Improving community resilience to a changing climate in PNG

Papua New Guinea is home to the largest rainforest in the Asia-Pacific region – the third-largest intact rainforest in the world.

Stakeholders at a workshop in Papua New Guinea, depicting local ecosystem services available in their area. 

This rainforest is estimated to contain at least 5 percent of the world’s animal species; two-thirds of which are unique to Papua New Guinea. However, these forests are seriously threatened by agriculture, logging, oil palm developments and a changing climate.

In June, four community workshops investigated the nature of biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation in PNG.

Staff from the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures teamed up with the New Guinea Bintang Research Centre to run a workshop with four communities throughout the Madang and Eastern Highlands provinces.

Over 128 community members attended the workshops, identifying ecosystem services such as food and water from their local area, and discussing how these ecosystem services may be impacted by climate change and development.

The workshops were designed to provide a way for involved communities to learn about how a changing climate may impact the health of the local environment, and the wellbeing of communities and local livelihoods.

The communities identified possible small-scale projects to enhance the management of ecosystems which provide benefits for both biodiversity conservation and livelihoods. Projects that were developed included:

• mulching and making compost to reduce moisture loss from soils;
• reducing the risk of bushfire;
• improving soil condition and enhancing food security through the planting of legume trees,
• driving reforestation to improve habitat connectivity;
• restoring degraded mangrove to provide habitat for marine species, materials and a buffer against the impact of storms on coastal communities.

The researchers identified a clear knowledge gaps in the communities around the causes of climate change and the projected impacts.

The outcomes of the workshop will be presented to provincial government officials in Madang and Eastern Highland Province, to enable them to make more informed decisions and better protect valued eco-systems.  A handbook detailing the findings of this collaboration will also be launched during these workshops in October.

This project is funded by USAID’s Pacific-American Climate Fund (PACAM). PACAM provides grants to civil society organizations (CSOs) to reduce long-term vulnerabilities associated with climate change, and to provide additional co-benefits such as sustainable livelihood creation and protection of natural resources.