Tree kangaroos descended from ground-dwelling marsupials, but they evolved to inhabit the treetops of the cloud forest in Papua New Guinea by growing long, saber-like claws to cling to branches. For indigenous people living in the rugged terrain of the Torricelli Mountains, tree kangaroos are an integral part of daily life, serving as a source of dietary protein and featuring prominently in local legends and customs. They have intimate knowledge of tree kangaroos: where they move among the treetops, what they eat, and how they behave.
When conservation agencies in Papua New Guinea and Australia wanted to better understand tree kangaroos—about which little was known in the scientific community—they recognized the importance of involving local people, especially landowners. Not only would the landowners’ knowledge provide a clearer picture of the status of tree kangaroos, but they and their villages would be most affected by the resulting conservation effort.
“Much of the land in Papua New Guinea is privately owned, and wildlife is considered the property of landowners,” said Peter Clark, Director of Life Sciences for Zoos South Australia. “Any planning or decisions made regarding the future conservation of tree kangaroos needed the landowners’ input and agreement to have any meaning.” CPSG’s reputation for balancing endangered species survival with the needs of local communities led the conservation agencies to ask CPSG facilitators to guide their conversations about the status and conservation of tree kangaroos.
On the first day of the 1998 workshop in Papua New Guinea, participants presented current information about the status of tree kangaroos in the country. Well into the day, a landowner named Mambawe took the floor. He had traveled by helicopter from his village to contribute to the workshop, carrying with him a large black plastic bag full of fronds, leaves, and branches. He described the role of each plant in the diet of tree kangaroos in his region. The twelve other landowners then spoke up to offer their experiences, discuss similarities and differences in their knowledge of tree kangaroos, and answer questions from the other attendees. Translation between English and Tok Pisin, a common local language, ensured that everyone could share their perspectives with the whole group.
Respect for the landowners’ role in and contributions to the meeting was apparent to everyone, most importantly to the landowners themselves. After the exchange that Mambawe initiated, they became intensely engaged in the meeting. In that plastic bag, he had carried the catalyst for establishing trust among all the participants. Goodfellow’s tree kangaroos were one of the six tree kangaroo species discussed at the workshop. The workshop proceeded in typical CPSG fashion: assembling current knowledge about the species and plugging the resulting data into population models to visualize how different conservation activities might affect the population. The landowners created a list of issues that were most pressing for their communities, and during the following days the whole group worked together to address the concerns.
By the last day of the meeting, the participants had defined their goals, assigned tasks, and begun drafting the report that would record their decisions and strategies and guide implementation. But the success or failure of the workshop and resulting plan would depend on one thing: the landowners’ satisfaction with the outcome. After holding a long discussion, the landowners clapped three times together, signifying their approval.
“I thought this tree kangaroo was just another animal to be hunted,” said Kausa Ilao from the Wau region. “But when I learned more about tree kangaroos from this workshop, I got excited. I will return to my village a happy man because in my wildlife area there are a lot of tree kangaroos. I am going to look after them.”
The landowners’ input revealed that one type of tree kangaroo, the tenkile, was very rare: they believed that there were fewer than 100 left. Using this information, CPSG’s risk assessment models confirmed that continued hunting of female tenkile would edge the species closer to extinction—possibly within just a few years.
The group agreed that a small contingent of people from the workshop, including a local community member and a few zoo-based species experts, would travel to several villages, learn from the communities there about the tenkile’s situation, and invite them to participate in the conservation effort for tree kangaroos.
Less than a year after the workshop, “Team Tenkile” visited several villages, where they gathered more information on tenkile and other tree kangaroos. Leaders from some of the villages helped organize a regional meeting to discuss the priority needs of the villages and introduce the concept of a hunting moratorium on tenkile tree kangaroos in the area.
At the meeting, the village leaders offered their opinions on the need for alternate protein sources and discussed their support for a proposed conservation field station in the area. Representatives of all thirteen villages in attendance signed a hunting moratorium and enthusiastically joined the conservation initiative for tenkile in the region.
A year later, Peter Clark helped draft a community-based conservation plan out of which the nonprofit Tenkile Conservation Alliance was formed. Thanks to the tireless work of its directors, Jim and Jean Thomas, the Tenkile Conservation Alliance has become a remarkable conservation operation whose efforts have helped increase the wild population of tenkile from an estimated 100 in 1998 to over 300 today. In addition to species conservation, the Tenkile Conservation Alliance carries out a number of community initiatives, including establishing alternate sources of protein and installing infrastructure for clean water and sanitation in participating villages. People within the local communities are integral to all operations. “The TCA would not have started without the workshop,” said Clark. “CPSG makes a difference.”
