| Overview : PROJECT DESCRIPTION Papua New Guinea (PNG) has one of the most significant areas of largely-intact tropical forest in the world, although these forests appear to be facing acute and imminent threats. Forests are also a vital resource for the local population particularly in the remote rural areas of PNG, providing food, fibre, building materials, and support a variety of wildlife and ecosystem services. A mechanism for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) being developed through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides an opportunity to support PNG’s efforts to reduce levels of deforestation and help to maintain and protect its natural forest. PNG has been a leading proponent of REDD+ at the international level and has made considerable progress towards developing the capacity to engage in an international mechanism on REDD+. This progress has initially been supported by the UN-REDD Programme and is now being aided by the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) through a project that will run until the end of 2020. The FCPF project aims to establish capacities for efficient management of REDD+ and developing PNG’s National REDD+ Strategy. PNG’s National REDD+ Strategy (NRS) was developed and endorsed by the GoPNG in May 2017. The NRS was developed through a process of structured consultation and awareness raising with key stakeholders from government agencies, civil society and the private sector. It builds on the experiences of early REDD+ readiness activities in the country, including the development of pilot activities, and the ongoing assessment and analysis work including reviews of forest sector financing, commercial agricultural development, stakeholder engagement processes and land use mapping. The NRS is based around PNG’s ‘Vision for REDD+’, which is: ‘To catalyse transformational change within the forest and land use sector towards a new responsible economy with lower GHG emissions, stronger long term economic growth and community livelihoods and the effective conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services while ensuring that Papua New Guinea’s forest resources are used in a sustainable and equitable manner for the benefit of current and future generations.’ The Department of Lands and Physical Planning (DLPP) is the central agency working on land use planning across PNG administering the Physical Planning Act 1989, The Act requires the development of land use plans for provinces, districts and local levels. In this way, the Act 1989 is well aligned with the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments (LLGs) on decentralisation. However, the full implementation of decentralisation of Physical Planning remains a major challenge coupled with lack of finance, infrastructure, human resources, land tenure system and the absence of a policy framework. The rapid expansion of commercial and family agriculture, commercial logging as well as growing pressure on land use through population, however, have highlighted the potential risks of having no guiding framework for land use planning within customary land areas. These risks are set to increase the with expansion of the PNG road network and further pressure for development activities along economic corridors linked to the current economic challenges being faced by the country as well as the ongoing pressures of population increase. There are also examples of how sustainable land use planning at the local level has driven successful economic development and sustainable land management activities. These activities however have often been very location specific and weakly linked with national and provincial planning systems. The Planning and Monitoring Responsibility Act 2015 provides a strong framework around which sustainable land use planning and development planning can be integrated. For this to be effective, however, there is a need for a clearer policy and legislative framework on sustainable land use planning in the country. SCOPE OF WORK Under the guidance of International Consultant and overall supervision of FCPF REDD+ Chief Technical Advisor and the technical guidance of the Department of Lands and Physical Planning (DLPP) team, a National Consultant will support the revision and completion of the draft Sustainable Land Use Policy (SLUP). The process will focus on ensuring full and effective stakeholder consultation on the policy with a particular focus on the alignment of the policy with key government planning and development frameworks as well as ensuring effective consultation with civil society groups and land owning communities. A National Consultant will be based in the Policy Division of DLPP and will provide direct support to International Consultant and DLPP in the development of the revised SLUP. It is anticipated that the assignment will be developed through the following steps: - Data Collection: A National Consultant will collect all necessary data, including policy documents from other sectors for the analysis of current draft of land use policy. The task will identify areas in which improvements and changes may be needed. Based on this review, the consultant team will propose recommendations for amendments.
- Broader Consultation: Following this review a process of consultation will be undertaken on the revised SLUP to solicit the views of stakeholders at the national and subnational level. The consultation process will focus on providing further information to stakeholders on the nature of land use planning, the potential benefits of such planning as well as gaining feedback on the how planning can be developed and implemented. Thus, a National Consultant’s role is to assist the assignment to arrange meetings with relevant stakeholders to initiate consultations on the discussion of the policy as well as its finalisation.
- Final policy revisions: Based on feedback from broader consultations, final amendments will be made to the SLUP prior to final consultations across government and submission to the NEC. The role of National consultant is to create a data base of all sectoral policies and submit to International Consultant and DLPP. A National Consultant in close consultation with the DLPP, initiate review of the final draft by the Central Agencies Coordinating Committee (CACC) to Prime Minister’s Office and National Executive Council.
Throughout the process, cross-sector and multi-stakeholder engagement is seen as critical, with the team also required to work in close collaboration with the DLPP working group on the SLUP. Effective consultation and coordination in these areas will be considered as a prerequisite for approval of project deliverables. The consultant team will also work closely with planned work on strengthening the national land use information system as well as sub-national support to integrated land use planning at the LLG, District and Provincial levels. | 
