With the help of Greengrants funding, Mahonia Na Dari, a community-based organization in Papua New Guinea’s Kimbe Bay, has brought together community members, educators and international researchers to establish 23 protected marine areas. They have also started an education program so successful that Papua New Guineaís government integrated it into the national school curriculum. In a province where environmental destruction has put vital ecosystems like that of Kimbe Bay in peril, Mahonia Na Dari’s programs provide hope for the future.
A Unique Environment
The active volcanic cones encircling Kimbe Bay create a uniquely sheltered environment, protected from everything except local winds and swells. The Kimbe Bay region provides a habitat for such rare and endangered animals as the world’s largest moth and a small marsupial called the bandicoot, as well as an amazing variety of orchids, but it is most outstanding for its marine life. An abundance of steep-sided coral reefs, which form pinnacles, saddles, and patch reefs, provide homes for a staggering 860 species of fish (including three newly-discovered species), almost twice as many species as the entire tropical and subtropical Western Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Several species of sharks and endangered sea turtles make their home in Kimbe Bay, as do fish species such as panda clown fish, gobies, damselfish, and parrotfish. Orca, bottle-nosed dolphins, spinner dolphins, pilot whales, sperm whales, and other toothed whales migrate through the bay year-round.
Few islanders understand the biological significance of the reefs. Although reefs are of mythical importance to the local culture, many islanders can’t swim and some residents of inland villages have never seen the ocean. Coral, a highly fragile and complex organism, is considered by many islanders to be as indestructible and lifeless as rock. In Southeast Asia, many coral reefs similar to Kimbe Bay’s have been destroyed by the lucrative live fish trade. Fish traders often use substances such as dynamite and cyanide to capture the fish alive. The bay faces further danger from local lowland forest logging and oil palm plantation development.
Mahonia Na Dari
Mahonia Na Dari, “Guardian of the Sea” in the Bakove language of West New Britain, was established by the Nature Conservancy, the European Union’s Islands Region Environmental Program, and the Walindi Plantation Resort in 1997. It is a non-governmental organization, with the mission of promoting the understanding and conservation of Kimbe Bay’s natural environment, primarily marine life, by building a grassroots constituency. Mahonia Na Dari established its own Board of Directors in 1998, and set up the Mahonia Na Dari Research and Conservation Center, which hosts and aids scientists and teaches islanders about the ecosystems.
Mahonia Na Dari’s Marine Environment Education Program (MEEP) works to give Papua New Guinea’s younger generation a strong ethical background in environmental and conservation issues. This program conducts outreach activities throughout West New Britain, visiting schools and villages to impart important environmental messages through media such as puppet shows. In addition, MEEP hosts excursions for international students interested in the Kimbe Bay ecosystems.
The Research and Conservation Center, a small but permanent facility on Kimbe Bay’s western shore, is a base for researchers. It offers visiting scientists laboratory facilities, telecommunications, accommodations, and access to Kimbe Bay. Although the researchers at the center are generally focused on the marine aspect, people from other sciences are also welcomed. All researchers in the center are encouraged to devote at least part of their stay to local talks and education programs.
Mahonia Na Dari’s 23 Locally-Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) protect and close reefs to help them recover from over-harvesting. Currently, Mahonia is setting up a monitoring program for these closed reefs. These protected areas cover about 1,050 acres, involving six villages with a total population of about 6,000. Mahonia has constructed 80 mooring buoys for reef protection. Recently, surveys collected from LMMAs have been incorporated into other monitoring plans. In addition to these LMMAs, Mahonia Na Dari has set aside two mangrove areas.
Greengrants funds have gone towards several parts of Mahonia’s project. Using Greengrants donations, LMMA committees produced education materials in the local dialect and launched an intensive awareness campaign. The first awareness campaign, in May 2005, lasted three weeks and reached more than 4,000 people. Mahonia Na Dari held two LMMA committee workshops, focusing on budget reviews and awareness. With Greengrants funds, Mahonia Na Dari also purchased video equipment to produce videos about the coral reefs and mangroves, and the videos were received especially well by young audiences. In the spring of 2005, a meeting between Garille and Patanga communities and Mahonia began the process of expanding the marine protected areas. Mahonia hopes to establish three more coral reef protection areas and one mangrove protection area by the end of 2005.