This chapter provides an overview of environment and conservation policy in Papua New Guinea. It addresses how environment and conservation policy protect the physical, biological and social/cultural environments of Papua New Guinea and looks at how, in a rapidly changing country like Papua New Guinea, human impact is or ought to be managed. Hence the policy areas that are covered include areas of environmental governance that impinge on management of the environment, resource use, and conservation of natural and cultural resources, and, more broadly, policy and planning for sustainable development, The main focus is the role of the Department/Office of Environment and Conservation (DEC). A more comprehensive review would need to discuss the role of the Department of National Planning^[1] and the relationships between DEC and all other departments, provincial and local-level governments, the private sector, non-government organizations (NGOs) and the general community.

This review outlines the history of major policies and policy initiatives; discusses some of the challenges to environmental management and their concomitant problems; and finally raises questions and suggests areas in which changes need to be made to render policy, and in particular policy implementation, more effective.