Information and Facts About Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is a tropical South Western Pacific Island country that makes up the eastern half of the Island of New Guinea, considered the second largest island in the world. Port Moresby is the capital city of Papua New Guinea with latitude of 09° 30' S and longitude of 147º 10 E’. Papua New Guinea’s Time Zone is GMT+10:00.

Geography

Papua New Guinea comprises both the mainland and some 600 offshore islands and has a total land area of 470,000 square kilometers. Papua New Guinea’s terrain is largely mountainous with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills. The Highlands region is located about 1,500 metres above sea level with temperatures that can reach as low as 14 degree celsius.

Mt Wilhelm is the highest mountain at 4509 metres (14790 ft) above sea level and is located in the Chimbu Province.

Papua New Guinea is situated along the “Pacific Ring Fires” which makes it vulnerable to natural disasters such as volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis.
There are several major rivers that flow to lowlands in the northern, southern and eastern coasts of the New Guinea Island. Fly River is the longest and largest river. Other major rivers include Purari River that pours into the Gulf of Papua, Markham River in the Morobe Province and Sepik River that flows from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea to the north coast.

Click here to see Map of Papua New Guinea as generated by Google Maps.

Vegetation

As a tropical country, the vegetation is predominantly tropical rainforest covering about 80% of the mainland and islands. Other natural vegetation of Papua New Guinea includes:
• Savanna Grasslands
• Wetlands to the South Western plains in the Western Province
• Swamplands that is found in the Papuan Gulf to the south in Gulf Province and north eastern plains where the Sepik River flows

Papua New Guinea is home to some of the unique and last remaining species of flora and fauna on Earth. Some of the natural habitat remains untouched and unexplored. Conservation International (CI) and World WildLife Fund (WWF) are two leading international conservation organization that currently carry out research and documentation of the flora and fauna of Papua New Guinea. Greenpeace is another group that fights against illegal harvesting of the vast PNG forest for timber.

Papua New Guinea is currently a leading nation in the fight against deforestation and the urgent need to preserve and conserve forest to combat the effects and impact of climate change.

Weather

PNG has a moderate tropical climate with high levels of seasonal rainfall. The weather pattern including cloud formation and cover over the mountain ranges is much unexpected and is always a challenge for pilots flying smaller planes around the country. As a tropical country, there are only wet and dry seasons all year.The country's dramatic geography means different areas of Papua New Guinea experience the change in seasons at different times of the year.

Temperatures range from as low as 14 degrees Celsius in the Highlands region to 36 degree celsius in the northern coast.Water temperatures throughout the country remains between 26 to 31 degree celsius all year round.

Demography

Papua New Guinea’s population currently stands at 5.1 million people with around 15 percent of the population living in the 10 major urban areas. Papua New Guinea national census is done every 10 years with the last one conducted in 2000. The capital of Papua New Guinea is Port Moresby with a population of 255,000 people at the 2000 census but is currently estimated to be over 500,000 largely due to movement of rural population into Port Moresby for better life and access to basic government services. The second largest city is the industrial city of Lae in the Morobe Province.

Linguistics

There are over 800 different languages that is the vernacular or mother tongues of the people of Papua New Guinea.English is the official language, while Tok Pisin and Motu languages are national languages.

People, Culture and Lifestyle

Papua New Guineans are probably some of the happy people you will ever meet on earth. Papua New Guineans will greet you with a friendly smile and are quick to shake hands. There is no sense of urgency in getting things done whether household chores or going to gardens although things get done eventually. This could probably be due to the abundance and availability of life’s basic needs such as food, water and shelter that our ancestors have enjoyed and presently available. However, this attitude is slowly changing especially in the urban areas where money is the key to survival.

Majority (about 90 -95%) of the people who live in rural areas live a subsistence life where their daily needs such as food is met from gardening, fishing, hunting and domestication of livestock such as piggery and poultry.

Papua New Guinea has some of the unique traditional customs and folklore on Earth. The number of different languages spoken is an indication of the many tribes and their traditional cultures which includes traditional songs and dance that goes with body painting and decoration and arts and crafts.

Click here to see the list of dates and venues of annual cultural shows and festivals in Papua New Guinea.

History and Politics

Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia on the 16th day of September 1975. The country has a well-entrenched democratic system of government. The National Government comprises three independent branches: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Executive power is vested in the National Executive Council or Cabinet which comprises the Prime Minister and Ministers.

There are 19 provinces, each governed by a Provincial Government which have similar constitutional arrangements to the National Government and have concurrent power with the latter in areas such as agriculture, business development, town planning, forestry and natural resources. National laws, however, take precedence over provincial laws. In 2009, two more provinces were created by the Parliament of Papua New Guinea bringing the total number of provinces to 21 now.

Economy

Papua New Guinea currency depends on the exchange rate movements. Since 2006, the currency has been trading between US$0.30 and US$0.34 and AUD$40 and AUD$45. Kina (symbol is K) and Toea (symbol is t) pronounced "toy-ah" is the legal Tender. Kina (equilavent of dollars and pounds) comes in K100 (green), K50 (orange), K20 (red), K10 (blue), K5 (pink) and K2 (pale green) and K1 (which is a coin) while Toea (equivalent of cents and shillings) comes in the form of coins ranging from 50t, 20t, 10t and 5t. 2t and 1t were phased out in 2007 and no longer recognised as legal tender.

The major economic sectors in Papua New Guinea are: Agriculture and Livestock, Forestry, Mining and Petroleum, Tourism and Hospitality, Fisheries and Marine resources, Manufacturing, Retailing and Wholesaling, Building and Construction, Transport and Telecommunications, and Finance and Business Trade.

PNG's major exports are gold, silver, copper, crude oil, logs and timber, coffee, palm oil, cocoa and copra. PNG has experienced a relatively even balance of trade over the last five years, with exports marginally more than imports.

The waters around PNG are rich in marine life and are virtually untouched. Within the 200 mile economic zone are large varieties of fish, including migrating schools of tuna. Forest products are one of PNG's major exports but the timber resource of the country again remains largely untapped.

Papua New Guinea's main imports are sourced from Australia, Japan, the United States of America, Singapore, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China and Hong Kong. The main destinations of PNG exports are Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, Germany, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

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Last Updated on Saturday, 22 January 2011 09:46

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