The government of Papua New Guinea has declared two large new marine protected areas, capping a six-year effort in consultation with local communities on how to curtail the harvest of threatened species and restore the health of fisheries that people have depended on for generations.
The MPAs, announced Nov. 12, surround the waters of the local-level government areas of Lovongai and Murat in the country’s northeastern island province of New Ireland. U.S.-based NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which led their establishment, said in a press release that together they cover more than 16,000 square kilometers (6,200 square miles), tripling the country’s marine area under protection. They comprise less than 1% of Papua New Guinea’s marine territory.
The process of establishing the MPAs involved consultation with more than 9,000 people in more than 100 Indigenous communities, the press release said.
“The communities have created the rules themselves,” said Annisah Sapul, WCS’s former program manager in New Ireland’s capital of Kavieng, who led the consultation process with communities, experts and government officials. “So with the science that we have given, and also with their traditional knowledge, they were able to say, ‘Okay, these are the rules that will help us to minimize the threats, and also to allow us to reach the objectives of what we want to see in our marine space.’”
WCS’s press release called this “one of the first and most ambitious community-led MPA wins” since countries agreed last year to protect 30% of land and sea area by 2030 under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
The MPAs are the country’s first to be co-managed by Indigenous communities, according to an emailed statement from Bernard Suruman, who oversees MPAs at PNG’s Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA). “These MPAs allow for sustainable fishing practices and resource utilization by local communities, ensuring their livelihoods are not jeopardized by conservation efforts,” he said.
However, other observers note the potential problems that could arise from foreign-led conservation in an area experiencing poverty, conflict, and minimal government support.