A biodiversity conservation plan for Papua New Guinea based on biodiversity trade-offs analysis

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Faith ◽  
C. R. Margules ◽  
P. A. Walker

A rapid biodiversity assessment ("BioRap") project identified candidate areas for biodiversity protection in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and provides an ongoing evaluation framework for balancing biodiversity conservation and other land use needs. Achieving a biodiversity protection target with minimum opportunity cost was an important outcome given that biodiversity values overlap with forestry production values, and high forgone forestry opportunities would mean significant losses to land owners and the government. Allocation of 16.8% of PNG's land area to some form of biodiversity protection was required, in order to achieve the level of biodiversity representation/persistence that would have been possible using only 10% of the land area if there were no constraints on land allocation and no land use history. This result minimizes potential conflict with forestry production opportunities while also taking account of land use history, human population density and previous conservation assessments. The analysis provides more than a Single set of proposed priority areas. It is a framework for progressively moving towards a country-wide conservation goal, while at the same time providing opportunities to alter the priority area set in light of new knowledge, changes in land use, and/or changes in economic and social conditions.

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Faith ◽  
H. A. Nix ◽  
C. R. Margules ◽  
M. F. Hutchinson ◽  
P. A. Walker ◽  
...  

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has an incredible variety of land and marine ecosystems, including many components of biodiversity that are unique in the world. PNG's land mass constitutes less than one percent of the world's land area, yet estimates suggest that the country has more than 5% of the world's biodiversity. PNG has been recognized therefore as an important region for biodiversity conservation (see Alcorn 1993; Beehler 1993 and references within). Recently, Conservation International (CI) has recognized PNG as one of the small number of critical tropical forest areas for conservation efforts. That priority reflects not just PNG's unique biodiversity but also the fact that sustainable use of PNG's natural resources has become an important issue, particularly relating to its large mineral deposits, oil and natural gas reserves, agricultural potential, and forestry production potential. CI's perspective highlights important principles of conservation priority. PNG, like the other tropical wilderness areas on its priority list, is regarded as an opportunity for effective conservation at relatively low cost, given that these wilderness regions are still largely intact and have low human population density. In our view, realizing such opportunities requires good planning. Biodiversity conservation in PNG can imply low realized opportunity costs or quite high realized opportunity costs, depending on whether biodiversity planning is used to find a balance among society's competing needs through tradeoffs. PNG is a region worthy of urgent conservation planning attention because potential high net benefits for society may be needlessly foreclosed through inefficient planning that does not address conflicts among various needs of society. The risk of losing those potential net benefits is a strong argument for conservation investment in PNG.


Solid Earth ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. K. Rajashekhar Rao

Abstract. The present study attempts to employ potassium (K) release parameters to identify soil-quality degradation due to changed land use patterns in sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) farms of the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Rapid population increase in the region increased pressure on the land to intensify subsistence production mainly by reducing fallow periods. Such continuous cropping practice coupled with lack of K fertilization practices could lead to a rapid loss of soil fertility and soil-resource degradation. The study aims to evaluate the effects of crop intensification on the K-release pattern and identify soil groups vulnerable to K depletion. Soils with widely differing exchangeable and non-exchangeable K contents were sequentially extracted for periods between 1 and 569 h in 0.01 M CaCl2, and K-release data were fitted to four mathematical models: first order, power, parabolic diffusion and Elovich equations. Results showed two distinct parts in the K-release curves, and 58–80% of total K was released to solution phase within 76 h (first five extractions) with 20–42% K released in the later parts (after 76 h). Soils from older farms that were subjected to intensive and prolonged land use showed significantly (P < 0.05) lower cumulative K-release potential than the farms recently brought to cultivation (new farms). Among the four equations, first-order and power equations best described the K-release pattern; the constant b, an index of K-release rates, ranged from 0.005 to 0.008 mg kg−1 h−1 in the first-order model and was between 0.14 and 0.83 mg kg−1 h−1 in the power model for the soils. In the non-volcanic soils, model constant b values were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the volcanic soils, thus indicating the vulnerability of volcanic soils to K deficiency. The volcanic soils cropped for several crop cycles need immediate management interventions either through improved fallow management or through mineral fertilizers plus animal manures to sustain productivity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 464-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahotra Sarkar ◽  
James S Dyer ◽  
Chris Margules ◽  
Michael Ciarleglio ◽  
Neville Kemp ◽  
...  

A framework was developed for the construction of an objectives hierarchy for multicriteria decisions in land use planning. The process began through identification of fundamental objectives; these were iteratively decomposed into a hierarchy of subobjectives until a level was reached at which subobjectives had measurable attributes. Values were derived for attributes through a variety of methods and weights assigned to objectives through preference elicitation. The framework assumed that the objectives could be incorporated into a linear value function; this required attributes to satisfy preference and difference independence conditions. Strategies were developed to address typical features that distinguish land use decisions from many other multicriteria decisions. The methodology was illustrated with a case study of land use planning in a forestry concession in the Merauke region of Papua Province, Indonesia. The problem involved severe hard constraints; the analysis showed how these can be accommodated within the framework. Results integrated interests and preferences of a diverse set of stakeholders (resident peoples, developers, and conservation professionals) and were intended for implementation. This methodology is extendible to other land use problems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Hendri

Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest tropical rainforest area, especially in Papua Island together with Papua New Guinea accounted the third largest tropical rainforests in the world, after the Amazon (336.7 million ha) and Congo (181.3 million ha). The total tropical rainforest area is 68.7 million ha contained Papua about 57% (39.2 million ha) and 43% (29.5 million ha) Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, deforestation rates in the few decades increased from 1.39 million ha in the period 1985 – 1997 and 0.6 million ha in the period 2000 – 2005. The direct impact of rapid LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change & Forestry) changes since 1980`s has accumulated critical land by 29.0% of forest area in West Papua and 31.4% of forest area in Papua. Climate change affected in Papua region due to rapid amount GHG`s emissions into the atmosphere by increasing average temperature about 0.7oC, minimum temperature (0.7oC) and maximum temperature (1.2oC) during period 1996 – 2005. Other effects of climate change the decreased rainfall up to 26% per month in the last decade, 50% reduced total agriculture productivity, expanded malaria diseases, and increased extreme condition such as drought with intensity of forest fire detected in Sorong due to inter-annual climate variability events, such as the El-Niño event and flood due to the La-Niña event. However, it is difficult task to build mitigation and adaptation planning in the region or local scale due to the lack information, the lack human resources, and local topography and phenomena. In that case, so far, no study has been conducted in Papua region to build mitigation and adaptation planning for carbon management. Therefore, this study tries to promote a carbon management program for help local government to solve forest environmental problems consideration of climate change.


1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryutaro Ohtsuka

SummaryThis article examines the mechanisms of subsistence adaptation of two Papua New Guinea populations, the Metroxylon sago-depending lowland Gidra and the taro-monoculture Mountain Ok, surviving in low population densities of 0·5 and 1·4 persons per km2. Observation of the groups' land use systems strongly suggests that their population densities have not been far below the carrying capacity, although the territory of each population is markedly heterogeneous. Both groups have maintained their sustainable food production not only for resource management but also for survival at a population level, either expanding their territory or changing the sustainable level in tandem with changes of subsistence system.


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