Papua New Guinea: Some reflections on human- environment - - PDF document

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29/03/2013 Papua New Guinea: Some reflections on human- environment relationships Henry Scheyvens Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Satoyama Initiative expert workshop July 23, 2012, Pacifico Yokohama Location 1 29/03/2013

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Papua New Guinea: Some reflections on human- environment relationships

Henry Scheyvens Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Satoyama Initiative expert workshop July 23, 2012, Pacifico Yokohama

Location

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Basic facts and figures

 Total land area of 46.17 million hectares (Japan, 37.8

million ha); Mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills

 Population: 6.3 million (2011); population growth rate of

1.94%

 Has several thousand separate large self-sufficient

communities, most with only a few hundred people; divided by language (over 800 distinct languages), customs, and tradition

 97% of the land owned by the people (not the state)

through customary forms of tenure

 87% of population is rural

PNG forests

 Forests cover about

60% of the country

 Well-known for

biological endemism and diversification; thought to hold more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity

 Over 2,000 timber

species

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Human activities modifying forests

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Shifting agriculture

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Small-scale conversion by communities for their own commercial agriculture

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Selective logging of forests at industrial scale by companies that have acquired timber rights from the communities (12 million ha)

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Conversion for large-scale agriculture by companies that have acquired land rights from communities (5 million ha)

Socio- economic production landscape?

Ecosystems services critical to survival and livelihoods

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29/03/2013 4 Shifting agriculture also key to survival

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Industrial-scale logging – many problems, few benefits

Conversion for large-scale agricultural development – many problems now associated with the “global land grab”

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Conversion by communities for small- scale agriculture – importance source of income

IGES projects in PNG(1): Research to support small-scale, internationally certified, community- based timber harvesting

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29/03/2013 7 IGES projects in PNG (2): Training community teams to monitor forest biomass

Final observations

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Supportive policies and frameworks to promote socio- ecological production landscapes needed

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Participatory land-use planning key to sustainable rural communities in PNG