Finance and investment plan to support climate actions in PNG

The Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is developing a finance and investment plan to promote sustainable practices in the agriculture, forestry, lands and environment and conservation sectors.
This is part of the PNG’s action to combat climate change through protecting forests, the “lungs” of the earth, and minimizing the release of gases that contribute to climate change.
Climate change is everyone’s problem and there are very few areas of life it will not effect.
PNG is particularly susceptible to climate change as recent events have shown. The 2016 El Nino caused extensive crop failures highlighting the vulnerability of PNG’s highly rural population to food insecurity as climate change impacts weather patterns bringing more extreme and unpredictable weather to the country. Extreme weather will not only impact farmers but also the infrastructure on which we all rely with more intense rainfall likely to increase flooding and damage to key road and marine infrastructure.
Scientists have long known that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are causes of climate change, and these gases are all directly linked to human activity. In industrialised countries, the main contributor of these gases is the burning of fossil fuels. In PNG, it is through deforestation and forest degradation.
Studies show that commercial agriculture, commercial logging and family agriculture are the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the country.
PNG has developed and endorsed a National REDD+ Strategy (NRS) for 2017-2027 that sets out to address these drivers through cross cutting policies and measures that will work to change the way the country manages its forest resources.  The NRS builds on the experiences of early REDD+ readiness activities in PNG, including the development of pilot activities, and ongoing assessment and analysis work including reviews of forest sector financing, commercial agricultural development, stakeholder engagement processes and land use mapping.
Mirzohaydar Isoev, FCPF REDD+ Technical Advisor said: “The next step is to map out activities and costs for keys sectors to be incorporated into a National REDD+ Finance and Investment Plan (RFIP). This can be used to ensure informed decisions can be made about how best to strengthen PNG’s response to climate change with regard to forest management.” The activities and costs will provide an investment framework for donors to support the country towards maintaining forest resources and supporting rural development.
“The RFIP development process, facilitated by the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) and supported by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has focused on shared planning with key sectors, lands, agriculture, forestry and environment to identify existing government priorities for action and how these link with climate action.
“By bringing together these two elements government agencies have been able to identify how they can both achieve goals of productivity and rural development while also addressing climate change. This approach is critical to bringing economic opportunities to communities while also protecting their rights and the resources of PNG for future generations – key elements of the government’s responsible and sustainable approach to development as well as the global SDGs.” said Mr. Isoev.

Picture 1 -REDD+ Stakeholders at a sector retreat analysing key gaps and challenges to be mapped out in the Investment Plan. Picture by Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.