Between 20 November and 4 December 2025, Dario Cesarini, Gianluca Serra and Jordan Emmanuel Bulo, on behalf of SETIN Srl, carried out the first field mission under the project “Revision and Update of Papua New Guinea’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) 2025–2030, in alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and the development of the 7th National Report (7NR)”.
This first mission marked a key milestone in the project, as it formally initiated a fully participatory process for both the NBSAP update and the 7th National Report. The mission was structured into two main components: a four-day inception workshop, followed by ten days of complementary technical and field activities.
The inception workshop, hosted at APEC Haus in Port Moresby, pursued two core objectives:
- 7th National Report: collection of data and information on progress achieved towards biodiversity targets over the past eight years;
- NBSAP 2025–2030: completion and validation of the technical and participatory alignment of the draft NBSAP developed in 2024, as well as finalization of the Stakeholder Engagement Plan.
Outputs from the thematic working groups will directly inform the finalization of the NBSAP 2025–2030.
The workshop agenda included:
- Institutional opening remarks and participant introductions (Ministry of Environment, CEPA, UNDP Papua New Guinea);
- Data-show presentations.
- Review of NBSAP targets.
- Thematic working groups on biodiversity values, threats, and priority actions.
Beyond the workshop, the mission also comprised:
- One-to-one meetings.
- Coordination meetings with UNDP Papua New Guinea and CEPA.
- Data management.
- Field visits to Protected Areas and World Heritage Sites (Mt Hagen, Lae, Kokopo and Port Moresby).
- A validation workshop for the 7th National Report and NBSAP working sessions.
This first field mission significantly strengthened coordination among partners and laid a solid foundation for the next phases of the project, supporting Papua New Guinea’s efforts to advance biodiversity governance in line with national priorities and global commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
