ALM UNDP

Summary:

Key Vulnerabilities

• Agriculture/Food Security
• Coastal Zones and Marine Ecosystems
• Water Resources
• Biodiversity Loss
• Fisheries
• Forestry

Potential Adaptation Measures

Coastal and Marine Environments

• Coastal management policy and planning
• Maintenance of the integrity of the natural systems and their buffers is important in the face of climate change. Government policy needs to take account of the potential impacts of likely changes in sea level, the need to avoid development in areas prone to inundation or accelerated erosion and the need to ensure the safety of people.
• The adverse effects of natural hazards are particularly important at provincial government level because the hazards usually have localized effects. Local authorities have a stake in avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating the costs and effects of natural hazards.

Integrated Coastal Management

• Integrated coastal management is needed as a long-term approach. However, in the PNG context, truly integrated institutional approaches are unlikely in the foreseeable future, but these are not needed. What is needed is institutional coordination horizontally (across sectors) and vertically (local - provincial – national), that can be achieved at relatively low cost and with minimal institutional restructuring.
• Community based monitoring and Management - There is essentially no routine monitoring of PNG’s marine environment, except for private programs operated by mines. Academic institutions and research stations have initiated a few monitoring efforts but these are not directly linked to management efforts.

The few examples of successful management interventions to ensure sustainable use of PNG’s coral reef resources generally involve community-based initiatives such as codes of practice or voluntary efforts by local industry groups. The level of a project’s physical presence on site should match community commitment.

Integrated research

Recommendations for integrated research in ecosystem need to focus on finding out the distribution and structure of species and ecosystem; storm events to help understand ecosystem engineering and site rehabilitation; identification of human use patterns; cultivation and management of mangroves and testing of village based ecosystem care units and; identification of sources of income from traditional shell fishing to shell crafting. Building capacity in provincial and national government agencies

PNG has generally adequate environmental legislation but very low, and declining, capacity to implement it. The environmental planning and management capacity of relevant national and provincial government agencies is extremely limited, hampered by the nation's political and economic instability and a seemingly endless process of institutional reorganization. For example, the OEC was recently downgraded from a cabinet department, and staff cut by 50%. Even before this the department suffered from critical shortages of human and financial resources.

The management of threats such as urban development, watershed degradation, large-scale industrial development, and commercial fishing urgently require technical staff and institutional capacity in provincial and national government agencies. Capacity building is hampered by cultural obligations and work demands, inefficient bureaucracies and funding constraints.

Hard and soft measures

Structural measures such as sea walls and groins are costly and provide few benefits other than protection of erosion and safeguarding of assets only on a short term basis. Sea walls may also increase problems downstream. Therefore, structural options should be screened for their compatibility with community aspirations.

Soft options involving revegetation to stabilize the shoreline are less costly but need constant maintenance. They may also be easily affected by increased storminess and wave action. Set back areas also help control development.

Fisheries

• Adaptive Management - Adaptation strategies should be aimed at acquiring a capacity to respond to unexpected changes in the environment by quickly changing fishery management approaches.
• Develop aquaculture - Aquaculture helps to relax the gap between demand and supply and will reduce the pressure on wild stockings. Reduce post harvest losses New technology may help reduce by-catch and maintain fish quality.
• Stronger regional collaboration for management and research
• For tuna fisheries, PNG needs to continue it’s strong involvement in the establishment of multilateral agreements with distant water fishing nations.
• Poor resolution of climate models are not able to predict changes at the scale of fish recruitment. Data on the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of tuna can help fish management authorities adjust their management practices.
• Data collection systems - Aside from data on a few fisheries stocks, existing information on the marine environment to establish any form of baseline against which trends might be identified as a basis for management is almost completely inadequate.

Agriculture, Land Use Change and Forestry

• Micro credit and small business expansion - Traditional agriculture in PNG is based on a rotational bush fallow system, which is highly productive and generally sustainable, providing population pressure does not force the use of too short a rotation period. However, in order for households to maintain food and nutritional security throughout the year, they must have access to sources of income through on-farm or off-farm activities. This requires both a supportive policy and planning system at the national level, effective extension services and access to credit and business opportunities.
• Research into new plant varieties, crop rotation, use of irrigation, altered nutrient levels and plantation forestry alternatives.
• Research is needed to find out more about adaptive measures that exist such as breeding and genetic programs; protection systems such as fire, insects and diseases; the regeneration potential of natural forests whether intact or logged; suitable plantation site and species selections; and suitability of indigenous species.
• Sustainable natural forest Management - One of the most contentious issues that the forest authority needs to address is how can it expand its programme on forest replacement and implement its policy on sustainable natural forest management when it is faced with the dilemma that the land and the forests on it are owned by the customary owners who may have other uses for their land and forests.
• New technologies The introduction of new and/or improved codes of practice, reduced impact logging, the provision of better information about timber stands, and the upgrading of the resource management capacity of the forestry professionals, technicians and field supervisors are key elements in the process of achieving sustainable forest management.
• Strategies for future farming developments through the introduction of sustainable subsistence crops and the introduction of new farming methods and practices are needed.
• Capacity Building - Capacity building initiatives should be focused on piloting innovative extension systems, improving and integrating farming technologies, strengthening agricultural data collection and planning and expanding micro credit and small business training facilities.
• Woodlot establishment, agroforesty and tree planting supported by active forestry extension.

Biodiversity

• Strengthen and enforce policies that protect critical habitats
• Increase awareness of visitors and the public concerning the value of species and biodiversity
• Maintain gene pools through a system of connected protected areas
• Strategic policy - The National Biodiversity Strategic Action Programme initiative, developed out of the Convention on Biodiversity, will provide the framework for an integrated strategy for the country. The OEC will need considerable strengthening if it is to oversee the coordination and implementation of this strategy. Landowner issues may also need to be resolved.

Water Resources

• Invest in new water technologies, particularly for recycled water.
• Encourage integrated water management approaches
• Changes in hydrological characteristics are likely to lead to changes in the aquatic and wetland ecosystems and increase demands for irrigation from the agricultural sector. Integrated water resource management under a ‘no regrets’ response option requires intensive investment but it has the potential to draw independent water users under one governing agency. Incorporate climate change into water management legislation
• Ensure that Climate Change and variability is incorporated in various Environmental and Conservation Acts, but focusing on water and including monitoring, data collection and management of the water resources.
• Transfer of new technology to assist with water projects/ activities
• Project developers have been encouraged to upgrade capability and capacity building for water quality monitoring and assist in the acquisition of upgraded resources to enhance national technologies.
• Develop alternative water sources such as rainfall catchment devices as well as saltwater and brackish water desalination plants

Health

• Control vector borne diseases
• Reduction in heat stress through infrastructure improvement including adoption and enforcement of more stringent building codes
• Health care infrastructure needs to be upgraded but support for these measures will place a large burden on public expenditures.
• Comprehensive disaster management programmes
• Preventative health care through public awareness programmes
• Improve medical services The government is in the process of decentralizing the country’s health system from the national to the provincial and district levels to enable more cost effective and coordinated delivery of services.