LOCATED IN THE Pacific, on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea has a land area of 178,703 sq. mi. (462,840 sq. km.), with a population of 6,331,000 (2006 est.), and a population density of 34 people per sq. mi. (13 people per sq. km.). In spite of having a tropical monsoon climate, only 0.1 percent of the land is arable, with 82 percent of the country forested. Conservationists and environmentalists condemn the rate of the timber logging industry as unsustainable.

Some 55 percent of the electricity in the country comes from fossil fuels, mainly liquid fuels, which account for 93 percent of Papua New Guinea's carbon dioxide emissions. The remainder of the electricity in the country comes from hydropower. Plans ...