Collingwood Bay Conservation Area Project

Initial community and stakeholder consultation were conducted in 2015, late 2016 and early 2017 with this coastal and inland community of the Collingwood Bay, Ijivitari District of the Oro Province, with eh aim of reviving conservation efforts initially carried out by a now defunct national NGO conservation organization, Conservation Melanesia. This community is not new to conservation work. Similar efforts were carried out over 10 years, however, due to operational and management challenges faced by Conservation Melanesia, it affected plans and work programs in CWB, resulting in the closure of the operations.

Simultaneously, after 20 plus years of struggling to put an end to a lengthy court battle with a logging company, the locals finally won the court case in 2014, ending years of destructive logging to their forests that also subsequently destroyed the marine life that supports the coastal communities who are dependent on the marine resources for food and sustenance.

The locals have seen and felt the negative effects of large-scale development to their environment and have opted for conservation and sustainable development options. The area encompasses a total of 9 customary tribal groups. During the consultation work of PWM between 2016/2017, the 9 tribes of CWB saw the need and importance of giving recognition and uphold the status of women in CWB as equal and created the Women’s platform for engagement as the 10^th tribe and for the voice of all women. There are 326 clans, and 25 hamlets that spreads over 560,000+ hectares of delta plains, lowland and mid-montane rainforest and savannah grassland and is geographically challenging in terms of reaching out to all these communities. Additionally, the entire CWB traditional and customary practices have no particular definition for gender equality in that women are not part of any decision making process and are often not considered as important. While the chief is the ultimate head of the clan and he has the final say, but is done in consultation and through consensus. The definition of consensus in CWB is absolute; there is no consensus if one person, one clan or one tribe is not in agreement to a decision. A number of dialects are spoken throughout the area while English is commonly spoken and understood amongst the 20,500+ population.  Like all other rural isolated communities in PNG, the Collingwood Bay area receives very little government services which are limited to basic health and education while they depend heavily on their environment for food, water, building materials and other environmental goods and services.

PWM is now gearing up on creating awareness on issues that are affecting the environment like climate change and its impact on water and food security, whilst this will be an on-going program, PWM will be liaising with the local communities in identifying a focal community based organization to coordinate work on the ground, through which a memorandum of understanding will be established in defining a clear working relationship and partnership between all important stakeholders including the local communities and their community based organization, the local level government and the provincial government, identifying ways to assist the communities in conserving their environment while managing and utilizing their forest and marine resources for their livelihoods. This arrangement will ensure all key stakeholders will be meaningfully engaged in ensuring critical enablers like effective leadership and good governance, environmental legislations and policies, performance and accountability etc. are in place for achieving successful conservation outcomes and sustainable livelihoods.