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Soil connectivity envisages people's involvement in the protection and management of soil reflecting the view that improper soil management will result in soil degradation. Having realized the necessity of ensuring people's participation in managing soil degradation, in Papua New Guinea (PNG) soil use and management is of governmental interest. Soil degradation on cocoa orchards is exacerbated due to existing reliance on current soil condition. People must respond quickly, but very few soil best management practices are available. Additionally, it is speculated that inadequate soil training amongst the village extension workers (VEWs) is plummeting adoption rates. We develop a two-step impact pathway framework through soil connectivity. In the first step of this approach, a VEWs survey conducted as part of this study confirmed that their active participation in soil management remains minimal. This is a critical shortcoming in the cocoa block management. However, knowledge of soil possessed by respondents living in a location for a period is significantly developed and this connection with soil can be useful in sustainable soil use and management decisions. In the second step, a research project develops an impact pathway framework on how it sees itself planning, achieving and communicating impacts. We illustrate the development of a framework using example from a soil science project in PNG based on gaps found through the state-of-the-art knowledge. Through this exercise our aim is to highlight the links between the project communication and developmental impacts. We concluded that the framework developed is flexible to be applied across other food systems.

Cocoa production is impacted by major resource constraints, such as the soil's capability, and in some areas, by unreliable access to markets. A multifaceted approach that employs both biophysical and socio-economic conditions is developed here for mapping areas that are suitable for cocoa production in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This manuscript presents a case study of using multi-criteria decision making by the Analytic Hierarchy Process for mapping the fundamental criteria for cocoa suitability. The results show that temperature, precipitation and soil reveal sections within Western, Gulf and Central (along the west coast joining to National Capital District) province that have very low suitability for cocoa production. In our analysis, precipitation, soil, slope and road, were ranked as the four most important criteria. Additionally, we included stream networks because they may help irrigation and allow cocoa transport via water (e.g. Manus Island). Comparing an already existing cocoa suitability map for PNG to the one created in this study, we found some similarities. For example, the Central, Gulf, and Western (Fly) areas are either unsuitable for cocoa production or have very low potential, and exceptional areas around Rabaul and Kokopo in East New Britain, Popendetta, and Bouganiville were identified. Some new areas suitable for cocoa production in East Sepik, East New Britain, and a major stretch within West New Britain may show low to moderate suitability. The most important finding is the potential to grow cocoa in the highlands, especially, Chimbu (Simbu), Eastern Highlands, Enga, Hela, Jiwaka regions. We found that currently the majority of farmers are growing cocoa in highly suitable areas (76% in class 4, 20%in class 3 and 4% in class 5). The inclusion of slope and roads impacts the impact of flooding conditions and the amount of work and ease of access to markets as important indicators of the connection farmers make between soil suitability and their decision to grow cocoa. This is an agile step towards linking biomass production to soil capability, and connectivity, allowing cocoa suitable areas selection and the production of ‘living maps’ that continually evolve as more empirical data becomes available. This can be an essential connectivity tool for practitioners to evaluate the potential geographic range for cocoa production.