Managing Fire to Conserve Biodiversity and Reduce Climate Vulnerability

Objectives
Reduce the vulnerability to a future major fire event of local communities’ biodiversity conservation area, homesteads, and agricultural and forest resources through the development of a fire management plan.

Project Summary
The province of West New Britain in Papua New Guinea is the most intensively logged province of PNG, and is very susceptible to fire during drought conditions. The north coast of the province suffered widespread fires resulting from the major El Niño induced drought in 2015. The fire negatively impacted the plant and animal biodiversity in the proposed Gimalapira conservation area on the north coast of West New Britain, and damaged the surrounding food gardens and hunting areas of local communities.

Future large-scale fire events are the most significant threat to the integrity of the Gimalapira conservation zone and its surrounding villages and agroforestry zone. Based on current projections, climate change will increase the incidence and intensity of drought conditions and increase the vulnerability of the whole province to future fire events.

See factsheet for full details.