Mori plans to progress protection of environment, conserve wildlife

ENVIRONMENT, Conservation and Climate Change Minister Wera Mori has released three documents on the agenda to protect the environment and conserve wildlife. They include the protected area policy, the protected area policy Implementation plan and the national plan for sharks and rays. Mori stressed the importance of the ocean, which is the biggest sink of carbon dioxide. “It is equally important and we must pay attention to it,” he said. “Unfortunately, in the past, we only paid temporary attention, but now given the fact that we have climate change, we need to change our approach be bring (it) to the front. “We have very fast areas and thankfully, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has got technology for remote sensing. “We would like to accurately map out potential in Papua New Guinea in terms of blue bond apart from our green bon. “That is so that we can convert that into a revenue base for our country.” The policy and plans were created with the support of Global Environmental Facility and UNDP.  The protected areas policy was created in 2014, out of which came the protected area policy implementation plan. The shark and ray protection plan was recently created by the Conservation and Environment Protection Agency with support from the National Fisheries Authority.