Land rows may be high risk

By SALLY TIWARI
THE Office of Climate Change and Development (OCCD) has been advised to rate land disputes as a high risk issue during the implementation of the adaptation fund project on coastal and inland flooding.
At an inception workshop on the project last week, a review of the project document saw many non-governmental organisations and institutional heads push for land disputes and community cooperation to be rated as a very high risk area.
Babara Liri from The Nature Conservancy, who was a participant at the meet, said it was important for the community to take ownership of the project to ensure it was implemented successfully.
The US$6 million (K12.4 million) project will be implemented in north coast and island regions of Papua New Guinea.
It will include programmes such as mangrove planting and nursery, creation of model disaster response plans and setting up of automated weather systems.
Five provinces involved in the implementation of the project in September are East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, New Ireland and Northern.
Some participants questioned why Western province and the Carterets Island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville were not considered for the projects since the island was one of the first affected by climate change.
Acting director adaptation Jacob Ekinye said the selection, based on economic loss, was approved by the Adaptation Fund and could not be revised.
Ekinye said other provinces facing similar coastal and inland flooding situations would be considered if they received funding from other international organisations to mitigate the effects of climate change.
OCCD public relations officer Ethel Namuri said they were waiting for the project management unit to be established.
The unit will be based at the OCCD with a project manager who will implement the project and report to OCCD.
She said according to the United Nations Development Programme the unit was expected to be finalised in two weeks.