Papua New Guinea Conservation Projects
Huon Peninsula -
Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program
Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program
The Tree kangaroo conservation Program (TKCP) has worked in Papua New Guinea since 1996. The program is under the direction of Dr. Lisa Dabek, Director of Conservation and Research at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence Rhode Island. The TKCP works in Morobe district in the YUS Local Level Government on the Huon peninsula in northern Papua New Guinea. YUS stands for Yupna, Urawa and Som Rivers, the principal watersheds of the area. The project focuses on the Matschie's or Huon tree kangaroo ( Dendrolagus matschiei ) which is endemic to the Huon Peninsula.
While originally focusing on research of the tree kangaroo, the program now has three components: research, conservation outreach and education. The initial research has been in estimating tree kangaroo population density from defecation rates through fecal collection. Genetic studies of the dung samples should also give an idea of how many individuals are in an area. Tree kangaroo population data have been supplemented by interviews with local knowledgeable hunters. Their information on plant species will be compared with laboratory studies of plant materials in the fecal matter. In 2004, the program will begin telemetry studies within a new site where tree kangaroos have not been hunted for 20 years and can be visually observed. Additional studies have begun on the long-beaked echidna ( Zaglossus bruijnii ) which is endemic to New Guinea. Other studies include biodiversity studies of various sites by teams of experts on various invertebrate and vertebrate taxa.
Dr. Horwich and the villagers of Yawan
The education component is focused on an education program in local schools from kindergarten to eighth grade, using local teachers with educators from various zoos. In addition, the program supports University students from the YUS area who are committed to return to the YUS area to teach.
The conservation outreach component is the area that Community Conservation is most concerned with. Papua New Guinea has a unique land tenure system in which customary or traditional law is followed. 97% of the lands in the country are owned by clan landowners under the customary clan rules. Therefore, any conservation effort depends entirely on the interest, knowledge and good will of clan landowners to conserve some of their lands. The TKCP has been collecting verbal pledges of the clans in the YUS area and adjacent areas. Thus far 26 clans have pledged approximately 120,000 acres for total protection or no-use zones which will serve as wildlife "banks" from which young animals will disperse to adjacent hunting lands. Most of these lands are at the higher altitudes away from the villages.
Community Conservation Director, Dr. Rob Horwich's role has been to research the resources within country on the types of conservation efforts tried, and to research the laws relevant to protected areas in Papua New Guinea. He is currently writing a landowners guide to these laws which will be reviewed by environmental lawyers in the country. He has been working with local teacher Danny Samandingke who has been the main contact person working with the clan landowners. Samandingke and Horwich have mapped the various clan lands that have been pledged. There are tentative plans to train local landowners to use GPS units to confirm the customary boundaries.
Community Conservation hopes to help clans to form local groups as in other Community Conservation projects so that the local villagers can manage their lands sustainably. The hope is that the landowners will decide to formalize their pledges into a legal protected area.
The web site for TKCP on Roger Williams Park Zoo site is :
www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org/conservation/TKCP_main.cfm
For Practitioners 
