Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

94 The Foi in Papua New Guinea
In general, they want project activities to generate
cash income and improve access to basic
services. The resources they own, particularly
the forests, are perceived to be the sole means of
achieving these goals. Therefore, they are
extremely vulnerable to timber companies that
employ devious means to lure landholders into
contracts for industrial logging. For many communities,
logging has become almost synonymous
with development.
III. Lake Kutubu and Sustainable
Resource Management
This case study focuses on one small component
of the Kikori ICDP and covers an area of less
than 8,000 hectares or less than 3.5 percent of the
total project area. It examines the partnership
that WWF developed with the Foi people living
on the shores of Lake Kutubu to help them
develop and manage sustainable subsistence fisheries.
The ecosystem involved is the catchment
area of Lake Kutubu, which is held in customary
ownership by the clan groups of villages around
the lake (see map 6.2).
Lake Kutubu is Papua New Guinea’s second
largest lake and its largest mid-altitude lake.
This inland freshwater body sprawls over approximately
4,930 hectares nestled in mountainous
terrain 800 meters above sea level. The lake lies
in a narrow valley flanked by rugged limestone
ranges and precipitous hills that jut up 1,400
meters high and are covered by pristine tropical
rain forest. The lake, which has a maximum
depth of about 80 meters, is approximately 18
kilometers long and about 4 kilometers across at
its widest point.
The people living along its shores call it the
“mother of water.” Geologists suspect the lake
Map 6.1 The Kikori River Watershed Area Covered by the Kikori ICDP
Source: Steve Wright, Chevron