on the southern extremity of Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia is PNG’s largest and oldest conservation area and its only Ramsar site. For over 20 years it has been managed by a committee of indigenous leaders drawn from 20 village communities. While this group has provided strong local level protection of land, lack of support to the committee has meant that the full potential of community management has not been realised. Furthermore threats on a regional and international scale cannot be easily
dealt with by current community institutions.
The Tonda Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is the only Ramsar site in the south Pacific region outside Australia. It was declared a Ramsar site on 23rd March, 1993 because it is believed to support internationally significant populations of both resident and migratory shorebirds and waterbirds and is probably an important staging point for shorebirds during migration between eastern Australia and the breeding grounds in eastern Russia.