The BioRap Biodiversity Assessment and Planning Study for Papua New Guinea

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Faith ◽  
H. A. Nix ◽  
C. R. Margules ◽  
M. F. Hutchinson ◽  
P. A. Walker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
Priority List ◽  
Net Benefits ◽  
Forestry Production

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has an incredible variety of land and marine ecosystems, including many components of biodiversity that are unique in the world. PNG's land mass constitutes less than one percent of the world's land area, yet estimates suggest that the country has more than 5% of the world's biodiversity. PNG has been recognized therefore as an important region for biodiversity conservation (see Alcorn 1993; Beehler 1993 and references within). Recently, Conservation International (CI) has recognized PNG as one of the small number of critical tropical forest areas for conservation efforts. That priority reflects not just PNG's unique biodiversity but also the fact that sustainable use of PNG's natural resources has become an important issue, particularly relating to its large mineral deposits, oil and natural gas reserves, agricultural potential, and forestry production potential. CI's perspective highlights important principles of conservation priority. PNG, like the other tropical wilderness areas on its priority list, is regarded as an opportunity for effective conservation at relatively low cost, given that these wilderness regions are still largely intact and have low human population density. In our view, realizing such opportunities requires good planning. Biodiversity conservation in PNG can imply low realized opportunity costs or quite high realized opportunity costs, depending on whether biodiversity planning is used to find a balance among society's competing needs through tradeoffs. PNG is a region worthy of urgent conservation planning attention because potential high net benefits for society may be needlessly foreclosed through inefficient planning that does not address conflicts among various needs of society. The risk of losing those potential net benefits is a strong argument for conservation investment in PNG.

A biodiversity conservation plan for Papua New Guinea based on biodiversity trade-offs analysis

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Faith ◽  
C. R. Margules ◽  
P. A. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Evaluation Framework ◽  
Land Use History ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Biodiversity Protection ◽  
Production Values ◽  
Forestry Production

A rapid biodiversity assessment ("BioRap") project identified candidate areas for biodiversity protection in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and provides an ongoing evaluation framework for balancing biodiversity conservation and other land use needs. Achieving a biodiversity protection target with minimum opportunity cost was an important outcome given that biodiversity values overlap with forestry production values, and high forgone forestry opportunities would mean significant losses to land owners and the government. Allocation of 16.8% of PNG's land area to some form of biodiversity protection was required, in order to achieve the level of biodiversity representation/persistence that would have been possible using only 10% of the land area if there were no constraints on land allocation and no land use history. This result minimizes potential conflict with forestry production opportunities while also taking account of land use history, human population density and previous conservation assessments. The analysis provides more than a Single set of proposed priority areas. It is a framework for progressively moving towards a country-wide conservation goal, while at the same time providing opportunities to alter the priority area set in light of new knowledge, changes in land use, and/or changes in economic and social conditions.

scholarly journals Magneto-optical diagnosis of symptomatic malaria in Papua New Guinea

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Arndt ◽  
T. Koleala ◽  
Á. Orbán ◽  
C. Ibam ◽  
E. Lufele ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Light Microscopy ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Malaria Diagnosis ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Optical Signal ◽  
Symptomatic Malaria ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Polymerase Chain ◽  
Improved Methods

AbstractImproved methods for malaria diagnosis are urgently needed. Here, we evaluate a novel method named rotating-crystal magneto-optical detection (RMOD) in 956 suspected malaria patients in Papua New Guinea. RMOD tests can be conducted within minutes and at low cost. We systematically evaluate the capability of RMOD to detect infections by directly comparing it with expert light microscopy, rapid diagnostic tests and polymerase chain reaction on capillary blood samples. We show that compared to light microscopy, RMOD exhibits 82% sensitivity and 84% specificity to detect any malaria infection and 87% sensitivity and 88% specificity to detect Plasmodium vivax. This indicates that RMOD could be useful in P. vivax dominated elimination settings. Parasite density correlates well with the quantitative magneto-optical signal. Importantly, residual hemozoin present in malaria-negative patients is also detectable by RMOD, indicating its ability to detect previous infections. This could be exploited to reveal transmission hotspots in low-transmission settings.

scholarly journals Active Community-Based Case Finding for Tuberculosis With Limited Resources

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bindu Karki ◽  
Guenter Kittel ◽  
Ignatius Bolokon ◽  
Trevor Duke
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Case Finding ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Smear Microscopy ◽  
Source Population ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Adults And Children

Papua New Guinea is one of the 14 highest-burden countries for tuberculosis (TB) infection, but few community-based studies exist. We evaluated a low-cost method of active community case finding in Kabwum and Wasu in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Over 3 months we visited 26 villages and screened adults and children for symptoms and signs of TB. Sputum samples were examined using smear microscopy. A total of 1700 people had chronic symptoms, of which 267 were suspicious for TB on further examination. Sputum from 230 symptomatic adults yielded 97 samples that were positive for acid-fast bacilli. In addition, 15 cases of extrapulmonary TB in adults and 17 cases of TB in children were identified. One hundred and thirty people were identified with active TB disease among the source population of approximately 17 000, giving an estimated prevalence of 765 per 100 000. One hundred and six (82%) cases were not previously diagnosed. The cost per case identified was US$146. It is feasible to conduct active community-based case finding and treatment initiation for TB with limited resources and in remote areas, and in Papua New Guinea the yield was high. Active case finding and follow-up of treatment in villages is needed to address the hidden burden of TB in Papua New Guinea and other high-burden Asia Pacific countries.

scholarly journals The Marginal Benefit of an Active Labor Market Program Relative to a Public Works Program: Evidence from Papua New Guinea

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hoy ◽  
Darian Naidoo
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Active Labor ◽  
Active Labor Market Programs ◽  
Active Labor Market

AbstractPolicymakers typically try to address youth unemployment in developing countries through either active labor market programs (ALMPs) or labor-intensive public works programs (LIPWs). We examine whether there is any additional benefit for unemployed youth from participating in a comprehensive ALMP compared to a LIPW. We exploit an unanticipated intervention in the largest employment program in Papua New Guinea, which resulted in one intake of the program completing a LIPW and missing out on a comprehensive ALMP. We conduct a difference-in-difference analysis between participants in the intake that missed out on the ALMP component of the program and participants in the intakes immediately before and after. In contrast to most impact evaluations of ALMPs, we show youth that completed the comprehensive ALMP were around twice as likely to be employed in the formal sector 9–12 months after the program compared to similar youth in the intake that only completed a LIWP. This effect was entirely driven by 20% of youth who participated in the ALMP staying with the employer they were placed with following the end of the program. Surveys of these employers illustrate that they use the ALMP as a low-cost, low-risk, and relatively low-effort way of hiring new employees.

Practical application of biodiversity surrogates and percentage targets for conservation in Papua New Guinea

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Faith ◽  
C. R. Margules ◽  
P. A. Walker ◽  
J. Stein ◽  
G. Natera
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Biodiversity Protection ◽  
Biodiversity Surrogates ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Conservation Plan

A conservation planning study in Papua New Guinea (PNG) addresses the role of biodiversity surrogates and biodiversity targets, in the context of the trade-offs required for planning given real-world costs and constraints. In a trade-ofts framework, surrogates must be judged in terms of their success in predicting general biodiversity complementarity values ? the amount of additional biodiversity an area can contribute to a protected set. Wrong predictions of low complementarity (and consequent allocation of non-protective land uses) may be more worrisome than wrong predictions of high complementarity (and consequent allocation of protection, perhaps unnecessarily forgoing other land uses benefiting society). Trade-ofts and targets work well when predictions of complementarity are based on surrogate information that is expressed as a continuum of variation. The PNG study used hierarchical variation for environmental domains and vegetation types, and a nominated target then dictated the level within those hierarchies that was used. Internationally-promoted targets provide a potential basis for comparative evaluation of biodiversity protection levels among countries or regions. However, conventional application of percentage targets, in focusing on proportions of total area or on proportions of habitat types, does not serve the goal of biodiversity protection or sustainability well because targets can be miss-used to restrict the amount of biodiversity protected. At the same time, recent complaints about percentage targets are equally misguided in claiming, based on species-area curves, that 10% targets imply 50% extinctions. We apply a new approach to percentage targets in PNG, in which the maximum diversity that could be protected by an unconstrained 10% of the total area of the country becomes the working biodiversity target. Reaching that same biodiversity target may then require more than 10% of the area, because of constraints (e.g., existing reserves) and costs. In the baseline analysis for PNG, we found that hierarchical variation at the level of 564 vegetation types, combined with the 608 environmental domains, could be protected in an unconstrained 10% of the country. This process of determining a biodiversity target also revealed some "must-have" areas for any future conservation plan. Sur.h must-have areas were also identified for a 15%-based target. The satisfaction of the 10%-based target in practice required 16.8% of PNG (Faith et al. 2001a). This low-cost proposed protected set corresponded to greater net benefits relative to our application of two conventional targets approaches.

scholarly journals Magneto-optical diagnosis of symptomatic malaria in Papua New Guinea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandra Arndt ◽  
Tamarah Koleala ◽  
Agnes Orban ◽  
Clemencia Ibam ◽  
Lincoln Timinao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Light Microscopy ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Malaria Diagnosis ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Optical Signal ◽  
Optical Diagnostic ◽  
Symptomatic Malaria ◽  
Polymerase Chain ◽  
Improved Methods

Improved methods for malaria diagnosis are urgently needed. Here, we tested a novel rotating-crystal magneto-optical diagnostic (RMOD) test in 964 suspected malaria patients in Papua New Guinea. RMOD tests can be obtained within minutes and at low cost. Capillary blood samples were also subjected to rapid diagnostic tests, expert light microscopy and polymerase chain reaction to systematically evaluate the capability of RMOD to detect infections. Compared to light microscopy, as the gold standard, RMOD exhibited 82% sensitivity and 84% specificity to detect any malaria infection. This increased to 87% sensitivity and 88% specificity for Plasmodium vivax, indicating that RMOD could be useful in P. vivax dominated elimination settings. Parasite density correlated well with the quantitative magneto-optical signal. Importantly, residual hemozoin present in malaria negative patients was also detectable by RMOD, indicating its ability to detect previous infections, which can be exploited to reveal transmission hotspots in low-transmission settings.

Public Health in Papua New Guinea

1989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Denoon ◽  
Kathleen Dugan ◽  
Leslie Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea
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