This publication ‘Strategic Environmental Assessment – Guidelines for Pacific Island Countries and
Territories’ has been prepared to provide guidance on the application of SEA as a tool to support
environmental planning, policy and informed decision making. It provides background on the use and
benefits of SEA as well as providing tips and guiding steps on the process, including case studies, toolkits
and checklists for conducting an SEA in the Appendices.
In this paper we discuss differences in the ways transnational conservationists and Melanesian farmers, hunters and fishers value ‘biodiversity’. The money for conservation projects in developing countries originates from people who are embedded in a capitalist system, which allows engagement with nature as an abstract entity. Their western education has given them a scientific/ evolutionary-based worldview, which attributes intrinsic value to all species (and particular arrangements of species, e.g. rainforests and coral reefs), irrespective of economic value or ecosystem function.
New Britain Island, off the north-east coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG), offers some of the richest biodiversity, densest forest and most spectacular natural beauty on earth. But the fight for the survival of these features is a faceoff between extraction industries and existing conservation efforts.
Peat Soils or Histosols
Reference: Bellamy, J.A & McAlpine, J.R (1995).
Papua New Guinea Inventory of Natural Resources, Population Distribution and Land Use Handbook (2nd edition),
PNGRIS Publication No.6, CSIRO - AIDAB,queensland complete Printing Services, Australia, 155 pp
Classification based on codes shown below (See Table III - 14. codes for soil class on page 143 of reference above);
211 = Cryofolists Freely drained, little decomposed and mostly shallow organic soils found in cold climates (10326.64589 km2 dark blue colour)
Peat Soils or Histosols
Reference: Bellamy, J.A & McAlpine, J.R (1995).
Papua New Guinea Inventory of Natural Resources, Population Distribution and Land Use Handbook (2nd edition),
PNGRIS Publication No.6, CSIRO - AIDAB,queensland complete Printing Services, Australia, 155 pp
Classification based on codes shown below (See Table III - 14. codes for soil class on page 143 of reference above);
211 = Cryofolists Freely drained, little decomposed and mostly shallow organic soils found in cold climates (10326.64589 km2 dark blue colour)
The ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) Version 3 (ASTGTM) provides a global digital elevation model (DEM) of land areas on Earth at a spatial resolution of 1 arc second (approximately 30 meter horizontal posting at the equator).
The development of the ASTER GDEM data products is a collaborative effort between National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI). The ASTER GDEM data products are created by the Sensor Information Laboratory Corporation (SILC) in Tokyo.
Resource contains raster files for a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and derived hillshade for Papua New Guinea.
The ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) Version 3 (ASTGTM) provides a global digital elevation model (DEM) of land areas on Earth at a spatial resolution of 1 arc second (approximately 30 meter horizontal posting at the equator).