Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

The Foi in Papua New Guinea 107
Yet it would be unrealistic to expect an overnight
transformation or one independent of change
within the communities. WWF, for instance, has
continuously involved women in awareness activities,
discussion of fishery management strategies,
and the monitoring program. Yet it was men who
always made the final management strategy decisions
even for activities that were mainly carried
out by women. Ensuring that the women who do
most of the work in exploiting a resource are
given a voice in community decision making
about how to conserve that resource is perhaps
WWF’s greatest challenge in all its work in the
Kikori ICDP. The recruitment of local women to
be outreach workers in WWF’s Community
Outreach Program may set a precedent for helping
the Foi tap resources and a resourcefulness they
did not know they had.
Still, there is no magic formula for predetermining
what will work. When the first community
meetings with the Foi were held, several community
concerns were identified as possible priorities.
One from the village of Gesege seemed, at
first glance, to parallel the fisheries project.
WWF decided to help develop a strategy for sustainable
management of useful wild plants that
villagers believed were growing scarce. The first
step was to recruit two local men and two women
facilitators and train them in basic participatory
research and analysis. Data collection would
focus on helping the community compile a useful
plant dictionary and determine whether or not
particular species were growing harder to find.
Ninety-six species of the most commonly used
plants were listed by their Foi names in a preliminary
dictionary that described their uses as food,
building materials, tools, implements, cordage,
baskets, other woven articles, medicine, and
magic. Specimens were also collected for
herbarium identification of Latin names that
would be added to the final draft. Despite this
promising start, data about plant status proved to
be ambiguous. Some interview respondents
thought that certain species were less common
while others were sure that nothing had changed.
And when WWF convened a meeting to discuss
the results, there was little interest in pursuing the
management of any of these plants any further.
A number of suppositions can be made about why
the community was less interested in developing
sustainable management strategies for plants than
for fish. First, fish are a far more important
resource to the people of Gesege. Almost everyone
in the community fishes, while many plants
are used by only a few people. Second, there are
more substitutes available for certain plant uses.
Canoes and house posts, for example, are cut
from a number of different species, none of which
appear to have critically declined. As more people
obtain cash income, there is a growing preference
for permanent building materials such as
corrugated iron roofing and planed timber.
Although people can substitute tinned fish or meat
for fresh fish, people generally express a preference
for the latter. And finally, fishing is an enjoyable
social activity, particularly for women who
can often be seen with their canoes lined up next
to each other so that talk is plentiful even when
the fish are not. Collection of plant material is
generally viewed as hard work, and not conducive
to social exchange. For the moment at least this
project idea is on hold.
This brings us back to the beginning. However
promising a project idea seems, it is best to begin
at an appropriate scale. Usually that means establishing
a dialogue through participatory research.
If you listen closely and make it clear that nothing
will happen unless the community helps make it
happen, people will quickly help you figure out
whether the idea has a future or not.
VI. Conclusions
The territory and lives of indigenous peoples
almost everywhere in Papua New Guinea coincide
with ecosystems of high significance. This is particularly
true of the Kikori River watershed where
the ICDP is being implemented. Conservation
groups in other parts of the world might try to
circumvent local people and form top-down
alliances with the state in an effort to expedite
environmental initiatives. Customary land tenure
in PNG requires conservation groups to work with
indigenous peoples if they wish to do any meaningful
work at all. Consequently, lessons are
being learned here that may apply elsewhere when
hidden opportunities are being overlooked because
the balance of power does not require looking
deeper. Working with the people who are the
primary stakeholders in a place may be slower, but
it also may be the best chance for an effective and