The event took place at Kimbe, West New Britain Province, and is part of the grant it made in October 2017 to Mahonia Na Dari Research, Education and Conservation Centre (MND) develop its Marine Environmental Education Program (MEEP) program.

 

USAID's Robert Price said there was still a chance to make a difference by working together, before the biodiversity of Papua New Guinea's ecosystem was damaged or destroyed irretrievably.

 

"This is what makes our cooperation on protecting Papua New Guinea's biodiversity so vital. USAID aims to shape a future in which both people and biodiversity thrive via improvements in economic prosperity, social equity and environmental stewardship," Price said.

 

A project in Kimbe Bay is raising the marine biodiversity awareness of communities in three districts, with more than 10,000 primary involved in the sessions and 120 secondary and college students trained in the intensive courses. The bay is considered a key biodiversity area which hosts over half the world's species of hard corals and over 900 species of fish.

 

Through the Pacific-American Climate Fund, USAID has implemented 28 resilience projects in 12 Pacific nations, with six of these projects in PNG.

 

USAID says it has also partnered with 12 Pacific Island countries to reduce long-term vulnerabilities associated with extreme climate variations. Through Fund, USAID awarded grants to civil society organisations in support of resilience measures that benefited both communities and the environment, such as livelihoods enhancement, improved health, food security, disaster risk reduction and sustainable natural resources management.