The importance of being unique!

By Dennis Badi and John Brooksbank

THE forests were the reason Pierre Dhorne came to PNG in 2006. He was in the country to review a logging proposal and its likely impact on the Foe speaking people of Lake Kutubu. Whilst the outcome of his study was in some ways predictable, the three months that he and fellow French masters student Laure

Miaillier spent amongst local communities ended up being a remarkable experience for the couple.

The WWF Kikori River Programme, based in Moro, hosted the students whilst they helped its project field staff develop a catchment management plan for the area surrounding Lake Kutubu, identifying threats to the region and gathering baseline scientific data.

Lake Kutubu is the highest freshwater lake in Papua New Guinea, situated at an altitude of 808 metres. The lake was created after an early volcanic eruption blocked off a Highlands valley, resulting in the isolated evolution of its fish population. The lake supports an astonishing diversity of creatures, including 12 fish species found nowhere else in the world. The area surrounding the lake’s tranquil and clear blue waters is smothered in closed-canopy rainforest, humid and relatively undisturbed due to the low human population, remoteness from major towns and ruggedness of its limestone terrain. This forest is home to a large array of birds of paradise, cassowaries, tree kangaroos, frogs and orchids – many endangered and endemic to Papua New Guinea. This natural and relatively undisturbed diversity is one of the reasons why the WWF Kikori River Programme is based here.

Apart from the 12 fish species endemic to Lake Kutubu, the local area is also home to the world’s longest lizard - Salvadors Monitor (Varanus salvadori), the tallest tropical tree - the Klinkii Pine (Araucaria hunstenii), the world’s largest tree frog – Litoria infrafrenata and the rare blue Boelens Python whilst a new

undescribed orchid species was discovered just last year.

None of these facts were known when the lake was first seen by Europeans –patrol officers Jack Hides, Ivan Champion and James Taylor – as they peered out of the windows of a Guinea Airways Junkers W34 in February 1936. Hides initially named the lake Marguerite in honour of his wife, but this was changed to Lake Kutubu after Ivan Champion & Charles Adamson walked into the area some months later.

The local Foe people call the lake Ibu Kurubu and have an interesting creation myth that explains how it came from the base of a secret tree that was cut down.

Although a number of streams flow into the lake only one, Soro Creek, drains out of it. This creek joins with others to become the Digimu River and then the Mubi River, which unites with the Hegigio River to become the mighty Kikori River, that eventually discharges into the Gulf of Papua through a tangled delta of mangrove
clad islands & sandbanks.

Lake Kutubu and much of the immediate surrounding area was gazetted by the PNG Government as a Wildlife Management Area in 1992 and is recognised as a RAMSAR Wetland of International Importance. Wildlife Management Areas are designed to protect the biodiversity of an area, whilst safeguarding the culture and lifestyle of traditional owners. The exceptionally clear, high-altitude lake is part of the Kikori River catchment, the highlands areas of which are a ‘broken bottle’ terrain of Darai limestone with its embedded mudstones and sandstones.

The Kikori catchment stretches from the soaring Doma Peaks in the Southern Highlands Province to the wet lowlands of Kikori Delta in Gulf Province. The catchment is one of seven in the Asia Pacific region that WWF is giving priority to due to its significant social and biological importance.

Laure Miaillier and Pierre Dhorne, knowing little about the place before they arrived from the French universities where they were studying, thought that their study goals were almost a “mission impossible”. They were pleasantly surprised that this turned out not to be the case.

Trees aren’t the only valuable commodities around Lake Kutubu. Although the area remains largely undeveloped, there has been some clearing for road construction, lodge development and infrastructure associated with the Kutubu Joint Venture petroleum development project activities under the Operatorship of
Oil Search Limited.

Social change poses a major threat to Lake Kutubu. Introduction of a cash economy from petroleum benefits and in-migration to the area have resulted in an expectation of easy money and have increased pressure on the land. For those with only a short-term vision the ready cash that logging offers is a considerable temptation.

“The lake is in the middle of a Petroleum Development Licence area and is an environmentally sensitive area because of its natural characteristics and the various land use & community pressures it faces”, noted Laure

She compiled socio-economic information and researched potential environmental threats to the lake. The health of Lake Kutubu is important as it influences the health of the plants, terrestrial and aquatic wildlife that depend on it, as well as water quality and abundance.

Pierre found that the plans for the proposed Kutubu-Poroma logging concession would be in breach of PNG’s own logging code of practice and that it would be illegal to log in most parts of the Lake Kutubu area. The logging Code prohibits logging on steep slopes, permanently inundated land, limestone karst or in areas of mangrove.

From visits to villages surrounding the lake, Pierre found that most people were aware of the detrimental repercussions that industrial-scale logging could have on their livelihoods. Villagers stated that WWF’s awareness raising activities in the region over past years had made them understand what logging could do to their forest.

“They told me they would rather choose sustainable farming and eco-enterprise activities like vanilla and butterfly farming which have a lesser impact on their surroundings”, said Pierre.

Summing up his findings he stated that “Development is not necessarily wrong or something that can be stopped in rural areas but communities need to choose what is best for the present and future generations”.

WWF have known for some time of the scientific importance of the lake and are in the process of developing a Catchment Management Plan for the area to help conserve the high ecological quality, diversity and uniqueness of this environmental jewel.

WWF-PNG Kikori Programme Manager Amos Ona, who supervised the activities of the French masters students said, “The industrial training studies of Pierre and Laure will contribute to our catchment management plan for Lake Kutubu and will surely strengthen and promote our conservation efforts with the local communities”.

To the WWF staff and community individuals, such as the members of the Lake Kutubu Wildlife Management Area committee who worked with the couple, Pierre and Laure will be always remembered as their ‘French connection’.

Continued effective environmental management of the Lake Kutubu region is ensured through cooperation between resource developers, non-governmental organisations, government agencies and the impacted communities active near the lake, promoting and supporting sustainable development. Such effort has seen the protection of 80,000 hectares of forest from the activities of loggers, maintaining the heritage and way of life of six communities in the neighbouring biodiversity hot spot around Mt Bosavi.

WWF has been working in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since 1995. Their work focuses on linking community action, science and effective policy to ensure the protection and sustainable use of forests, freshwater and marine resources across the island of New Guinea.