The Tenkile Conservation Alliance has worked for more than two decades now with communities in the Torricelli Mountains of northwestern Papua New Guinea to benefit the three species of tree kangaroo that reside in the region.
MUKU, Papua New Guinea — Fidelis Nick’s eyes lock onto the police vehicle as it passes through his village in northwestern Papua New Guinea. A few people wave greetings as it passes by, but Nick isn’t one of them. He watches as a truck from the construction company working on a new road here in Muku follows directly behind. He doesn’t seem fearful, but he’s clearly on alert.
The TCA, where Nick is a project officer, has been working to conserve this part of the Torricellis for more than two decades. The pinnacle of that effort would be the official designation by the Papua New Guinea government of a long-in-the-works protected area. As recently as 2019, it seemed the country was on the cusp of recognizing the 1,850-km2 Torricelli Mountain Range Conservation Area . Since then, however, progress toward that goal has stalled.
More recently, the TCA has expanded its work to include villages beyond the tree kangaroo species’ current ranges, bringing thousands of solar-powered lighting kits to more than 100 “feeder” villages that weren’t part of the original moratorium. Many of these villages sit along the Sepik highway, which TCA teams travel frequently.
“The timber and land are their resources,” Nick says of communities like Muku, so he spends a lot of his time meeting with villages and explaining the changes that could materialize with the road. Along with the road construction, new logging outfits have appeared in the area. And their backers have made inroads with some villages, convincing at least a few key members of the community that the money they’ll be paid for their timber will be worth allowing the companies to operate on their land.
Mongabay: A big part of the TCA’s strategy has been to bring development to these villages. What are your thoughts on the services provided by TCA and those provided by the government?[When] we’re talking about government, it’s really focusing on the major developments of projects such as roads and education — all major government services, which are funded by government every year through their budget.