This briefing paper examines two previous epidemics in PNG and then describes the population and the movements of people who will carry the COVID-19 virus with them, to suggest how this epidemic will develop.

Melanesia is characterised by complex interactions among land and natural resource uses, legal and political institutions, and interest groups. These interactions play out at the national level, where institutions have been profoundly shaped by an interplay of ‘local’ and ‘global’ orders and by the political and economic systems which affect natural resource exploitation.