Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is the world's 3rd largest island country, located north of Australia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and the offshore islands in Melanesia. The largest towns are located in the eastern part of New Guinea, including Lae and the capital city, Port Moresby. Papua New Guinea includes other major islands and up to 600 smaller islets and atolls.

A series of mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, runs along the island of New Guinea. They form highlands that are mostly covered with tropical rainforest. Papua New Guinea hosts a range of ecosystems, such as mountain glaciers, humid tropical rainforests, swampy wetlands, and coral reefs. Because of dense rainforests and the large wetlands, some areas are only accessible by foot or by air. There are several active volcanoes in Papua New Guinea with frequent eruptions. Earthquakes are relatively common, sometimes accompanied by tsunamis.

Papua New Guinea has a monsoonal climate with high temperatures and humidity throughout the year. Two monsoonal seasons occur from December to March and from May to October. Rainfall exceeds 2 500mm in many areas of the country, with the heaviest rainfall in the highlands. Average monthly temperatures range from 24 to 26 °C. Papua New Guinea one of the few regions close to the equator that experience snowfall, which occurs in the most elevated parts of the mainland. -—
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Papua New Guinea is prone to natural disasters and climate variability, and climactic changes are set to accelerate the occurrence of landslides, soil erosion, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity, as well as increase occurrence of recurrent floods and droughts. It is the world's 10^th most at‐risk country for natural hazards, according to the United Nations University -—
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—- World Risk Index.

Agriculture, fishing, community forestry, and artisanal and small-scale mining are the primary livelihood activities in rural areas -—
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—-. Almost 60 per cent of all employed people worked in the agricultural sector in 2019 -—
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—-, even though the share of arable land is less than 1 per cent of total land area in Papua New Guinea -—
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—-. Palm oil, coffee, cocoa and coconut oil are among the main export products. The rich natural resources are an important source of export income, which include gold, oil, and copper. The top-3 destinations for exports are Australia, China and Japan -—
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Services employed a bit more than a third of people in the country in 2019 -—
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—-, which is less than in SIDS on average. Tourist arrivals have been close to 200 000 per year recently until 2019. Tourism expenditure remained of relatively small importance to the economy, at 0.02 per cent of GDP in 2018 -—
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—-. Papua New Guinea is classified as a lower middle income country -—
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—- and reached US$2 845 per capita in 2019 -—
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Papua New Guinea is a culturally diverse country. The share of urban population is low, reaching only 13 per cent in 2020 -—
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—-. The country includes a few thousand different cultural groups, many with their own languages. Wood carving is a popular handicraft skill in the country, often portraying imaginative plants or animals.

Traditional celebrations, which include song, dance, feasting and gift-giving, are called singsings. Vibrant and colorful costumes adorn the dancers, while a leader and a chorus sing a staggered approach to the same song, producing a fugue-like effect. Sport is important in Papua New Guinea, especially rugby league – one of the most popular sports in the country.

Papuan cuisine includes many starchy vegetables, such as wild sago, sweet potatoes, yams, rice and breadfruit, often served with bananas and coconuts. Meat comes from domesticated livestock and hunting of game like pork, cassowaries, marsupials and birds. On the coast, seafood, such as shellfish, is a key part of nutrition.