MAS KAGIN TAPANI
ASSOCIATION
POB 1312, Port Moresby, National Capital
District, PNG
Ph. + (675) 71959665
magun.Wenceslaus@gmail.com •
maskagintapani.blogspot.com
CBM Training,
24th
to 31st March 2015,
Roinji, Wasu LLG, Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New
Guinea
By Miriam Giru, Adolphina Luvongit and Wenceslaus
Magun
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Fig 1. Twenty one certified local coastal marine
monitors from Roinji and
Singorokai posing for their group photo with (Far left standing at the back Daniel Solomon Okena TKCP-PNG, Front left kneeling Wenceslaus Magun, MAKATA and far right standing Karau Kuna TKCP-PNG and Miriam Giru, Para-Marine Biologist, MAKATA.
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Background
There’s a
traditional Jewish story that goes like this: “Imagine you are busy planting a
tree, and someone rushes up to say that the Messiah has come and the end of the
world is nigh. What would you do?”
According to this story the rabbi’s advice is: “You first finish planting the
tree and only then do you go and see whether the news is true.”
The tension
between doing something positive today to “plant a tree” or do nothing at all remains
a sad reality.
The race to
extract renewable and non-renewable resources in the name of achieving healthy,
wealthy, friendly, safe, and prosperous nations through improved social,
infrastructure and economic services continues unabated.
Smart and cunning
tactics used through pretence of false development and raising high hopes and
expectations at the ignorance of the resource owners, or by penetrating through
economically impoverished and corrupt governments through bribery and
corruption or aid to extract both renewable and non renewable resources, for
agro-industries, subsequently leaving huge scars, and gaping holes on landscapes,
polluted air, rivers and seascapes, humans have tipped the scale of contributing
towards destroying Earth.
Industrial
activities approved without due diligent checks and balances on environmental
impact assessments and environmental management plans by responsible and
independent assesses or auditors in each State allowing corporate entities to
operate until even their most brilliant super “flawless” technology fails leads
to another catastrophic oil, cyanide spill, air pollution, nuclear waste disaster
or similar problems adds fuel to the fire.
Institutions, individuals
or end users of products that acquire resources from indigenous tribal
communities without prior informed consent resulting in inequitable benefit
sharing may also have negative footprints on the environment.
In addition, irresponsible
consumer actions and bad social behaviours by people from all walks of life,
creed, and race world over in this age and time continue to see increase in global
warming.
Rather than being
complacent at this ongoing vicious cycle of mess, before it’s too little too
late, few individuals, organisations, local communities and corporations have
joined the race and sometimes quite risky to ensure that positive steps are
taken to save planet Earth through some form of sustainable resource management
services.
Beginning in 1996 and the years that followed on,
individuals like Zachary Wells, Dr Lisa Dabek, Karau Kuna, Benjamin Sipa, Tingke Dope, Ruby Yamuna, Danny Samandingke,
Mikal Nolan, James Sabi, Benside Thomas, Dr Bruce Beehler, Daniel Solomon Okena and others took steps to
save one of Papua New Guinea’s (PNGs) remaining endemic endangered Matschie’s
tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus matschiei ).
Their efforts
through the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) led to the establishment
of a local NGO with an office established in Lae under TKCP-PNG.
With support from
Woodlark Park Zoo, Conservation International, the German Government, James Cook
University, and the local communities, TKCP-PNG has seen the development,
establishment and ongoing management of an internationally recognised and
gazetted “YUS Conservation Area (CA)” landscape.
What does “YUS” mean? “YUS” is used to refer to the spatial area covered
by the extent of TKCP’s landscape program. What is the scope of the Landuse
Plan (LP)? It is the outer boundaries of clan land of the people living within
the Yopno, Uruwa and Some River catchments (which transcend LLG, district and
provincial administration boundaries) and extending down to the Bismarck Sea in
Wasu Local Level Government (LLG), and also into small parts of Deyamos, Rai
Coast, and Wantoat-Leron LLGs. (YUS Landscape Plan, 2013-2015).
According to the
YUS Landscape Plan 2013-2015, the gazetted “YUS CA” covers an area of 78,729ha,
making it one of the largest CA in PNG.
Furthermore, TKCP-PNG is also one of the first NGO to actually apply the
principle of “Ridges to Reefs” concept in PNG to achieve its conservation
outcomes.
TKCP-PNG’s
conservation and research program is further complemented with livelihood
programs.
To ensure that
the Ridges to Reef principle actually materializes and is sustained, TKCP-PNG
is assisting local communities’ in Roinji and Singorokai and the neighbouring villages
along the coast in the Wasu LLG to establish their Marine Protected Areas. For a well-managed marine resource management
and monitoring program to be established and sustained, TKCP-PNG has engaged a
Marine Specialist, Job Opu and Mas Kagin Tapani (MAKATA) to pursue this
initiative.
The YUS CA
contributes towards achieving PNG’s Protected Area target in fulfilling its
obligation to meet the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Objective of
achieving 17% of terrestrial protected areas and 10% of marine protected areas
by 2020.
These efforts by
TKCP-PNG deserve recognition and support by all stakeholders especially the
State and its lined agencies and provincial authorities.
Further details
of the YUS Landscape plan can be obtained from the YUS Landscape Plan 2013-2015
document and from the Marine Program reports compiled by Mr. Opu.
Introduction
The core business
of this workshop is to build the capacity of the workshop participants to
assist their coastal community marine rangers to monitor their marine resources
as volunteers without creating any false expectations for them to be employed
or to be compensated in anyway by TKCP-PNG or any other partners.
This report covers
plenary sessions, group break out activities, and practical exercises on Marine
Monitoring training.
Twenty One (21)
participants had attended this workshop. The workshop was held at Roinji
village from Tuesday 24th of March to Monday 31st of
March 2015.
This workshop also
aims to support the work the Marine Specialist, Job Opu has done as documented
in his reports from his community visits to Roinji and Singorokai in 2014.
We revised the
topics that Mr. Opu covered to draw the participants’ attention to link what he
has done or plan to do and our training towards fulfilling TKCP-PNG’s overall
objective for local coastal communities’ Landuse plans.
Lessons on the Marine
Environment, Food Web, Coral Biology, Seagrass, Invertebrates, Vertebrates and
Mangroves were covered but not in detail due to time constrains. In this report, we have however covered these
topics in some detail for the benefit of the communities of Roinji and
Singorokai.
Furthermore we
did not run the turtle training in this workshop due to time factor. We note however that Mr. Opu did cover the topic
on different marine turtle species which is documented in his “Marine Program –
YUS Conservation Area” report.
Turtle monitoring
and tagging exercise needs to be done if the local communities want to fulfil
their management plan to save and restore the populations of the endangered and
critically endangered sea turtles that come to nest in Roinji and Singorokai
nesting beaches.
After
successfully completing the seven (7) days of theoretical and practical
sessions the participants graduated with a Certificate each certifying them to
be local coastal community marine monitors for Roinji and Singorokai. Their Certificates were counter signed by
Miriam Giru, the Para-marine biologist for MAKATA, Wenceslaus Magun, MAKATA’s
director and Kuna Kurau, TKCP-PNG’s Conservation Strategies Manager.
The workshop was
jointly funded by the TKCP-PNG, Global Environment Facility (GEF), UNDP-SGP,
and MAKATA with support from the National Fisheries Authority and the local
communities of Roinji and Singorokai.
The training was
conducted under a makeshift shelter built out of bamboo poles, with bamboo
braces, and bamboo rafters. The side
walls were fenced with coconut palms and a blue canvas wrapped around it to
prevent sunlight coming into the school area.
The roof was made up of flat sheets of corrugated roofing sheets spread
across the length and width of the entire building.
Participants sat
on the ground or on makeshift chairs and other objects throughout most of the
sessions, whilst the facilitators (Miriam Giru, and Wenceslaus Magun) delivered
plenary sessions using flipcharts, and assorted permanent markers. The sessions also covered two video shows. For some practical sessions, the participants
were divided into Roinji and Singorokai groups.
For the other practical sessions, they combined to learn, share and
participate as a team with the assistance of our facilitators. Both Daniel Solomon Okena , (TKCP-PNG
Research & Monitoring Coordinator) and Kuna Karau, (TKCP-PNG Conservation
Strategies Manager) were occasionally invited to help in the sessions.
The Singorokai
participants travelled by boat to Roinji for the workshop and returned home
after the graduation.
Participants
learned about the Marine Environment, Marine Food Web, Coral Biology,
Objectives, and Marine Monitoring. Flyers
on Vertebrates, Invertebrates, Lobsters, Prawn fish and posters on Tuna,
Sharks, accompanied by pocket size water proof booklets on Sea Cucumber were
also used in the Sessions and later distributed to the participants, their
rangers and to TKCP-PNG. Despite frequent
disturbances caused by the generator failure, or late attendance from the
participants for some classes due to the late preparation of our meals, the
final outcome of the training was very positive and rewarding.
The hands-on
exercises on how to build the one meter T-transect using 14inches pvc pipes and
to do dummy marine monitoring exercises on land with 100 meters and the use of 50
meter tapes to measure reefs, clams and fish (vertebrates and invertebrates) and
the use of water proof data sheets stuck to A4 size shower boards built for
this training was all the more thrilling and mind captivating. Another fun-filled practical session was when
participants were introduced to the use of fins and snorkels to prepare them
for the actual marine monitoring exercise which they undertook later in the
training.
After the actual
marine monitoring survey, the participants’ representatives communicated the
information to the audience. They did
that during their graduation ceremony by translating the raw data they had
gathered at the Sum closed reef and the Lemia open reef at Roinji into graphs
illustrated on their flip charts. The activity involved calculating the raw data
gathered and translating that into graphs using simple mathematical formulas.
Information
gathered and presented to the audience by the participants reflects the
positive outcome of this workshop.
We left Roinji on
Tuesday 1st of April, 2015 confident that the participants can use
the knowledge and skills gained in this workshop to monitor their marine
resources and to empower their local communities to take appropriate steps to
manage and sustainably use their marine resources.
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