[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1164, 233], "category": "Text", "text": "lessons learnt in PNG in forestry, climate change, integrated rural development and sustainable agriculture, this action, together with other EU/EU Member States funded projects, will demonstrate EU leadership in land stewardship models, carbon neutrality, biodiversity conservation and development of deforestation-free commodities."}, {"bbox": [96, 243, 1164, 352], "category": "Text", "text": "The action is in line with the UNFCC Gender Action Plan while enhancing women's participation in climate actions and policy making and contributes to the EU Gender Action Plan III. It reflects the ambition of the PNG Vision 2050 to ensure a more equal distribution of resources and opportunities among people, emphasizing the role of women and youth."}, {"bbox": [96, 362, 1164, 523], "category": "Text", "text": "The action will help achieve the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, notably Goal 13 - Climate Action, Goal 15 - Life on land, Goal 1 - No poverty, Goal 2 - Food security, improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture, Goal 5 - Gender equality. Goal 7 - Sustainable energy, Goal 8 - Decent work and economic growth, Goal 12 - Responsible consumption and production, Goal 17 - Partnerships for the goals. The action will make a significant contribution to achieving PNG's commitments under the three Rio conventions³ and its national FCCB ambitions, notably the National REDD+ Strategy 2017-2027 as well as PNG's Enhanced NDC to the Paris Agreement."}, {"bbox": [85, 550, 323, 583], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [85, 617, 234, 644], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [134, 675, 460, 701], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### 1. Political and Financial Outlook"}, {"bbox": [96, 713, 1164, 1030], "category": "Text", "text": "With 80% of the Pacific countries' landmass, population and economy, large reserves in critical mineral resources, and as a focus of intensifying competing geo-political interests, the importance of PNG for the EU is growing. Though affected by various layers of fragility, PNG adheres to EU fundamental values, human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and has recently (January 2022) abolished the death penalty. The most recent Parliamentary elections took place in mid-2022. Despite some shortcomings, the overall democratic and civilian-led political process is considered not to be under threat. Covid-19 hit PNG as the government started implementing wide-ranging macroeconomic reforms under an IMF Staff Monitored Programme. To mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, PNG opted for expansionary macroeconomic policies, mainly through an ambitious fiscal stimulus package and an increase of capital expenditure. Despite the crisis, the overall financial situation remains under control. According to the IMF, public debt is sustainable, conditional on implementing prudent fiscal policies. PNG's Medium Term Fiscal Strategy 2020-2024 aims at accelerated fiscal consolidation. The EU disbursed the first ever budget support tranche to PNG in December 2021."}, {"bbox": [134, 1044, 387, 1072], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### 2. Specific Sector context"}, {"bbox": [96, 1083, 1164, 1324], "category": "Text", "text": "PNG is one of the 17 most megadiverse countries globally, richly endowed with biological diversity in its forests and marine ecosystems, and thus the custodian of an important global public good. With approximately 78% of its landmass covered by forest, PNG contains the third largest tropical rainforest in the world and hosts more than 6% of the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems. Carbon rich lowland tropical forests constitute over 50% of forest area. Forests are critical to the livelihood of its people and economy. Approximately 80% of the population depend on subsistence farming. Land- (and forest-) ownership is mostly customary and communal, making rural communities the most important stakeholders in any forest related action. On less than 1% of the world's landmass, PNG hosts 7% of the world's biodiversity. It is estimated that up to half of PNG's biodiversity remains to be discovered – a huge potential for future nature-based solutions."}, {"bbox": [96, 1334, 1164, 1469], "category": "Text", "text": "Forests play an important role in PNG's economy and its efforts to climate change mitigation. However, forests - and with it an important share of unique biodiversity- are increasingly at risk through subsistence and commercial agriculture, unsustainable timber harvesting⁴ at times fraught with illegalities and human rights violations, land conversion, mining and the inefficient use of firewood. As emissions from deforestation and land degradation have significantly increased, the carbon sink capacity of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector"}, {"bbox": [85, 1519, 1142, 1565], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)."}, {"bbox": [85, 1565, 1142, 1611], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁴ Official logging statistics mask the degradation within these forests catalysed mainly by selective logging and more frequent rotational clearing. It is estimated that the official statistics of approx. 4 million m3 of timber exported per year from PNG is substantially underreported."}, {"bbox": [85, 1656, 194, 1682], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 32"}]