In Papua New Guinea, Inaugl Tribe Members Commit to Legally Protect More Than 12,000 ha (46 square miles) of High Biodiversity Forest

Image Credit: Ohn Lamaris. Retrieved from newswise.com/

In the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Indigenous landowners of the Inaugl tribe have joined their neighbours in the Bismarck Forest Corridor to commit to legally protecting 12,241 hectares (46.3 square miles) of forest under a conservation deed. The deed protects this high integrity forest from logging, while allowing for sustainable use of natural resources within marked zones.

“This conservation deed, which is agreed by all five clans of the Inaugl tribe, meant that the people put aside their differences and are united to work together for common good,” said clan leader, John Kamb Sande.

The Wildlife Conservation Society PNG program (WCS PNG), with support from the European Union-funded Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme and the USAID PNG Lukautim Graun Program, has been working with the Inaugl tribe members from Gembogl District, Chimbu Province, to empower Indigenous stewardship over their tenured lands. The lands are managed under the oversight of KGWan, a community-based organisation made up of representatives from each of the Inaugl tribe’s five clans, and monitored by local rangers or “Wasman,” who will be trained in GPS software tools to record wildlife sightings and breaches of management rules. Offenders can be prosecuted under village or state courts. Under the SWM Programme and Lukautim Graun Program, local magistrates and the Conservation Management Committee have received training on penalties and mediation processes to enforce conservation deeds.

WCS PNG Country Director, Jennifer Baing, said that legally binding conservation deeds as community-led governance mechanisms are proving to be effective for sustainable wildlife management and conservation in PNG.