8 Signs of “The End Times”: Perspectives on Climate …
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Numerous conservation programs have been implemented by non-governmental
organisations in Madang (Benson 2012). Recent research engagement has also been
conducted with communities in Madang Province on the impacts of climate change,
current and projected (Jacobs et al. 2020). The lead author of this chapter, for example,
was involved in a project involving three communities (Riwo, Ohu and Bundi) in
Madang province that revealed the ways in which these communities are experiencing
threats to biodiversity that they, in part, attribute to a changing climate. Changes in
rainfall and rising temperatures were considered among the three communities to
be the most important climate changes. An increasing number of hot days is also
limiting the number of hours that women could work in food gardens, something also
reported from a study of rural Fiji communities (Nunn and Kumar 2019). Further,
for coastal communities such as Riwo, rising sea levels are a major concern. These
changes have flow-on effects for food security, human health, and ecosystem health
and function (Foale 2006). Although Madang has established a Provincial Climate
Change Committee, it has no resources and currently is actively supported only by
the agriculture agency.
The Madang Town Market
The current site of the Madang Town Market was rehabilitated and re-opened in 2016
through funding provided by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The redevelopment followed concerns raised by the Government of PNG regarding
damaged roofs, lack of space, and unhygienic conditions of the previous facility.
From a sample of 210 respondents, a survey conducted by JICA (2013) found that
81% were female. The majority were residents of a range of Districts across Madang
Province and 28% from outside of the Province (JICA 2013). The daily quantity of
products including vegetables and fruits is more than 8 tons and the sales amount of
each retailer per day mostly falls between 50 and 150 PNG Kina (USD 43.21) (JICA
2013).
In Madang and elsewhere in PNG, it is mostly women who produce and sell fruit
and vegetables at local marketplaces (Busse and Sharp 2019; Gwatirisa et al. 2017;
Anderson 2008). Selling fruit and vegetables at the market can be more profitable,
flexible and often safer for women in PNG compared to ‘formal sector’ employment
at foreign-owned companies. As Havice and Reed (2012) write:
…women selling produce or fish at local markets earn incomes similar to those of tuna
processors [between PNG Kina 150–200, roughly US$66–88], but work fewer hours…They
market their wares 3–5 days per week, balancing market time with child care, farming,
fishing, household duties, or extra wage work such as mending clothes. (p. 426)
In addition to family livelihoods, Busse and Sharp (2019) write that marketplace
incomes:
…contribute to rural food security, through improved nutrition from the purchase of energy
dense foods, and by enabling people to purchase food when food crops fail. (p. 127)
145
Numerous conservation programs have been implemented by non-governmental
organisations in Madang (Benson 2012). Recent research engagement has also been
conducted with communities in Madang Province on the impacts of climate change,
current and projected (Jacobs et al. 2020). The lead author of this chapter, for example,
was involved in a project involving three communities (Riwo, Ohu and Bundi) in
Madang province that revealed the ways in which these communities are experiencing
threats to biodiversity that they, in part, attribute to a changing climate. Changes in
rainfall and rising temperatures were considered among the three communities to
be the most important climate changes. An increasing number of hot days is also
limiting the number of hours that women could work in food gardens, something also
reported from a study of rural Fiji communities (Nunn and Kumar 2019). Further,
for coastal communities such as Riwo, rising sea levels are a major concern. These
changes have flow-on effects for food security, human health, and ecosystem health
and function (Foale 2006). Although Madang has established a Provincial Climate
Change Committee, it has no resources and currently is actively supported only by
the agriculture agency.
The Madang Town Market
The current site of the Madang Town Market was rehabilitated and re-opened in 2016
through funding provided by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The redevelopment followed concerns raised by the Government of PNG regarding
damaged roofs, lack of space, and unhygienic conditions of the previous facility.
From a sample of 210 respondents, a survey conducted by JICA (2013) found that
81% were female. The majority were residents of a range of Districts across Madang
Province and 28% from outside of the Province (JICA 2013). The daily quantity of
products including vegetables and fruits is more than 8 tons and the sales amount of
each retailer per day mostly falls between 50 and 150 PNG Kina (USD 43.21) (JICA
2013).
In Madang and elsewhere in PNG, it is mostly women who produce and sell fruit
and vegetables at local marketplaces (Busse and Sharp 2019; Gwatirisa et al. 2017;
Anderson 2008). Selling fruit and vegetables at the market can be more profitable,
flexible and often safer for women in PNG compared to ‘formal sector’ employment
at foreign-owned companies. As Havice and Reed (2012) write:
…women selling produce or fish at local markets earn incomes similar to those of tuna
processors [between PNG Kina 150–200, roughly US$66–88], but work fewer hours…They
market their wares 3–5 days per week, balancing market time with child care, farming,
fishing, household duties, or extra wage work such as mending clothes. (p. 426)
In addition to family livelihoods, Busse and Sharp (2019) write that marketplace
incomes:
…contribute to rural food security, through improved nutrition from the purchase of energy
dense foods, and by enabling people to purchase food when food crops fail. (p. 127)