A hallmark of Pomio hospitality

By CYRIL GARE
In the hospitality business, there are only two names you can choose from when in Palmalmal, district capital of Pomio in East New Britain; the Pisiuga Eco-Tourism Guest House or the Palmalmal Women Association-run Koki Guest House.
I found solace, a truly tranquil and amiable resting spot at the Pisiuga when I – for the first time – visited Palmalmal on Oct 19-21, thanks to the Cocoa Board of PNG.
It is a tapestry of work and leisure at the Pisiuga guest house. Boat trips can be arranged to scout the beauty of the famed Jacquinot Bay and further up north-west to the Waterfall Bay where Tokai village in Central Pomio is dwarfed at the foot of Mount Litbolo or ‘bikpela peles’. Litbolo is also known as the ‘dream’ mountain.
A staunch supporter and voter told me that he dreamt of him winning a race up Litbolo days before his candidate Elias Kapavore, currently Pomio MP and Public Service Minister, was declared in the 2017 elections.
As you are towed onshore Tokai beach, manoeuvring through the crashing waves, these finely crafted white stones fill the entire stretch of the coastline. It mesmerises you, transfixing to greater imaginations. How could these priceless gems just lie there idle with no use and sense of purpose? In your dream home, these are the masterpieces needed for that monumental build, decoration and exotic adornments all around.
Taking live pictures of passing whales and ‘flying’ dolphins that are fleeing to make way was breathtakingly a life time experience from the blue waters of Jacquinot Bay. Finishing off the day’s work with line fishing on the way back was great fun and excitement, even more satisfying with seven (God’s number) making the final tally of the catch; a mixture of batbat, blue runner, and yellow fin tuna in the boat.
Jacquinot Bay was named by French explorer, naval officer and rear admiral, Jules Sébastien César Dumont d’Urville after his second-in-command, Charles Hector Jacquinot between 1826-1829. Also as a botanist and cartographer d’Urville gave his name to several seaweeds, plants and shrubs, and places such as d’Urville Island in New Zealand. d’ Urville explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. He captained the L’ Astrolabe carrying a team of naturalists collecting specimens of animals, birds (including the Birds of Paradise), plants, and insects from the region most of which samples are today held at the French Museum of Natural Sciences.
On Nov 4, 1944 a division of the Australian Army made an amphibious landing at the Jacquinot Bay and set up a logistics base there where they coordinated advances into Rabaul to drive off the Japanese troops.
Back at the Pisiuga, the friendly kitchen staff mostly village mothers, ensure that their guests are not only full but enjoy the best of Manginuna’s local cuisine. There is a range to choose from; fresh fish is dried on fire, fried in oil or boiled in thick coconut cream. Local starches including yam, taro, banana, and cassava tagged the same in the range. This is graced with a variety of fruits and greens to laze off for the night.
Nearby springs and water holes are crystal clear and cooling for a humid Palmalmal. The air around is rich and freshened by a thick canopy of surrounding forest, a reap-off benefit of conservation.
Pisiuga was built few years back by the Manginuna community because they wanted to prove ‘ownership’ of native land. The land which it was built upon was said to be ‘State land’. Another reason was to express their antipathy against logging and oil palm in their land.
Police were deployed and arrested many including women when the Manginuna community, in a throng of solidarity, forced their way into the logging site and physically manhandled the workers, especially bulldozer operators from felling their trees. Their actions attracted the attention of conservationists who have assisted the community to file a law suit against the State and the logger-oil palm developer. The matter is currently in court.
Manginuna today is a leading community in environmental preservation and conservation programmes in Pomio hence, the emergence of the Pisiuga eco-tourism guest house. Fishing near the coastline is prohibited (except in open seas) so is harvesting of sea cucumber (bech-de-mer). A step from your room and this is witnessed right there in the beachfront (bech-de-mer) breeding in abundance, and untouched.
Pomio currently has 17 sites with a long standing commitment on conservation. In a partnership initiative with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and supported by the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (Cepa), Pomio contributed K200,000 while UNDP funded K450,000 initially and may increase the support depending on the projects specifications and scopes towards the district’s Conservation and Livelihood Programme (CLP).
This five-year partnership initiative will also see UNDP’s assistance through a premium cocoa programme in the district especially UNDP’s bid to improve cocoa quality and sourcing niche international markets.
“The reason we have a MOA with UNDP is because we want them to help us with marketing,” said Pomio district chief executive officer Peter Peniat.
“They have found a niche market already in Japan. We have met some of their (Japanese) criteria which include: 1) Cocoa grown organically, 2) cocoa is CPB-free (Pomio was never infested with CPB from the March, 2006 outbreak which started in Kerevat), and iii) cocoa that has low smoke taint through use of solar combination driers (this project is rolling out in partnership with Cocoa Board under an existing MOA signed in February, 2018.
“Also 500,000 of coffee seedlings have been distributed in the mountainous hinterland villages to grow while the coastal villages will plant cocoa. We anticipate to plant three million cocoa trees in the next five years.
“In the long run we must drink our own coffee. In the long run we must drink our own cocoa. In the long run we want to change the lives of the Pomio people. We want Pomio to be economically sustainable,” Peniat, who is originally from Bougainville but has clocked 12 years as a public servant in Pomio, said.
Apart from scholars and researchers, Minister Kapavore have visited the Pisiuga and is pushing for the idea of developing this guest house into a modern resort – in the medium term – in line with the National Government’s plans to turn East New Britain into one of the country’s four leading tourism hubs.
Pomio is pertinacious for development and conservation to happen concurrently. How could this be possible? To develop, one must forego land and environment meaning conservation ought to be compromised.
In the nexus of this complex series of connections between development and conservation of environment, Pomio believes it has found a way’ and is striking a balance between the two in mitigating effects of climate change on mother earth.

• Cyril Gare is a freelance journalist.