First National Park Formed In Papua New Guinea

Declaration of First Conservation Reserve Wins Plaudits Globally

Mar 3, 2009

Papua New Guinea is home to some rare and endemic species. The drawback to this date was lack of a suitable conservation reserve. The new National Park rectifies this.

The new National Park has been named YUS Conservation Area, spanning 76,000 hectares. YUS is an acronym for Yopno, Uruwa and Som rivers, the three main rivers that drain the area. The area is critical habitat for Matschie's tree kangaroos ( Dendrolagus matschiei), a species listed as endangered by the IUCN. Other rare species include New Guinea harpy eagle, New Guinea pademelon, the dwarf cassowary, and Salvadori’s teal.

The Denouement of the Park

Setting up the park was not an easy task. There were lot of imponderables and it took years of spadework. Villages own all rural land in Papua New Guinea. So the Government had its limitations in establishing the reserves and implementing conservation programmes.

Conservationists impressed on the landowners the need to set aside portions of land for conservation. They worked relentlessly on this agenda. Hard work by conservationists paid off, and the villagers pledged 187,800 acres of pristine forestland for setting up the national park. It is a wonderful area and extends from the coastal reefs to the 4,000-meter high peaks of the western Saruwaged Mountains.

Partners in the Venture

Wooland Park Zoo in Seattle, Conservation International, and National Geographic were partners in this venture. These organizations have been working for the past decade in Papua New Guinea in the environmental field and have established excellent rapport with the local communities. As a sequel to the establishment of the National Park they will also help the community in the education and community health programmes. This is expected to be to be a big morale booster.

The Management

A community organization formed by the villagers will oversee the management of the park. The management is intended to benefit both wildlife and local people. It is designed to be a sustainable model of community-based conservation. A spin off will be carbon sequestration. The tropical forest will act as a huge carbon sink. 10,000 villagers living in and around YUS ecosystem stand to benefit from the new arrangement.

Timely Action

The formation of the park has come at the right time. According to a report appearing in Biotropica Papua New Guinea has lost 15 percent of its forest due to logging during the course of last 30 years. During this period 9 percent of forests were degraded. Vested interests from Malaysia and China were eying the timber wealth and playing havoc with the forest wealth.

The international community has rightly applauded the noble venture. Here is an example of acting locally and thinking globally. We need more such examples of dedicated conservation initiatives.

References

The copyright of the article First National Park Formed In Papua New Guinea in Wildlife Conservation is owned by Mohan Alembath. Permission to republish First National Park Formed In Papua New Guinea in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.