A coastal hazard assessment of Manus and New Ireland provinces, undertaken by WCS, has identified that local people and decision makers have a low awareness of the value of protection services provided by their coastal environment.
While there is a lack of measures in place to protect coastlines against flooding, communities however do show a high degree of adaptation to low-intensity flooding events.
The 45 page report titled ‘Protecting against coastal hazards in Manus and New Ireland provinces Papua New Guinea: An assessment of present and future options’ summarises a field exercise in these two provinces to assess coastal hazards and provide an overview of the possible solutions, opportunities, barriers and constraints for sustainable coastal protection and climate change adaptation.
The assessment was led by environmental engineer Dr Siddarth Narayan from the University of California Santa Barbara with the support of WCS, and was supported with funding from the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Science for Nature And People (SNAP) organization.
“We are very grateful for the active involvement of community leaders and key staff from the divisions of climate change, planning, public works and other divisions from Manus and New Ireland Provincial Authorities who contributed directly to this assessment and provided an important and practical perspective for the report,” said WCS PNG Director, Dr Richard Cuthbert who is a co-author of the report.
The report (4MB ) and a one-page briefing note (300 kb) are available on our publications section.