Papua New Guinea | Good News For Humankind

Tree kangaroo, for article on conservation deed

Papua New Guinea clans to protect 300,000 acres of rainforest for tree kangaroos

By Peter Schulte / August 18, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Across Papua New Guinea’s Torricelli Mountains, clan leaders from dozens of villages have signed a legally binding deed protecting hundreds of thousands of acres of some of Earth’s most biodiverse rainforest from logging, mining, and large-scale agriculture. The tenkile, a critically endangered tree kangaroo found nowhere else, has at least tripled in population this century as communities chose stewardship over hunting. Each village governs its own conservation committee, required to include at least 30% women. Logging pressure and a slow government approval process remain real obstacles, but this deed shows Indigenous land protection need not wait on politics.

Coral underwater, for article on marine protected area

Papua New Guinea announces one of the world’s largest no-take marine reserves

By Peter Schulte / May 31, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Papua New Guinea just pledged to protect roughly 200,000 square kilometers of Pacific Ocean — an expanse nearly the size of the United Kingdom.
The proposed Western Manus Marine Protected Area sits inside the Coral Triangle, often called the Amazon of the seas, and a 2024 National Geographic Pristine Seas expedition there documented deep-sea species never before recorded in PNG waters — including the elusive yokozuna slickhead. Researchers also noticed fewer large predators than expected, a quiet signal that even these remote waters need a break from fishing pressure.
If Papua New Guinea follows through with real enforcement, this single reserve would mark a meaningful step toward the global goal of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030 — and a hopeful model for ocean stewardship everywhere.

Growing crops, for article on New Guinea agriculture

New Guineans independently develop agriculture, transforming the Pacific

By Peter Schulte / January 10, 0001 / Archive of Human Genius

New Guinea agriculture began around 10,000 years ago, when highland communities started draining swamps and cultivating taro, banana, and yam entirely on their own. The Kuk Swamp site, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, preserves the planting pits and water channels that document this slow transition. It’s one of only a handful of places on Earth where farming was independently invented.

Cut sugarcane, for article on sugarcane domestication

Papuans in New Guinea domesticate sugarcane, sweetening the world forever

By Peter Schulte / January 9, 0001 / Archive of Human Genius

Sugarcane domestication began around 4000 B.C.E. in the highlands of New Guinea, where Papuan farmers selectively bred a wild grass into the ancestor of the world’s sweetest crop. Curiously, they first grew it as pig feed. Thousands of years later, that same plant sweetens billions of morning cups across every tropical continent.