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The Managalas Plateau is an area of national and international importance warranting the level of support that has been applied. The region has been identified as one of the highest priority areas for biodiversity conservation in PNG (Conservation Needs Assessment 1993). It contains a rich diversity of habitats from alpine heath to lowland savanna. It harbours a large tract of relatively undisturbed rainforest. And it shelters a number of rare and endangered species including the entire range of the worldıs largest butterfly, the Queen Alexander Birdwing (Ornithopera alexandrea). These biodiversity resources are important nationally and globally as a storehouse of genetic material, as an ecotourism attraction and as a source of environmental services such as fresh water.
This high quality environment is also essential to the survival of the human populations of the area. While gardening provides the vast majority of foodstuffs, the forests are important as sources of building materials, medicines, water and other services. The maintenance of this rich subsistence resource base is essential to averting serious poverty in the region.
The relevance of a program of environmental protection is further underscored by the immediate threats that have faced and continue to face the Plateau from forest loss, population pressure, water contamination and introduced species.
Community Values and Motivations for Environmental Protection
The community motivation to protect Managalas forest environments is uniformly strong. Proposed logging and oil palm operations have been widely greeted with concern. Members of the community felt that these would damage hunting areas, pollute water supply and increase conflict with neighbours.
The ubiquitous nature of this concern attests in part to the effectiveness of the community education campaign undertaken by the boundary mapping team in 1998 and 1999. Most community members have seen the damage done by logging and oil palm operations in other parts of the Province and have made decisions to not go forward with proposals to develop logging in the Managalas Plateau. This is a major achievement for Partners given the difficulties many rural communities face in obtaining money and transport.
Two large areas of forest on the Managalas Plateau were proposed for forestry operations in the 1996 National Forest Plan. The Gora-Itokama Forest Management Area (FMA) in the centre and north, and the Musa concession in the south were large scale operations that would have removed a significant area of the Owen Stanley Range forests.
In part as a result of the growing environmental consciousness among communities through recognition of the value of okari trees, strong opposition to logging developed to these concession proposals. The communities sought assistance from the advocacy NGOs to have the concessions removed from their land. Coordinated action in 1998 in cooperation with MICAD, Greenpeace and ICRAF has resulted in the cancelling of proposed Gora-Itokama Forest Management Area (FMA) and another oil palm operation proposed in the same year. Actions that brought about this result included lawyers letters, placing of a newspaper advertisement, lobbying the government and the Forest Authority Board and holding a press conference. These actions were largely driven by ICRAF.
A significant result of this work was the designation of the area for conservation in the PNG Forest Authority Forest plans. This was the first time such formal recognition was given to an area of forest in PNG that was not already included in a formal conservation area. As a result, there is greater security for the resources of Managalas and Collingwood Bay. These two large areas allow the possibility of a protected forest corridor from the Kokoda trail to the Oro Province border.
In order to consolidate the conservation area designation, Partners (with funding from the MacArthur Foundation) started a program to assist landowners in establishing conservation areas across their land. The option preferred by most communities has been to establish a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) which requires the definition of the conservation area boundary, establishment of a management committee and gazettal of management rules.
The work to establish WMAs across the Managalas has been spectacularly successful largely as a result of the tireless efforts of two individuals. Over the past two years, the "boundary mapping team" has mapped 70 km of WMA boundary with a further 27 km remaining. In itself, this is a major undertaking, but in all cases, it has required long discussions with landowners, walks to the extremities of their land and further negotiations back in villages. It is estimated that the team has walked up to ten kilometres for every kilometre mapped.
Significant conflict has been dealt with efficiently in areas such as Gora and high quality mapping has been completed that exceeds the requirements of PNG law. The training in boundary mapping has also been of excellent value, giving people the skills that are useful within the Plateau, but are also saleable outside. Discussions have begun towards using the Managalas mapping team to assist in CA boundary mapping in other conservation areas such as the Mt Bosavi region in SHP.
Only general plans have been developed for the management of the conservation area(s). It is proposed to adopt the Managalas Steering Committee as the management body for the plateau WMA. It may be prudent, however, to develop a committee separate from the Steering Committee that can provide dedicated guidance to a conservation area. CELCOR is assisting to develop a management plan based on the Managalas Sustainable Development Guidelines. This process has yet to begin. A proposal has been submitted to AusAID for assistance in land use planning and the production of a management plan.
There is some confusion between the role of Partners and CELCOR in conservation area designation and management. This needs to be addressed soon.
Sustainable Development Guidelines
The 1998 Steering Committee meeting develop a set of principles for effective development on the Plateau. The "Sustainable Development Guidelines" covered aspects of forest use, gardening, water and other issues in resource management and community development. These guidelines were intended to inform the plans and decisions of each village.
Significantly, these guidelines have now been recognised by government. An MOU has been signed between Partners and Oro Provincial Government providing an initial foundation for government recognition of the Managalas sustainable development guidelines. This is the first local level recognition of community development management rules in PNG and a significant achievement.
Unfortunately, the Guidelines are not well known by the communities, and there is a need to conduct discussions to remind people of their rules. The evaluation team also found very little evidence that these guidelines were informing planning or influencing resource management decisions of community members. The one exception to this is in the area of okari. Sustainable harvest guidelines have been completed for okari and there is some recognition of harvest regimes that take these into account.
The guidelines are an important innovation and could provide powerful guidance for sustainable development in the Plateau. It is recommended that they be update and that broad education activities be conducted to inform the broader population of landholders. Through the process of updating the rules, it is also recommended that they be made more specific and measurable.
The Managalas Plateau provides the sole habitat of the world's largest butterfly, the Queen Alexander Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae). It is considered common in the eastern edge of the Plateau. No direct action is being taken by the project to protect the butterfly, it's habitat or food plants. Partners may consider taking a more dedicated response. The primary threat to the QAB is the loss of forest habitat. A monitoring program for garden expansion is therefore a priority less so the need to consider planting the food plants, the Aristolochia vines.
The Plateau has a number of invasive species. While there was little evidence that any of these were destructively invasive, it would be valuable for Partners to support a review of the impact of invasives on the Managalas ecology.
