Impacts of climate change on communities, livelihoods and local environments along the Huon Gulf coast

Papua New Guinea stands out clearly as an island country in the south pacific ocean that is vulnerable to ongoing impacts of climate change among other small island nations. Impacts of climate change are real in PNG as we have seen in recent times that, there has been a rise in sea levels covering the atolls near Bougainville and Siassi island; habitat loss for plant and animal species near Sepik river; and sea level rise covering coastal parts of Wewak and New Ireland. The World’s first displaced indigenous people as a direct result of climate change impacts has been recently recorded in PNG where the sea level has risen and covered village communities on the Curettes island near Bougainville island. The families and local indigenous peoples displaced are now being relocated on the main Bougainville island by the PNG National Government and the autonomous government of Bougainville.

Climate Change and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) is currently a key issue in PNG. In 2005 PNG and Costa Rica proposed the issue of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to COP 11. Since then, after intensive discussions and lobbying at international climate change meetings, more developing countries especially in the tropical region are now supporting this initiative. PNG now stands out in the international arena to be seen as playing a lead role in REDD. As it is now, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has endorsed the REDD initiative in developing countries. PNG has also recently spearheaded formation of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations with the objective for forested tropical countries to collaborate to reconcile forest stewardship with economic development. As far as issues in REDD is concerned in PNG, there has been much interest in applying this initiative however, much technical work on establishing baseline on deforestation, quantifying carbon stocks, and carbon sequestration is required before the REDD initiative can become operational.

As it is now becoming obvious, PNG places itself as a key player in the issue of REDD because the country has a very bad track record of governance in forest management.

As far as REDD in PNG is concerned, there are already evidences that show that; change in forest cover between 1990 and 2000 amounted to 139,100 hectares which amounts to an average deforestation of 0.44%. Between 2000 and 2005, deforestation rate increased to 0.46%. Earlier estimates by the 2000 World bank Reports stated deforestation rate in PNG averaged to 0.3% per annum. In a recent study by the University of PNG’s Remote Sensing Centre (shearman et al., 2009), deforestation rate in PNG from 1972 to 2002 has been estimated to rise from 0.4% to 1.4% year-1.

At local level, PNGFA statistics show that, the country’s forests are decreasing at a rate of 120,000 ha per annum (PNGFA, 2003) through logging, agricultural activities, mining and other land uses. As it is now, PNG’s position at international level as far as tropical deforestation is concerned, the country falls behind Brazil, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Zambia thus it must stand out and address issues relating to climate change and REDD.

Given the above background and the urgent circumstances relating to impacts of climate change in PNG, a project such as the one proposed is justified to be implemented in the Huon Gulf coast of PNG.

The above text was extracted from the proposal, Impacts of climate change on communities, livelihoods and local environments along the Huon Gulf coast in Papua New Guinea, submitted to Climate Frontlines