Reducing plastic pollution in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea - children walking through Kokopo market
Papua New Guinea - National Action Plan workshop attendees discuss around a table

Papua New Guinea is renowned for its diverse natural landscapes, including highlands, volcanoes, rivers, and the world’s third largest tropical rainforest. It is also the most populous country in the Pacific Islands region. Both PNG’s ecosystems and communities are at disproportionate risk from plastic pollution.

Common Seas is working with the Government of Papua New Guinea’s Conservation and Environment Protection Authority to co-create the country’s first National Action Plan to End Plastic Pollution.

The NAP will provide a holistic roadmap to safeguard the environment from plastic and to secure a healthy future for PNG’s communities.

Our progress

Working with our local partner, we’ve completed the data-gathering phase, and the baseline modelling and initial analysis of the policies with the greatest potential impact. We presented the policy analysis at a national workshop.

Next steps

We’re finalising the National Action Plan, which will be presented to the Technical Steering Committee for their review.

"Addressing the crisis of plastic pollution is very important for Papua New Guinea, given our unique biodiversity and the reliance of our communities on a pristine national environment."

Brendan Trawen, Acting Director at CEPA

Our supporters

Logo for UK International Development. It is rectangular, with a union jack flag to the legt and the works 'UK International Development to the right in dark blue. Underneath is says 'partnership | prosperity | progress' also in dark blue.

Supported by funding from the UK Government through UK International Development, Common Seas is partnering with five Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to develop National Action Plans to tackle plastic pollution.

As part of the Sustainable Blue Economies Programme, this critical funding will allow us to develop and scale an approach tailored to the unique challenges and needs of SIDS, which are disproportionately affected by the plastic crisis. The project is supporting partner governments to radically reduce ocean plastic in their countries over the course of ten years and contribute to a sustainable blue economy.