Project Description
Saving,
protecting and restoring critically endangered leatherback turtles (Dermochelys
coriacea) in a place, and time where turtles are culturally used for
feasts, ceremonial rituals and for daily consumption is the most daunting task
to do.
It demands
commitment, and passionate desire to achieve this goal particularly in changing
the mindset and attitude of our people.
Most coastal
communities we visited in Madang Province, PNG in 2006 up till 2014, disclosed
that they either originated from a turtle or a marine species according to
their spiritual and cultural beliefs. They further raised concerns in the
drastic decline of their marine resources and admitted that they themselves
have contributed to the decline of its stock.
They realized
that if nothing is done to save, protect and restore the turtles, or replenish
their marine resources their cultural heritage and significant relationship to
turtles, their marine biodiversity and their source of livelihood will soon be
gone.
This urgent awakening of survival in the face of existing threats provoked the beginning of the establishment of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project in Madang.
This project is currently managed by Mas Kagin Tapani Inc. (MAKATA). MAKATA comprises of community facilitators, and technical team who are mostly volunteers engaged to carry out program activities as planned for the year to achieve our project goals.
1. Vision:
To
ensure that endangered leatherback (Dermochelys
coriacea) turtles and other
endangered sea turtles and the marine resources in the Bismarck Solomon Seas
are saved, protected, restored and sustainably used.
2.
Mission:
Enable
local communities to save, protect and sustainably harvest endangered sea
turtles in accordance with the Fauna (Protection and Control) Act 1978 in ways
that will improve the health and safety of their marine resources, secure their
food source, sustain their cultures and improve their livelihoods.
3.
Values:
3.1 Sacrifice –
Sacrifice is a virtue we embrace.
Volunteers working for MAKATA must be prepared to forego their personal
desires for things they want in order to dedicate their lives and service for a
greater good or is of more value to our own desires.
3.2 Consensus –
Reaching consensus in decision making is key to achieving community projects.
Volunteers working for MAKATA must therefore reach agreement through consensus
to achieve measurable work outcomes. The executive director or MAKATA’s board is
empowered to make the final decision for a greater good if required.
3.3 Respect - We
uphold the virtue of respect for ourselves, for MAKATA and for those we work
for or interact with. Volunteers working
for MAKATA must therefore strive to respect ourselves, MAKATA, and the
communities we work for or with. It entails taking due diligent care in our
daily conduct both during official duty and outside of duty so as not to
tarnish or discredit our own reputation, that of MAKATA or for the communities
we represent or work for or with.
3.4 Give – It is
in giving that we receive. Volunteers
working for MAKATA must be willing to give their best time, resources,
knowledge, experiences, skills and even assets to achieve the overall vision
and mission for MAKATA. In doing so, we
must be prepared to take the risks. We
should give till it hurts as Mother Theresa of Calcutta said.
5. What is the issue? Why save turtles?
•
Food source is threatened
•
Top 5 endangered species on IUNC
Red List
•
PNG Constitution (1974): Goal 4 –
We declare our natural resources & environment to be conserved – wisely used &
replenished for the benefit of future generations
•
PNG’s 1997 Fauna Act -The
leatherback turtle is currently the only sea turtle in PNG that is listed as
protected fauna under the 1976 Fauna (Protection and Control) Act (Kula
and George, 1996), which stipulates that any person who knowingly buys, sells,
offers or consigns for sale, or has in possession or control of a protected animal
is guilty of an offence and the penalty is K 500. Any person who takes (kills)
a protected animal, in contravention of a condition of a permit is guilty of an
offence and the penalty is K 40/animal.
•
Community entry – familiarization
•
Needs Assessment – story telling
•
Upon receiving an invitation from a community, we
conduct socio-economic and cultural mapping survey
•
Conduct marine ecological survey and document
folklores, traditional conservation practices, spiritual, traditional ethical
and moral values.
•
Community Development / Turtle Training/
Communications/Marine Environment Education Training/ Resource Conflict
Management Training/Community Livelihoo and related skills and capacity
building trainings
•
Take the communities through a Community develops Conservation
Deeds (CD) or Locally Managed Marine Areas process in alignment with relevant
Acts, policies and regulations
•
Lawyer edits CD, community laws/community and
provincial government approves it
•
Establish LMMA using CD or appropriate conservation
tool.
7. What is Conservation Deed? Why use it?
•
CD is a Formal Legal Document or Agreement
(Contract) that creates a locally managed conservation area and a long-term
community stake in the protection of natural resources, in ways that also meet
the economic and social needs of the community.
•
As a community oriented conservation area, Sect 41
& 42 of the Organic Law on Prov.
& LLGs (Consolidated to No 29 of 1998) was used
•
It helps communities
create and manage protected areas for recreation, scientific, conservation or
sustainable use of resources.
8. Any success or positive outcomes/stories?
√ November
17, 2008 – Karkum’s established LMMA – CD
√ July 29, 2013 – Kimadi/Magubem launched their
marine protected area using
customary
practice
√ South Pacific Regional Environment (SPREP)
delegation visited Karkum in 2010 &
committed to support the project
√ A delegation from the National Indigenous
Alliance for Land and Sea Management
Areas
(NAILSMA) in Australia visited Karkum in 2010
9. Any challenges and steps taken to address them?
A. Challenge:
Communities need more information
•
Objective: Need to conduct more turtle training
•
Action: 1) Writing proposals to secure funding
2)
Need for strategic planning meeting
3)
Financial Management Plan developed
4)
Fund raising strategy implemented
B. Challenge:
Independent monitoring/evaluation
•
Objective:
Identify needs and solutions
•
Action: 1)
Identify successes/failures and recommendation
2) Recommendation implemented
10. Any lessons learnt?
•
Worldwide, indigenous people are documenting their
traditional knowledge and connections to their country
•
Traditional sea and fishing rights have been
recognized in Australia, New Zealand, America and Canada.
•
Indigenous Australians are constantly pursuing
claims for control of their sea country.
•
In PNG we need to learn from our neighbors and
start doing it or big industries will continue to use our weak governance to
take control of our resources and make us beggars on our own land and sea
resources.
•
Communities must take ownership of the process and
drive it to be sustainable.
11. Any policy alignment in what we do?
We respond to:
•
PNG Medium Term Development Strategy
– Broad Objective 4: Natural resources & environment
•
PNG Marine Management Act –
Management Objectives & Principles (c) Ensure management measures are based
on best scientific evidence available....
•
The Coral Triangle Initiative:
Promote healthy oceans by helping people manage marine resources
•
5 PNG Marine Program Goals - “Priority
seascapes” designated & effectively managed; Ecosystem approach to
management of fisheries (EAFM) and other marine resources; MPA established
& effectively managed; Climate Change adaptation measures achieved; Threatened
species status improving
12. Are there any other threats?
·
Climate Change – Rising sea level
is washing away turtle nesting beaches
·
Natural Resources Conflict. Clans fighting over ownership of resources
·
Politics (village) – Certain clans
oppose others or clan chief/councillor disapproves conservation of turtles or
the marine resources; youths not happy with elders; lack of working together (‘wok
bung pasin’).
·
Shifting from habitual practise of
killing and eating turtles to conserving them
·
Economy – Challenged with the
question: ‘Why save turtles if there’s no other alternative options for protein
especially to sustain traditional practises.’
·
No money to sustain the project.
·
PNG Government not adhering to
peoples call to STOP experimental seabed mining
·
Communities not having faith and
trust in MAKATA resulting from lack of funding to sustain programs consistently
13.
Background/History:
MAKATA
is a not for profit advocacy NGO established in April 2009. The
main reason for its
establishment was to sustain the Sea Turtle
Restoration and Protection Project (STRP) which was
established in 2006 by
Wenceslaus Magun, who was then contracted by Turtle Island Restoration
Network
(TIRN), a 501c3 non-profit organization in US as their Western Pacific
Campaigner. By
December 2009, TIRN
ceased funding this project but has supported its sustainability with the
initial
funding for its establishment.
With
support from key advisory board members, pro-environmental justice individuals,
local
communities that share the beaches and waters with sea turtles, we
continue to carry out activities in
ways that also make cultural and economic
sense to communities we work with.
We
strive to achieve this goal by continuing our efforts to empower people to
protect and restore the
local sea turtle populations, with an emphasis on the
endangered leatherback (Dermochelys
coriacea).
We do this through
grassroots education, advocacy, consumer empowerment, and strategic litigation
and by promoting sustainable local, national and international marine policies.
While
sea turtles are emblematic of a wide array of marine and terrestrial resources
at risk of
exploitation in PNG, a general lack of regulation has prompted
foreign fishing, mining and logging
companies to exploit PNG’s need for revenue
for a stake in the nation’s rich resources.
This affects not
only marine life but also the future of coastal
communities that derive much of their subsistence from the
sea.
Our
office is located at section 229, Lot 61, Salote Street, Tokarara in Port
Moresby. We intend to
relocate the
office to a more suitable location when we secure sufficient funds and recruit
additional staff
to cater for increase in demand for our services.
14.
Partnerships and network
MAKATA
works in partnership with coastal communities, TNC, WWF, CELCOR, Partners with
Melanesia, PNG CLMA, SPREP, Seaweb, Mahonia Na Dari, WCS, village clan leaders,
community based organisations in Madang, Madang Civil Society Organisation,
Madang Provincial Government, DEC, and other sister organisations both in PNG
and abroad. Through this network, MAKATA is able to share information,
collaborate on different campaigns, and receive support from members in its
campaign and advocacy work.
To
strengthen effective and collaborative relationship with local communities
where its projects are located, MAKATA has on its board of directors,
representatives of the Duergo Community Development Association of Karkum
village and other NGO, CBO and private sector organizations.
MAKATA’s
efforts have been recognized by the South Pacific Regional Environment Program
(SPREP), the WWF-Western Melanesia, The Nature Conservancy, Seaweb, partner
NGOs in PNG, and overseas who have supported its activities through grants and
other resources.
Our
Coordinator continues to build relationship and partnership with other
stakeholders and partners in PNG and in the region.
15. Governance:
MAKATA
is governed by a board which is made up of volunteers from various agencies,
local communities’ community based organisations and corporations.
16. Target Areas/ Current Project Map:
Sumkar District, Madang Province, PNG
1.
Karkum- Mirap Conservation Area = 508 Hectares
(2008)
2.
Kimadi Conservation Area = 550 Hectares; and (2013)
3.
Magubem Conservation Area = 924 Hectares (2013)
Rai Coast District, Madang Province, PNG
Our new sites include, Mur, Yamai, Baru, and Sel
villages in the Saidor Local Level Government and Bom-Sagar, Lalok and Male
villages within the Astrolabe Bay Local Level Government of Rai Coast District
in Madang Province.
It takes about 4 to 5 hours by a 40hp dinghy to get
to Mur and the neighbouring villages in Saidor LLG and less than two hours to
reach Lalok and the neighbouring villages in the Astrolabe Bay LLG either by
road or by boat.
Although
these locations do not boast of having the highest number of leatherback
turtles frequenting their beaches when the project was first established
compared to the Huon coast project in the Morobe Province, PNG covering the
villages of Paiawa, Kamiali, Buli and Labu Tale, it remains to be the first
model sites for establishing a turtle conservation project using Locally
Managed Marine Area (LMMA) using Conservation Deed (CD).
If funding is available we will extend our work to other provinces in
PNG, based on calls received by MAKATA from local communities.
17.
Current Donors:
MAKATA’s
operation is entirely dependent on donor funds and internal fund raising drives.
Since inception, MAKATA has floated its activities on internal fund raising
drives, and funds collected from Waves Cab services. It has also established very good
partnerships with donors from different countries and within PNG. These donors
include:
- WWF- Western Melanesia – PNG
- Global Greengrants Fund – USA
- South Pacific Regional Environment Program – Samoa
- Santa Monica Seafood and WiseFish – USA
- UNDP_SGP
- Pacific Development and Conservation Trust Fund – NZ
- The Nature Conservancy – PNG
- Waves Cab services
- Fund Raising Drive
18.
Current Programs
MAKATA Inc., intends to carry out its work in 4 main programmatic
areas. These include the following:
1. Leatherback Turtle Conservation and
Restoration Program
2. Marine Protected Area (Locally Managed Marine Area ) Program
3. Marine Environment Education Program (MEEP) in partnership with Mahonia
Na Dari (MND) a local NGO based in West New Britain Province, PNG.
4.
Marine Campaign Program
(Seabed mining campaign, Marine Pollution, Deep Sea Tailings Placement etc).
Leatherback Turtle Conservation and
Restoration Program.
This program places emphasis on the fact that
the leatherback turtle population has
drastically declined and that few remnant
nesting beaches along the coasts of Madang
needs to be conserved during the nesting
seasons of the turtles , usually from
September to March, so that hatchlings successfully make it back
to the ocean to
replenish the population. Work has been ongoing for the last 8 years and need
urgent
funding to continue the program.
Marine Protected Area Program.
Conservation of leatherback turtles also go
hand in hand with setting up protected areas
for the nesting turtles and also for the
adjacent marine systems. A few MPAs have been
set up however lots more work need to be done
in this area and hence further funding is
needed in this area.
Marine Environment Education Program (MEEP).
This is a new additional program to MAKATA’s
programs. MAKATA carried out a
feasibility study on the need for teachers and
students to be educated on the
importance of the marine environment and hence
the formulation of this program. This
program intends to educate teachers and
students on the marine environment and build
up their capacity to understanding why marine
environment is important and what
they can do in their own way to action the marine
environment and also to continue to educate students and others on the
marine environment. There is a potential
to reach a lot of students and teachers due to the teacher college in Madang
and also the numbers of students and schools in Madang.
Marine Campaign Program
The marine area and ocean of Madang currently
face major environmental threats from
major developments such as the Ramu cobalt
nickel mine’s deep sea tailings, the
effluents of various canneries and factories,
the deep sea mining and many more. There
is an urgent need for the community at large
and the local, provincial and national
government to be well informed of these
proposed developments and their effects on
the environment. This is where MAKATA is
making positive input, by holding public
forums, websites etc, it is working on an
effective campaign program to keep the
communities and the general public up to date
with the happenings on the grounds.
Funding is urgently needed for this.
19. Other Outstanding Accomplishments
Other
outstanding achievements included a paper Wenceslaus Magun presented to an
international audience at the Griffith University on the 29th
International Sea Turtle Symposium in Brisbane, Australia from the 17 to 19 of
February 2009. In his talk he promoted
the Conservation Deed Approach of establishing marine protected areas to
protect and restore the turtle’s population in the Western Pacific region.
He also
presented a paper to participants at a meeting organized by CSIRO (Australia)
at the Moreton Bay Research Station, Queensland-Australia from the 17th
to 19th of June 2009. His report titled: “Can direct conservation
payments promote environmental conservation and livelihood enhancement in
selected sites/circumstances?” This talk aimed at finding a way forward to
achieving the Eight Millennium Development Goals through direct conservation
payments to communities who promote environmental conservation outcomes.
Mr Magun further
presented a talk at the inaugural World Indigenous Network Conference in Darwin,
Australia in June, 2013.
He represented
the NGO sector in PNG at the SOPAC Deep-sea Mining Conferences in Tonga and
Vanuatu in 2013 where he spoke out vehemently against experimental seabed
mining in PNG.
Mr. Magun also
represented Community Based Organisations in PNG to express their concerns on
“POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA COUNTRY CONSULTATION – THE FUTURE WE WANT, Voices
from the people of Papua New Guinea,” a documentary produced by the United
Nations – PNG Office.
MAKATA’s work
is documented in the “Madang Sustainable Development: A Ridges-to-Reefs Gap and
Priority Analysis” document, (pages 25 and 29 respectively), Supported by RAFT,
the Australian Government, The Nature Conservancy, Madang Provincial
Government, PNG Government, Madang Civil Society Organisation, USAID and
Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (LEAF).
20. Goal for 2014 and beyond
Statement
of Objectives
Goal
1: Establish
new turtle conservation sites in Sumkar, and Rai Coast Districts, Madang
Goal
2: Build conservation ethics
in students, teachers, and general public using educational awareness materials
and teacher/students education program
Goal
3: Build MAKATA’s office,
staff accommodation, library, resource center, laboratory and garage
21. Appeal for Donations
Donations
to support this effort can be deposited into:
Mas Kagin Tapani Association (Bank
of South Pacific Waigani Branch) Cheque Account Number: 1001546953. Its SWIFT Code is BOSPPGPM.
Internal
Revenue Commission’s Tax File Number is: TC 8662
22.
Inquiries
For further
information please
Contact:
Mr. Wenceslaus
Magun on:
Ph: +
(675)73497984 or
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/wences-magun/27/452/744/
Facebook: Wenceslaus Magun or Save PNG's endangered turtles
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/wences-magun/27/452/744/
Facebook: Wenceslaus Magun or Save PNG's endangered turtles
Email: magun.wences@gmail.com.
Google+: google.com/+WencesMagun
