PNG: Country Safeguard Review — Action Plan

The  regional  technical  assistance  (TA)  RETA  7566:  Strengthening  and  Use  of Country  Safeguard  Systems  (CSS)  included  a  review  of  Papua  New  Guinea  (PNG) environmental legislation with regard to equivalence with the environment safeguards covered in Asian Development Bank’s Safeguard Policy Statement 2009 (SPS). The overall CSS assessment  procedures  to  be  adopted  in  subprojects  implemented under  the  RETA  were  presented  in  a  workshop  in  November  2011.  The  second phase reviewed  the  implementation  of CSS  procedures  within  the  PNG  context  and adopting   the   energy   sector   as   the   area   for   case   study.   The   Department   of Environment  and  Conservation  (DEC)  was  identified  as  the  responsible  agency  at the national level and PNG Power (PPL) was chosen as the implementing agency at the  sector  level.  The  third  phase  is  the  preparation  of  an  Action  Plan  (AP)  which addresses the gaps identified and which would improve the application of CSS within PNG. This report provides the final AP as elaborated with DEC and PPL following the workshop held in August 2012.