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This article was downloaded by: [Umeå University Library] On: 22 November 2014, At: 03:28 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnzr20 The forest stewards initiative: A new institution for safeguarding traditional ecological knowledge in Papua New Guinea William H. Thomas a a Montclair State University , 1 Wapalanne Road, Branchville, New Jersey, 07826, USA Published online: 22 Feb 2010. To cite this article: William H. Thomas (2009) The forest stewards initiative: A new institution for safeguarding traditional ecological knowledge in Papua New Guinea, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 39:4, 187-191 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03014220909510577 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: The forest stewards initiative: A new institution for safeguarding traditional ecological knowledge in Papua New Guinea

This article was downloaded by: [Umeå University Library]On: 22 November 2014, At: 03:28Publisher: Taylor & FrancisInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office:Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of the Royal Society of New ZealandPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscriptioninformation:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnzr20

The forest stewards initiative: A newinstitution for safeguarding traditionalecological knowledge in Papua New GuineaWilliam H. Thomas aa Montclair State University , 1 Wapalanne Road, Branchville, New Jersey,07826, USAPublished online: 22 Feb 2010.

To cite this article: William H. Thomas (2009) The forest stewards initiative: A new institution for safeguardingtraditional ecological knowledge in Papua New Guinea, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 39:4,187-191

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03014220909510577

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”)contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and ourlicensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, orsuitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication arethe opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis.The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoevercaused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantialor systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, ordistribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use canbe found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: The forest stewards initiative: A new institution for safeguarding traditional ecological knowledge in Papua New Guinea

187Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand: Volume 39, Number 4, December, 2009 187-1911175-8899 (Online); 0303-6758 (Print)/09/3904-0187 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2009

Forum

The Forest Stewards Initiative: a new institution forsafeguarding traditional ecological knowledge in PapuaNew Guinea

William H. Thomas1

The most valuable assets of any traditional community are its lands and its culture. The aim ofthe Forest Stewards Initiative is to build environmental and cultural stewardship in traditionalforest societies in Papua New Guinea by helping them to "market" their traditional assets andknowledge through formal relationships with non-profit research institutions. The "buyers" oftraditional ecological knowledge (TEK) are natural history museums, universities, conservationorganisations or any governmental body charged with the management and protection of theenvironment. Communities who participate in the Forest Stewards Initiative agree to becomepartners with these institutions to manage their traditional knowledge. "Buyers" pay for theopportunity to study the collections that the Forest Stewards communities have made available.The buyers do not actually "own" anything. Instead they market and manage the collection forthe benefit of the Forest Stewards Initiative and the local community. The intellectual propertyof the indigenous knowledge remains with the community in perpetuity.

The history of our project

Our initiative began in 2005 with a pilot partnership with the Hewa people in the SouthernHighlands province of Papua New Guinea (Indo-Pacific Conservation Alliance 2009). TheHewa number fewer than 2000. They are the only inhabitants of about 65 000 ha of hilly andsubmontane forest in the uppermost Strickland River (Fig. 1). It is a region of tremendousbiodiversity (Beehler 1993) and a conservation priority (Swartzendruber 1993). This area isextremely rugged. There are no roads, few airstrips and none of the fertile valleys found in NewGuinea's highlands. Although the Hewa come into contact with their more affluent highlandneighbours, they have no economic opportunities in their homeland and remain semi-nomadicsubsistence farmers. They see the Forest Stewards Initiative as an opportunity to develop asustainable source of income that will make life better for all without sacrificing their land tologging or mining interests. Although the Hewa territory was designated a conservation prior-ity, Papua New Guinea's national government expects conservation initiatives to be generatedentirely by local landowners. We hoped that the Forest Stewards Initiative would become thebasis for a local conservation plan.

As the sole speakers of their language, the Hewa are the gatekeepers of millennia of obser-vations about the natural world embedded in their language and culture. The biggest difficultyfaced by researchers and outside interests in working with a population that speaks a uniquelanguage is communication, and our project was no exception. Ultimately, however, my desireto establish a common understanding between Hewa and Western naturalists concerning therelationship between their traditional lifestyle and biodiversity was facilitated by the Hewa

1 Montclair State University, 1 Wapalanne Road, Branchville, New Jersey, USA 07826.R09021; Received and accepted 5 November 2009; Online publication date 26 November 2009

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188 Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 39, 2009

Conserving the Core of New Guinea's Biodiversity

Headwaters of the Great Rivers

Fig. 1 The Great Rivers Heartlands, which stretches for about 300 km, contains some of the richestbiodiversity in New Guinea.

understanding of birds. Birds are an established indicator of biological diversity (Schodde1973; Coates 1985; Beehler et al. 1986). By recording traditional knowledge of birds and theimpact of human activity on them, we have established a common ground on which to builda conservation initiative for these forests.

It is important here to recognise that the Hewa territory is the classic "low hanging fruit"of conservation. This eastern portion of the great wilderness that is at the heart of the island ofNew Guinea is sparsely populated and unroaded. Therefore there is very little infrastructureand tradition continues to dominate daily life. Since their isolation limits their economic op-portunities, my partner Bruce Beehler and I felt that the Hewa territory was a perfect placeto launch a "biocultural" conservation project. Here was a landscape of global significance,wherein traditions remained vibrant and conservation would not have to compete with extrac-tive industries. I had been working with the Hewa since 1988 and had earned the trust of myinformants. When I approached the community about the Forest Stewards Initiative, I was aknown commodity with a reputation for respecting traditions and valuing TEK.

Living classrooms for building social and ecological resilience

Perhaps the most interesting outcome of this initiative to date has been the decision in 2006by the participants to create "Living Classrooms" along the streams and valleys that are theforest drainages and the local clan territorial boundaries. These natural boundaries act aswildlife corridors and have been dubbed "Roads of the Cassowary". The cassowary is a largeflightless ratite related to emu and kiwi. It is the most charismatic of the local fauna and anexcellent indicator of ecosystem diversity. They are frugivores and therefore seed dispersalagents. Yet, like many creatures on this island, their habits are not well known to science. Thesize of an individual bird's territory or how widely they roam here remains unknown. Moreimportantly for this initiative, cassowaries are a "cultural keystone" (Garibaldi & Turner 2004).They are the subject of numerous legends, feared for their ferocity and valued for their meatand feathers. Since the cassowary is found in primary forest and the oldest secondary growth,it seemed to be a perfect focal species for an initiative aimed at preserving the biologicalheritage of the Hewa.

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Thomas—Cross-cultural environmental research and management 189

Hewa TEK holds that gardening simplifies the environment and creates habitat that cas-sowaries avoid. Therefore each "road" will be allowed to return to primary forest and usedby the Forest Stewards as classrooms to instruct the next generation. No gardens will be cuthere. These will in effect become game corridors that will extend from the river's edge to themountaintop (500-1500 m). These corridors will thread between the scattered gardens andstages of succession forest to link cassowary habitat across the valleys. Cassowaries, the largestbirds in New Guinea, will be protected in these areas. By allowing the drainages to return toclimax forest, future Hewa generations should experience cassowaries at all elevations.

Each clan performs twice monthly surveys of their clan boundaries to make certain thatthe forests along their boundaries are not being cut and to record signs of the return of birdsthat occupy long-fallow and primary forest.

For other game hunting, only traditional hunting with bows will be allowed along theseboundaries. The Forest Stewards monitor these areas using digital cameras (see Maclean & Cul-len 2009 this issue for another example of using digital photography for community learning).The Forest Stewards receive a monthly payment of US$30. Each patrol takes approximately 4days, or 48 days per year per mentor Forest Steward. In addition to these patrols, each ForestSteward is expected to act as a guide for visiting researchers and a teacher/mentor to the nextgeneration of Forest Stewards. The Hewa set their own payment rate. Other than the occasionalgovernment project to clear the footpaths connecting the Wanakipa airstrip to Lake Kopiago,or to aid the Porgera Joint Venture (a mine located upstream in Enga Province), there is noother cash economy here. In addition to affording participants some of the "luxury" goods(backpacks, shoes, clothing, etc.), access to cash from the Forest Stewards work enables theHewa to afford school fees at the public school located at Lake Kopiago. It also helps thosewho need advanced medical treatment to travel to the hospitals in the Southern Highlands orEnga provinces. There is no doubt that the cash reward for monitoring the ecology and man-agement of the area helps build community commitment to the initiative and reinforces localgovernance, just as the CAMPFIRE programme triggered widespread community conservationin Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s (Metcalfe 1993).

Some initial challenges

Initially, the Forest Stewards faced two major challenges: establishing the legitimacy ofHewa TEK and developing a pool of local experts. The first is the same challenge faced byanyone trying to integrate "other ways of knowing"—i.e., integrating TEK and Western sci-ence (Agrawal 2009 this issue; Lyver et al. 2009 this issue). However, Bruce and I wantedto conserve the biologically diverse mosaic and the cultural processes that had produced itto achieve "biocultural conservation" (Maffi 2001). The Hewa TEK of birds enabled us toengage them in a partnership that would resonate with the scientific/conservation communities(Berkes 2009 this issue). All parties realised that in order to conserve this biocultural mosaic,we would need to meet the Hewa economic needs without compromising our conservationgoals, which is the way that many other conservation-based development schemes have failed(Terborgh 2001). Once we established that the Hewa understood the relationship betweendisturbance and biodiversity, we could move forward with the mutual understanding: weclearly understood that if economic development compromised biodiversity, our fundingwould dry up instantly.

Our second challenge was to identify a group of local experts that would be accepted bythe wider community as the Forest Stewards. After 20 years of recording TEK, I had extensivenotes on the over 180 species of birds found here. In addition, I had collected information on300 species of trees, their habitats, pollinators and seed dispersal agents. In order to identifyForest Stewards, I sent word throughout the Hewa territory that a committee of elders and I

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190 Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 39, 2009

would be giving a test to anyone interested in participating in the Forest Stewards Initiative.The possibility of an income drew men and women from the furthest reaches of the territory.Each applicant sat an oral examination in front of the committee. After weeks of examinations,15 men demonstrated sufficient breadth of knowledge to become the first cadre of the ForestStewards. The stringent test to be accepted as a steward gave the job local status and built thelocal authority of the appointees.

Encouraging early signsOur first collaboration resulted in the scientific recording of 50 new species known previouslyonly to Hewa (Gelineau 2009). Six more ethnic groups along the headwaters of the LaigaipRiver have asked to participate. In 2010 we hope to introduce several technologies that willhelp participants to gather data. While we will need to spend much of the next decade creat-ing the infrastructure that will allow the Forest Stewards Initiative to be self-sustaining, theproject is gaining momentum. Our initiative is based on techniques recognised by UNESCO(2009) as a "Best Practice" which has given the initiative more credibility.

In my opinion, the most important ingredient to the success of the Forest Stewards has beenour willingness to rely on TEK as our foundation. By meeting the Hewa as equals we avoidedseveral of the power issues of the type encountered by the Rakiura Tītī Islands AdministeringBody and University of Otago researchers in the tītī project (Moller et al. 2009). We have beenable to use TEK to introduce concepts like wildlife corridors in a culturally relevant manner(Williams 2009 this issue). The Hewa, in turn, have been able to guide me through the mazeof obligations and jealousies that could have sabotaged the project in its infancy, especially asthey fundamentally had no stake in creating it at the outset. For example, prior to this initia-tive, I had worked with three of the most skilled Hewa naturalists living in the Wanakipa area.Therefore to most of the Hewa, I remained an unknown quantity—an incompetent white manwith an interest in the bush who had been adopted by my three informants. Since I wanted theForest Stewards to become a Hewa-wide initiative, I needed to overcome the perception that Iwas giving money to one clan frivolously. By inviting all who were interested in working as aForest Steward to take an examination administered by me and monitored by my informants,we developed a team of Forest Stewards, one from each of the clans living on the south sideof the Laigaip River, and each of whom was a respected member of their clan and the largerHewa community. The importance of local leaders and guides in building community col-laboration was clearly demonstrated, and is a key facilitator of what Agrawal (2005) refers toas 'environmentality'.

Anyone who has spent significant time in the remote regions of New Guinea cannot helpbut be moved by the generosity of the people and the opportunity these wild lands representfor conservation. This is an opportunity to create a sustainable future for both—an oppor-tunity that will slip though our fingers if we fail to engage with the residents of these landsimmediately. One of my colleagues once compared the earth's remaining wilderness areas toa burning candle: the flame represented society's thirst for resources. The longer the candleburned, the more wilderness we consumed. The more we debated wilderness conservation, themore land we lost. Since our remaining wilderness is finite, wilderness lost to development islost forever. It is my hope that the Forest Stewards Initiative is one of the steps we can take tostamp out this fire, by properly valuing our wild resources and the knowledge their landownershave accumulated.

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