Papua New Guinea Case Study Notes

In Papua New Guinea you can find some of the most lush tropical rainforest vegetation in the world.  There are:

Over 9,000 species of plants,700 bird species and 250 mammal species

The rainforest is particularly valuable to the nearly 6million inhabitants of this area because it contains lots of natural resources (gold, copper, crude oil, Mahogany timber).  It is also valuable because the country is poor with a GNP of only $2900 and with high infant mortality of 48 per 1000, 57% adult literacy and high numbers of population per doctor (1 doctor per 12,500 people).

The rainforest has been exploited by -
Concord Pacific, a massive Malaysian firm, who are involved in logging in PNG. In December 2001 the controversial firm gained a new logging permit allowing the company to log three kilometres (1.86 miles) on either side of an 831 kilometre (516 miles) long road corridor. This allows the c0ompany to exploit some very valuable timber.

The rainforest is being sustainably developed by -
Chevron, a TNC oil company from
  the USA.  They discovered oil in the Kikori basin area (north West of Port Moresby) in 1990.  A pipeline was built and oil has been exported since 1992.  they have tried to put some money from the project into a project called the Kutubu Joint Venture Project, which aims to protect the biodiversity of the area.  They have offered technical assistance and training and set up ecologically sound agriculture, butterfly capture and community based forestry, ecotourism and fish farming.  However, the extraction of oil and the pipeline have damaged the ecosystem.  

The Forest is being protected or conserved by –
The Maisan people are some of the original inhabitants of PNG.  They live around the pristine Collingwood Bay. The rich marine life and coral reefs in Collingwood Bay have been identified in a biological survey to be of national conservation significance. They have fought to protect the forest and have developed a tapa cloth industry.
Greenpeace – have protested against concord Pacific and their logging operations, and are only interested in environmentally friendly ways of protecting the forest while sustaining the livelihood of the ethnic groups.

The PNG government have changed.  They set up a National forest plan in 1996 which allowed logging and development to take place.  The new government, headed by Michael Somaire, has banned this and only wants sustainable development of its resources.  It has established National; parks and The Rainforest Coalition, which aims to bring together both LEDCs and MEDCs for the purpose of creating community-driven, environmentally sustainable economic growth.