A three day in-house CEPA Data Portal training is currently underway in CEPA’s office in Port Moresby from 26th-28th of October. The participants were briefed about the importance of data storage and usage. An analysis was done by the Inform Project Team indicates that a total 29,414 users have accessed the CEPA Environment Data Portal since its inception, between 2018 and 2020. Out of 41,190 sessions, 29,907 users are new users, with 18,173 users (61%) from PNG alone.
^Varirata National Park is PNGs first protected area, declared in 1969 (©Biatus Bito).
Customary landowners, custodians of 97% of land in PNG, recognise many areas of land and sea as “tambu” – areas of special spiritual significance. Customary landownership is therefore integral to PNGs 2.1 million hectares in its 59 protected areas. Protected areas sustain livelihoods, help maintain culture, provide tourism opportunities, store carbon, and protect biodiversity.
So much literature has been written about PNGRIS (Keig and Quigley 1995) and the usage of its datasets for various analysis Nix, H. A et al (2000) even to this day. From these references it is known that PNG occupies approximately 464,100 km2 of landmass excluding the maritime area out of which Peat-soils occupy 17% (~78,830 km2). From visual inspection of the PNGRIS Peat-soils Map and Peat Depth obtained from Tropical SubTropical - CIFOR Peatlands Imagery showed degradation of Peat-soils especially in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.