Land-use finance mapping in Papua New Guinea

The objective of the analysis was to identify financial flows that are aligned with land-use mitigation and adaptation activities that could be scaled up. It also aimed to identify land-use finance flows that are not aligned with climate-change outcomes and that could be redirected towards more sustainable outcomes, or phased out.

3.1 Stakeholder involvement

• The study was conducted with the support of the Climate Change and Development Authority, the Forest Authority, the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, and UNDP.
• A broad range of stakeholders from public and private organisations were consulted at the inception of the study, as well as to review draft findings.

3.2 Typology development

Climate-misaligned activities were defined in line with the drivers of deforestation identified in PNG’s REDD+ Strategy and related studies.

Climate-aligned activities were identified based on policies and measures of the REDD+ Strategy, as well as activities identified in several documents, including the draft Green Climate Fund (GCF) concept note , the Issues and Options for REDD+ in PNG, and the National Strategy for Responsible Sustainable Development for PNG.

Conditionally-aligned activities were identified in the national and international literature.

3.3 Data collection and analysis

The main data sources used in this study are summarised in the following table:

Collected data was then analysed and classified according to the following process:

Figure 2: Data classification process. Source: Parker et al. (2018) Landscape of climate-relevant land-use finance in Papua New Guinea.

Since data sources often included limited descriptive information on the activities, the analysis relied heavily on supplementary information obtained from government documents such as Volume 3 of the National Budget that describes Public Investment Programs for the years 2015–2019. Additional sources included academic research, donor and government websites, and in-depth consultations with national stakeholders.

A detailed report in English was produced for national and international dissemination.

The analysis is divided into two main parts: an analysis of revenue data, looking at the contribution of land use to PNG’s national revenue, and an analysis of investment expenditures in land use.

A series of infographics were produced to illustrate the main findings and conclusions of the report, including Sankey diagrams.

• The land-use sector is a major source of public revenue in PNG. The study analysed the major flows of climate-relevant land-use finance in PNG, to understand how revenues and expenditures could be redirected to align with climate change outcomes while continuing to support livelihoods and economic growth.
• In particular, the study looked at how reforming the application of tax levies could help scale-up finance available for sustainable land-use objectives and improve transparency of land-use activities.
• The study also highlighted the lack of forest-proofing of donor funding and identified opportunities to further support the redirection of spending to sustainable land use.

• One of the major challenges of this study was the lack of financial transparency of statutory authorities in disclosing financial information to both central government and their respective stakeholders. To address these shortcomings, the study team collected annual financial reports for some of these organisations and corroborate and/or supplement this data with publicly-available trade and economic data.
• A further limitation was the exclusion of personal emoluments (salaries and travel) and goods and services (travel and other operating costs) from the analysis. This decision was taken since ultimately it would not be possible, given the availability of data, to assess the climate-relevance of these expenditures. However, excluding this data skewed the overall data set towards international finance, since the majority of domestic finance is not programmed through public investment programmes.
• The project team tried to collect data in two provinces, however very little information was available at the provincial level on land-use-related activities.

• Full report in English