Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a National Disaster Management Act and a National Emergency Plan. In 2003, PNG established a National Disaster Awareness and Preparedness Committee.

PNG is particularly prone to natural disasters including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, cyclones, landslides, droughts, and river and coastal flooding. The highlands, with 2.2 million people living in thousands of small villages, are subject to weather extremes of heavy rainfall and drought. Increasingly, landslides are occurring from population pressures and uncontrolled land use. The coastal areas and coral atolls are low-lying, and nearly 500,000 people in 2,000 coastal villages are vulnerable to weather extremes and seawater inundation. PNG experiences 2 to 3 national-level activations (and numerous smaller local activations) for disaster events per year, and in the past 15 years there have been seven events of significance including flooding, volcanic eruption, tsunami, landslide, and drought. On average, tropical cyclones hit the country at a rate of about one cyclone per year.

The Department of Environment and Conservation-administered Environment Act 2000 provides for the regulation of environmental impacts on coastal and marine resources resulting from development, environmental protection, and national water resources management.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) supports a plethora of coastal habitats, resources and environments including deltaic flood plains, estuaries, tidal flats, mangroves, beaches near shore environments such as bays, lagoons, sea grass beds, coral reefs, and offshore environments. Of particular regional significance are the extensive and well-developed mangrove systems. In PNG there some 37 species of mangroves belonging to 20 different genera, which are associated with the major river systems throughout the country. Coral reefs in PNG cover a total area of 40,000 square kilometers. For the most part, coral reefs are relatively unaffected by human activities, but this largely reflects the country’s dispersed and relatively isolated population as well as a lack of material development. The fisheries resources of PNG are made up of a wide variety of lagoons, reefs, deep slopes, pelagics, and bottom species. Formal employment in the fisheries sector amounts to just 1,000 people. The export earnings from fishery products amount to about 1% of all total exports. While fishing is widespread, much of it is used for local consumption. There are approximately 4,000 part time artisinal fishermen. However, with no proper storage or readily available transport networks, the immediate prospects for expanding the artisinal fishing sector are limited. The majority of marine-based fisheries are located on the coast and in offshore waters, while inland fisheries are mainly based on aquaculture and capture fisheries, utilising simpler gear to fish along rivers, lakes and oxbow lakes.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a Physical Planning Act administered by the Department of Lands for managing its land resources.

Almost 97% of land in PNG is customary land, owned either by individuals or under some form of clan ownership. Some six million hectares are used in the rotational gardening cycle. Of the country’s total land area, approximately 470,000 square kilometers, or about 58%, is subject to strong or severe erosion. A further 18% is permanently inundated or regularly flooded. Up to 200,000 hectares are cleared annually for traditional agriculture. Agriculture is the mainstay of the PNG economy, accounting for approximately 30% of GDP and around 13% of total export earnings. Land currently set aside for food and cash crop production in the country accounts for about 30% of the country’s total land area. Land suitability for tree crops, arable agriculture, pastures and irrigated rice amounts to 6.6% of PNG's total land area. Forest reserves cover over 36 million hectares, or approximately 70% of the country’s total land area. Commercial logging for exports is fairly widespread throughout all regions. Approximately 15 million hectares of the forests are accessible, with one million hectares already logged. Forestry operations can threaten the livelihoods of rural residents through loss of well-developed road systems, causing soil erosion, contamination of water supplies and loss of non-timber resources. There are also associated social problems that have emerged, despite agreements between loggers and landowners, which typically require the loggers to pay royalties to landowners and build infrastructure such as roads, schools and rural health clinics.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a National Government Tourism Policy and a Tourism Master Plan (2007-2017).

The tourism industry is poorly developed even though the country offers spectacular diving sites, rainforest, ecotourism opportunities, scenery, wildlife, and a diversity of cultures. PNGs’ share of the South Pacific regional market is very small, at only 5 percent of total arrivals, and less than 2 percent of the holiday market. This indicates the low level of development of PNG's tourism sector compared to other neighbouring countries, as well as the importance of the business travel market to PNG. Currently the tourism industry in PNG is underpinned by the business travel market, which accounts for almost 70 percent of all visitors and provides the major market for many hotels, as well as the international and domestic airlines. In 2005, PNG received close to 70,000 overseas visitors, of which 26 percent (approximately 18,000 visitors) were holiday travellers, while the remaining 74 percent represented the business traveller segment. Tourism tends to be concentrated in urban centers, although ecotourism ventures have been set up in the more remote and isolated rural areas.