Papua New Guinea Country Program

Papua New Guinea (PNG) offers rare conservation opportunities due to its large expanses of pristine habitat, low human density, relatively few invasive exotic species, and indigenous people with strong guarantees of land ownership.  WCS has a long involvement in PNG pursuing the exceptional conservation potential of this young democracy.  WCS helped to establish the Research and Conservation Foundation of PNG (RCF), the first organization of its kind and now PNG’s largest national conservation NGO.  Today, the WCS-PNG Program focuses on training future conservation leaders, conducting much-needed research and managing two site-based conservation areas, Crater Mountain Wildlife Management Area and Mekil Conservation Initiative. 

The Human Aspect
Due to PNG’s exceptional land-tenure laws, ownership of traditional lands is guaranteed throughout the country. Therefore, PNG cannot create a protected area system under which land is purchased and people excluded.  However, we can help traditional landowners to act as the fundamental force behind conservation activities.   

Threats
PNG’s rugged terrain protects some of its forests and wildlife from outside threats, but much is at risk.  Roughly 80% of lowland timber has been assigned to forestry concessions.  Foreign fishing fleets operate with little control.  Significant deposits of petroleum, copper, and gold are being mined,  which is seriously impacting parts of the country, particularly aquatic systems.  Overhunting threatens many wildlife species, and reef fisheries are being depleted by overfishing.    
 
WCS Activities
The WCS-PNG training and capacity-building program consists of a three-tiered process: teaching at the undergraduate level, mentoring top students through   postgraduate degrees, and providing advanced on-the-job training to conservation biologists.  In 1999, WCS added primary and secondary environmental education to its efforts, initiating a teacher-training program that is now conducted by the Research and Conservation Foundation of PNG (RCF).  In collaboration with RCF, WCS helped create the 1,600-square-mile Crater Mountain Wildlife Management Area in 1993.  WCS-PNG and RCF work together with landowners to ensure conservation and sustainable resource use within Crater.  WCS also works closely with the Sokamin community of western PNG, at Mt. Stolle, the region of highest mammalian diversity in all of Australasia.  WCS recently worked with the Sokamin people to carry out an intensive study of the annual forest cycle.  In addition to its roles in training and site-based conservation, WCS is a leading research organization in the country, studying many threatened species such as cassowaries, echidnas, cockatoos, cuscus, megapodes, birds of paradise, and more.  WCS is also studying hunting pressures, biogeography, reef resource management, and forest dynamics, topics which all have direct implications for policy-making at both the local and national levels.     

Important Next Steps
The WCS-PNG program will continue to do the following activities:

· Train young PNG conservation biologists to give them the opportunity to  become effective national leaders in conservation.
· Research species targeted as conservation priorities in order to learn how best to manage them and ensure viable populations despite pressures from hunting and logging.
· Expand thematic studies of hunting, biogeography and forest ecology to assist policymakers by providing solid management data.
· Work with the WCS Marine Program to develop programs that utilize traditional reef management schemes for conservation and train marine biologists.

Papua New Guinea Tropical Ecology and Biodiversity Digest
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