The independent Papua New Guinea Biodiversity and Climate Fund has issued a second funding call for projects aiming to earn protected area status and help the megadiverse country reach its international biodiversity commitments.
Projects seeking to establish new protected areas in key biodiversity regions or expand existing ones will be eligible to apply, as well as activities seeking to achieve registration as other effective area-based conservation efforts (OECMs), the fund announced this week.
Each successful applicant will receive funding in the $250,000 to $6 million range over a period of time stretching from one to six years.
Applicants must be domestic NGOs or local community organisations that have been registered in PNG for at least two years, though foreign groups can join as co-participants.
PNG launched the fund in September last year with assistance from the UNDP and funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
It is one of 17 nations globally defined as “megadiverse” and is home to around 7% of the world’s total biodiversity, but has been plagued by deforestation and other challenges threatening crucial ecosystems.
The country last year signed up to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and is committed to protecting 30% of its land and sea areas by the end of this decade.
The fact that the funding call includes projects seeking to register OECMs is another indication that an increasing number of countries are looking to that as an option to ensure they will be able to meet their GBF commitments.
Only around 10 countries globally have registered OECMs to date, though several more – including Australia and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region – are putting domestic regulations in place to deploy the option, which was only properly defined in 2018.
The Papua New Guinea fund will consider both terrestrial and marine projects, it said.
However, as the fund also has a climate component, projects must also address climate change in order to qualify under the latest funding round.
“Papua New Guineans are the custodians of the country’s exceptional natural wealth. Its natural environment is the foundation upon which its economic prosperity depends,” Dirk Wagener, the UNDP’s resident representative to PNG, said when the fund launched in September.
“However, the impacts of climate change are intensifying, threatening the most vulnerable. The fund can play a catalytic role in attracting financial resources to strengthen the country’s resilience to climate impacts.”
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