4 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Mobilising Papua New Guinea’s conservation humanities: research, teaching, capacity building, future directions
We suggest that the emerging field of the conservation humanities can play a valuable role in biodiversity protection in Papua New Guinea (PNG), where most land remains under collective customary clan ownership. As a first step to mobilising this scholarly field in PNG and to support capacity development for PNG humanities academics, we conducted a landscape review of PNG humanities teaching and research relating to biodiversity conservation and customary land rights. We conducted a systematic literature review, a PNG teaching programme review, and a series of online workshops between the authors (10 PNG-based, 7 UK-based). We found a small but notable amount of PNG research and teaching focused on biodiversity conservation or customary land rights. This included explicit discussion of these topics in 8 of 156 PNG-authored humanities texts published 2010-2020 and related teaching content in the curricula of several different humanities-based programmes. We discuss current barriers to PNG academic development. The growth of fully fledged in-country conservation humanities will require a joint collaborative effort by PNG researchers, who are best placed to carry out such work, and researchers from abroad who can access resources to support the process.</p
Health service needs and perspectives of a rainforest conserving community in Papua New Guinea’s Ramu lowlands: a combined clinical and rapid anthropological assessment with parallel treatment of urgent cases
ObjectivesDetermine community needs and perspectives as part of planning health service incorporation into Wanang Conservation Area, in support of locally driven sustainable development. DesignClinical and rapid anthropological assessment (individual primary care assessments, key informant (KI) interviews, focus groups (FGs), ethnography) with treatment of urgent cases. Setting. Wanang (pop. c189), a rainforest community in Madang province, Papua New Guinea. Participants. 129 villagers provided medical histories (54 females (f), 75 males (m); median 19 years, range 1 month to 73 years), 113 had clinical assessments (51f, 62m; median 18 years, range 1 month to 73 years). 26 ≥18 years participated in sex-stratified and age-stratified FGs (f40 years; m>40 years). Five KIs were interviewed (1f, 4m). Daily ethnographic fieldnotes were recorded. Results. Of 113 examined, 11 were ‘well’ (a clinical impression based on declarations of no current illness, medical histories, conversation, no observed disease signs), 62 (30f, 32m) were treated urgently, 31 referred (15f, 16m), indicating considerable unmet need. FGs top-4 ranked health issues concorded with KI views, medical histories and clinical examinations. For example, ethnoclassifications of three ((A) ‘malaria’, (B) ‘sotwin’, (C) ‘grile’) translated to the five biomedical conditions diagnosed most ((A) malaria, 9 villagers; (B) upper respiratory infection, 25; lower respiratory infection, 10; tuberculosis, 9; (C) tinea imbricata, 15) and were highly represented in declared medical histories ((A) 75 participants, (B) 23, (C) 35). However, 29.2% of diagnoses (49/168) were limited to one or two people. Treatment approaches included plant medicines, stored pharmaceuticals, occasionally rituals. Travel to hospital/pharmacy was sometimes undertaken for severe/refractory disease. Service barriers included: no health patrols/accessible aid post, remote hospital, unfamiliarity with institutions and medicine costs. Service introduction priorities were: aid post, vaccinations, transport, perinatal/birth care and family planning. Conclusions. This study enabled service planning and demonstrated a need sufficient to acquire funding to establish primary care. In doing so, it aided Wanang’s community to develop sustainably, without sacrificing their forest home.</p
Recommended from our members
Health service needs and perspectives of a rainforest conserving community in Papua New Guinea’s Ramu lowlands: a combined clinical and rapid anthropological assessment with parallel treatment of urgent cases
ObjectivesDetermine community needs and perspectives as part of planning health service incorporation into Wanang Conservation Area, in support of locally driven sustainable development. DesignClinical and rapid anthropological assessment (individual primary care assessments, key informant (KI) interviews, focus groups (FGs), ethnography) with treatment of urgent cases. Setting. Wanang (pop. c189), a rainforest community in Madang province, Papua New Guinea. Participants. 129 villagers provided medical histories (54 females (f), 75 males (m); median 19 years, range 1 month to 73 years), 113 had clinical assessments (51f, 62m; median 18 years, range 1 month to 73 years). 26 ≥18 years participated in sex-stratified and age-stratified FGs (f40 years; m>40 years). Five KIs were interviewed (1f, 4m). Daily ethnographic fieldnotes were recorded. Results. Of 113 examined, 11 were ‘well’ (a clinical impression based on declarations of no current illness, medical histories, conversation, no observed disease signs), 62 (30f, 32m) were treated urgently, 31 referred (15f, 16m), indicating considerable unmet need. FGs top-4 ranked health issues concorded with KI views, medical histories and clinical examinations. For example, ethnoclassifications of three ((A) ‘malaria’, (B) ‘sotwin’, (C) ‘grile’) translated to the five biomedical conditions diagnosed most ((A) malaria, 9 villagers; (B) upper respiratory infection, 25; lower respiratory infection, 10; tuberculosis, 9; (C) tinea imbricata, 15) and were highly represented in declared medical histories ((A) 75 participants, (B) 23, (C) 35). However, 29.2% of diagnoses (49/168) were limited to one or two people. Treatment approaches included plant medicines, stored pharmaceuticals, occasionally rituals. Travel to hospital/pharmacy was sometimes undertaken for severe/refractory disease. Service barriers included: no health patrols/accessible aid post, remote hospital, unfamiliarity with institutions and medicine costs. Service introduction priorities were: aid post, vaccinations, transport, perinatal/birth care and family planning. Conclusions. This study enabled service planning and demonstrated a need sufficient to acquire funding to establish primary care. In doing so, it aided Wanang’s community to develop sustainably, without sacrificing their forest home.</p
dietBreadthArchived
Diet breadth data: each row indicates the number of herbivores ("Count") with a given diet breadth at a given site. Further details (such as species or family-level diet breadth) under the "Data" column