The Conservation and Environmental Protection Agency of Papua New Guinea (CEPA) in
partnership with UNDP, attended the 2nd Asia Parks Congress held virtually from the island
of Borneo, in Sabah State, Malaysia. CEPA’s invitation to the event proved an opportunity
for CEPA to both share its experiences in Protected Areas Management and to learn from
other countries on their experiences in the same.
The theme of the 2nd Asia Parks Congress was “Parks for Nature and People” with CEPA and
UNDP PNG participants including Ms. Kay Kalim, Director, Sustainable Environment
Programmes, CEPA, presenting on ‘Adapting Protected Area Management Effectiveness
Evaluation (PAME) tools to Local Contexts: Experiences and Results from Management
Effectiveness Tracking Tools in Papua New Guinea’. The presentation outlined the process
that PNG went through in adapting a Global Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool
(METT) to the PNG context. METTs are integrated within the Protected Area Policy of Papua
New Guinea. Ms. Kalim stated; “The METT is a simple, questionnaire-based approach for
assessing protected area management effectiveness globally”.
Dr. Andrew Rylance, UNDP Chief Technical Advisor presented on the PNG Biodiversity and
Climate Fund (BCF), which outlined the process undergone to establish the fund and its
future objectives. It also emphasized that the BCF will be PNG’s only national-level, civil
society-led institution bringing together all stakeholders to achieve conservation and
climate resilient outcomes with the BCF being poised to contribute significantly to national
conservation and climate policies.
