Statement by Minister for Environment and Conservation

It is my Ministry’s duty to provide the best environment regulation to meet the development demands. We need to regulate the environment and protect the biodiversity and in the context of development trends, climate change and environmental sustainability. We need to uphold the trust not only of those who we issue environmental permits to conduct business, but also of the public and community at large so that there is harmonized living.

The ways in which we will fulfill our mandates and obligations will undoubtedly change over the years and beyond. We will have to adapt to evolving circumstances in the environment; there will be policy shifts, changes in environmental management principles, biodiversity and protected areas management, in regulation, in political thinking, and of course in what our Government, stakeholders and partners expect of us in providing the best quality environment management and biodiversity protection services. All these changes will affect and shape what we do: from assessing environment permit applications to protecting our unique biodiversity and supporting community livelihood.

We need to regulate the environment and protect the biodiversity and in the context of development trends, climate change and environmental sustainability.

Our Strategic Direction and Corporate Plans set out the context within each of these areas, the challenges we face, and the ways in which we will address them. Our Strategic Direction deals with our strategy rather than our operations, with high-level perspectives rather than details. Our Annual Plans complements our Strategic Direction and sets out the operational details, resources, timetables and measurements.

In response to the new sustainable development agenda on promoting green growth, my organization has changed from a Government Department to an Authority to enable it to be better equipped to address environment degradation and biodiversity loss. My Authority has prepared a PNG Protected Areas Policy and other new policy initiatives, which outline how we will assist the Government to formulate a strategy for delivering on its commitment to Sustainable Development Goals. I encourage all interested stakeholders and partners to engage with and support my Authority to implement the very challenging but exciting initiatives.

It is very exciting to see this new website which I believe will be more useful to our interested stakeholders (domestic and international) as well as the general public. I thank the CEPA Management for investment and time to come up with such a product which is very vital in this day and age where technology and information play a pivotal role.

Thank you

Honourable John Pundari (MBE)
Minister for Environment and Conservation