Located 160km north of Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is home to some of the world’s richest biodiversity. In fact, although only about the size of California, it holds 5% of the entire world’s biodiversity and is renowned for its rainforest, the third largest in the world. About 1/4 of the species in PNG are found nowhere else in the world.
Moreover, PNG is home to a large indigenous population and some 800 languages (10% of the world’s languages), which reflects the country’s incredible diversity. Because most of the indigenous groups are small, communal, and heavily dependent on their ancestral land for survival, any disruption or loss of land can be devastating.
Unfortunately, for more than a decade now, indigenous-occupied lands, as well as the rainforests and biodiversity they carry, have been under threat by foreign logging companies.
While much of the attention on deforestation has been focused on larger countries, like Brazil, forests in Papua New Guinea have been quietly disappearing for years. Deforestation has held steady since the 90s at a rate of 1.4% a year. One study by UPNG Remote Sensing Centre shows most of the forest will be gone by 2021.
FULL STORY HERE
http://www.greengrants.org/2011/08/03/papua-new-guineas-indigenous-groups-fight-deforestation/
Moreover, PNG is home to a large indigenous population and some 800 languages (10% of the world’s languages), which reflects the country’s incredible diversity. Because most of the indigenous groups are small, communal, and heavily dependent on their ancestral land for survival, any disruption or loss of land can be devastating.
Unfortunately, for more than a decade now, indigenous-occupied lands, as well as the rainforests and biodiversity they carry, have been under threat by foreign logging companies.
While much of the attention on deforestation has been focused on larger countries, like Brazil, forests in Papua New Guinea have been quietly disappearing for years. Deforestation has held steady since the 90s at a rate of 1.4% a year. One study by UPNG Remote Sensing Centre shows most of the forest will be gone by 2021.
FULL STORY HERE
http://www.greengrants.org/2011/08/03/papua-new-guineas-indigenous-groups-fight-deforestation/