An Overview Of Our Solution
The Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) works with the remote communities of Yopno-Uruwa-Som (YUS) to protect the endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo and its rainforest habitat in Papua New Guinea where over 90% of the land is owned by the country's indigenous people. Therefore long-term wildlife conservation requires that local communities understand the direct link between protecting their forests and protecting their future. To address community needs for cash income and to strengthen local commitment to conservation, TKCP’s YUS Conservation Coffee initiative provides farmers with technical expertise and access to premium international markets for their shade-grown coffee. Recognizing the forest’s value and ability to provide for their communities, YUS farmers have conserved 187,000 acres of forest for the protection of tree kangaroos and other species.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Oceania
General Information
Organization type
Sem fins lucrativos
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Population impacted
10,000 people
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
19,405 hectares of 'Livelihood zone' encompassing traditional Melanesian integrated gardens mixing native forest and agricultural production
Production quantity
40 tons
People employed
One full-time project leader, Five part-time seasonal assistants, and 424 farming families
Solution
Describe your solution
To protect the ecosystem and biodiversity of YUS and to ensure sustainable access to resources for the local people, TKCP worked with customary indigenous landowners and the PNG government to create the country’s first nationally-protected Conservation Area in 2009. The 187,000-acre YUS Conservation Area protects over 50% of the YUS landscape from coastal reefs to 4,000-meter peaks, serving as a ‘wildlife bank’ where species reproduce and disperse throughout the landscape creating a sustainable resource for the communities. To strengthen community commitment and adherence to the rules and penalities outlined in the bylaws governing the YUS Conservation Area, TKCP works with communities to address their development needs including sustainable livelihoods. In 2010, TKCP organized an initiative to develop conservation-friendly income-generating opportunities and facilitate market access. Coffee had been grown in YUS since the 1950’s, but the trees were largely neglected due to the high costs and difficulty in transporting beans to markets in Lae or Madang. In collaboration with YUS coffee farmers and a coffee roaster based in Seattle, TKCP helped farmers to produce high-quality coffee beans using existing shade-grown trees for export at a price substantially higher than local market rates. As the premium prices are based both upon coffee quality and its conservation impact, participating farmers are required to pledge their support and adhere to the YUS Conservation Area bylaws.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
Recognizing the strong consumer demand for high quality, responsibly-produced coffee with a conservation impact, TKCP partnered with Seattle’s Caffe Vita Roasting Company in 2009 to launch the YUS Conservation Coffee initiative. TKCP recruited farmers from several coffee-growing villages in YUS, and facilitated a series of assessment visits and technical trainings with Caffe Vita and PNG’s Coffee Industry Corporation. Caffe Vita found the coffee in YUS to be very high in quality. At the project’s outset, TKCP emphasized that access to premium coffee markets through the initiative relied on the farmers’ ongoing commitment to respecting the YUS Conservation Area and supporting local conservation efforts. Following two years of training, guidance, and application of quality control methods, Caffe Vita requested the first export of YUS Conservation Coffee beans in 2011. To protect farmers from the risks of market fluctuation, Caffe Vita committed to a guaranteed quantity and price in advance. With support from TKCP, farmers invested a portion of profits each year into quality control and production management including solar drying racks, quality assessors, and moisture readers. With strong market demand and eager interest among farmers the initiative expanded to all coffee-growing villages in YUS in 2015, resulting in a substantial increase of land pledged for conservation and a reduction in violations of YUS CA bylaws. Exports continue to grow, from 2-3 tons per year between 2011 and 2014 to over 30 tons in 2016. In 2015 the farmers established a cooperative to assume greater management, coordination, and oversight. TKCP continues to support farmers in overcoming logistical challenges, as the beans must be flown from YUS for milling and storage in Goroka before export from Lae. To sustain positive sales growth and satisfy the increasing number of farmers, TKCP advocated for buyers to offset the cost of charter flights to streamline transport from YUS to Goroka.
External connections
Caffe Vita Roasting Company (Seattle, USA) and Jasper Coffee Roasting Company (Melbourne, AU) – Support farmers by providing niche market opportunities and price incentives for conservation coffee.
Zoos Victoria and Woodland Park Zoo – Provides financial support for training farmers in integrated conservation practices, assist in promoting YUS coffee and generate market demand, provide guidance in monitoring presence of wildlife found in coffee gardens, and evaluate the conservation impact of the program.
PNG Coffee Industry Corporation – Provides technical training, guidance, and capacity-building for farmers.
PNG Conservation and Environmental Protection Authority, YUS and Wasu Local Level Government, Morobe Provincial Administration, and Kabwum District Government. All levels of PNG government are gazetted members of the YUS Conservation Area Management Committee. TKCP’s livelihood and land-use planning initiatives have both served as national models and have influenced national policy. The YUS LLG President serves as the provincial Minister for Environment and Climate Change thus providing a direct line of influence from YUS to the provincial policy. He is also a YUS landowner.
YUS Conservation Coffee Cooperative – Serves to ensure farmer compliance with YUS CA bylaws. All coffee sales are farm-direct with farmers receiving premium prices.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
Unlike other parts of the world in which deforestation has taken a heavy toll, about 70% of PNG rainforests remain intact. However the country is now facing increasing mining and logging pressures. Combined with unsustainable levels of hunting and resource use to meet needs of a growing population, these pressures threaten wildlife and the traditional culture of PNG's indigenous people. PNG’s Huon Peninsula, where the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) focuses its work, is home to more endemic bird and mammal species than any other like-sized area in mainland New Guinea. The local communities of the Huon Peninsula depend on the land for subsistence agriculture, clean water and hunting for protein sources and ceremonial materials.
Describe the context in which you are operating
Because over 90% of the land in PNG is owned by the country's indigenous people, long-term wildlife conservation requires that local communities understand the direct link between protecting their forests and protecting their future. TKCP’s work is focused on the Yopno-Uruwa-Som (YUS) watershed areas on PNG’s Huon Peninsula. Home to approximately 14,000 people spread among 50 villages, the YUS landscape is extremely remote and mountainous. There are no roads; the area is accessibly only on foot, by light plane, or by boat to the coastal areas. Communities rely primarily on subsistence agriculture and hunting. Due to its remoteness, the cash economy in YUS is highly underdeveloped and the PNG government struggles to provide basic services. Although the people of YUS depend on their natural resources for food, fuel, and shelter, there is an increasing need for cash incomes to pay for essential costs including children’s school fees, health expenses, and basic household items. While access to primary school has improved in YUS over the past decade, most children have remained unable to continue beyond grade 8 due to an inability to afford school fees and cost of boarding from a lack of secondary schools in the area.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Together with local landowners and the PNG government, TKCP created the 187,000-acre YUS Conservation Area to protect the area’s immense biodiversity and cloud forest habitat. Species found in YUS include the endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo, critically endangered long-beaked echidna, several Birds of Paradise species, dwarf cassowary, and others. In addition, TKCP facilitates local communities in developing land-use plans to support the sustainable use of resources and ensure community resource needs are met. TKCP’s YUS Conservation Coffee livelihoods initiative strengthens the protection and sustainable management of the local environment by providing communities with financial opportunities directly linked to their continued conservation commitment. In addition to pledging to respect the YUS Conservation Area bylaws, participating farmers take measures to support wildlife and biodiversity in their coffee gardens including bird nesting and display sites.
Language(s)
English, Pidgin English, Kate, Yabem
Water
Through TKCP’s land-use planning workshops, communities designated protected riparian zones along all 1,107 km of the rivers and waterways in YUS. The 3-meter-wide riparian zones prohibit agricultural activity, protecting against siltation and other negative impacts to community water supplies and downstream marine areas. The riparian zones support the natural ecosystem’s water filtration systems.
Food Security/Nutrition
TKCP emphasizes the importance of sustainably managing land and resources. YUS Conservation Coffee is grown exclusively in existing Livelihood zone gardens, and primarily using existing coffee trees. The traditional gardening approach in YUS integrates cash crops, food crops, and native species into small family plots. Farmers are encouraged to plant a variety of food crops including fruits and vegetables along with coffee.
Economic/Sustainable Development
Few farmers in YUS relied on coffee for their livelihoods prior to the YUS Conservation Coffee initiative. Many of those who tried realized losses due to the high cost and risk of transporting the beans on foot for two or more days. Since 2011, the initiative has brought a gross income of over $167,000 to the communities. By relying on the sustainable, low-impact production of coffee, farmers face less pressure to extract resources or clear forest areas to earn sufficient income.
Climate
The forests and grasslands of YUS are estimated to hold the equivalent of 163 million tons of CO2, and play an important role in managing climates both locally and globally. The ecosystems in YUS provide valuable services that buffer against natural disasters and supply community needs. The YUS Conservation Coffee initiative substantially improves local commitment to conservation and sustainable resource management, thereby protecting the landscape’s ecosystem and its role in managing climate.
Sustainability
TKCP’s YUS Conservation Coffee initiative relied on grant funding to support initial investments, basic infrastructure, and local capacity building. TKCP continues to rely on grant funding to provide leadership and collaborate with key stakeholders including buyers, exporters, mills, and transport agencies. To encourage local ownership and sustainability of the initiative, TKCP is supporting farmers in establishing a Cooperative to assume greater business management responsibility over the next several years. When the Cooperative is fully operational, the initiative will be sustained entirely through market-based revenue via direct sales to coffee roasters and brokers.
Return on investment
Due to the high cost of working in PNG and the general lack of infrastructure throughout the country, the project required substantial initial investment for implementation in YUS which TKCP does not intend to recoup. As the project was designed to reinforce community commitment to conservation, TKCP secured grant funding to support one project manager and all activity costs. The project would be much more cost-effective to replicate in more accessible locations with access to roads. The project is community-driven and requires only modest investment in production equipment. In terms of its social and environmental return on investment, the project has been highly successful in mobilizing communities in support of conservation efforts.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
This approach can be successfully replicated in coffee-growing regions throughout the globe. As coffee is primarily grown in the tropics and thrives in shaded, multi-crop plots, it is an ideal crop to support conservation-friendly agricultural livelihoods in biodiverse rainforests in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. The coffee industry is increasingly receptive to such initiatives, with strong consumer interest in supporting smallholder farmers and sustainability throughout the supply chain. While the industry has adopted certification schemes including Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance to support these interests, such schemes often require larger production volumes and organizational capacities. By developing direct relationships with like-minded buyers of green coffee beans and promoting the linkage between the product and local conservation efforts, organizations can realize increased community commitment and reduced pressures on local ecosystems.