Awarded for saving mangroves

By WENCESLAUS MAGUN
AFTER 23 years of saving, rehabilitating, replanting and managing mangrove forests in Tubusereia Village in Central, a 64-year-old man finally gets awarded by the Queen.
Felix Daroa, married with three boys and a girl and one adopted son received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Award.
Daroa and the other recipients’ names were obtained from a wide consultation with LLG presidents, district CEOs and ward members for their services to community and country.
The investiture ceremony was held at Tubuserea last Wednesday, Dec 18.
Daroa and other recipients received the award from Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae.
Daroa, commonly known as Chief Felix amongst his local conservation practitioners got his title because of his outstanding years of dedication and commitment towards protecting, replanting, rehabilitating and conserving mangroves and the marine environment in Tubusereia about 20km east of Port Moresby city.
In 1996, Daroa started looking after the mangroves out of his own initiative. He was using rice bags as poly bags. He would put the seedlings of the Ceriops Tagal, Rhizophora mucronata, and Brugeria mangroves into these bags and look after them until they started putting leafs and turning into little shrubs before replanting them in the wild.
In those days his fellow villagers were fishing in the Nadibada Bay and harvesting mangroves for numerous uses which gradually saw the plants being destroyed. Seeing the increasing level of destructive practices by his villagers, he decided to do something about that before all the mangroves were gone. The physical evidence of this destructive practices is that as you drive into his village, you could see people fishing in the bay because all the mangroves are gone.
With this aim in mind he started to restore and replant the mangroves within the Nadibada Bay without any outside assistance nor any scientific knowledge and skills. Today after more than 20 years of voluntarily replanting the mangroves in the bay, the mangroves have now taken over the once desolated beach.
In 1997, he got employed as an insurance marketing officer for the Workers Mutual Insurance and had to leave his home and what he was doing and travelled to Lae. He worked hard and through his commitment he was promoted to become the branch manager in 1998.
In 1999, when the company closed he returned home happy to continue doing what he loved the most, saving, planting and restoring the mangroves.
During this time he was not a mangrove expert but just an ordinary villager interested in saving the mangroves.
His efforts did not go unnoticed. A marine biologist with the Conservation International (CI), late Philip Lahui recommended him to attend a 2006 mangrove training course at the Motupore Island Research Centre. He and one of his sons, Mavaru Daroa attended the training.
This was the first training to be run in PNG by the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG). The three weeks course was facilitated by Thomas Manuwavie, lecturer in biology who was with the Motupore Island Research Centre. This course was run under the auspices of the Motupore Island Biodiversity Unit.
Participants from West and East New Britain, New Ireland, Manus, Madang and other parts of PNG attended this training. He was part of that group. They learned how to select the right mangrove seedlings and their proper zones to plant as well as other technical knowledge and skills and their scientific names.
After the training, Daroa was careful in selecting the seeds, nurturing and replanting them.
“After the training we all went back and did the right things. Before that I didn’t know how to plant the mangroves correctly. Many seedlings died. Only below a quarter survived. Sometimes I feel like giving up,” he said.
“I also ran courses and trained so many people in the country from Manus, Central, West New Britain, Madang and Gulf provinces.
“After that I was once again spotted by Maxine Anjiga from the PNG Locally Managed Marine Areas, a local NGO. She invited me to attend the NGO management and leadership training,” he said.
The one year course began in 2012 and ended in 2013. Daroa successfully completed his studies and graduated with a Certificate in Pacific NGO Leadership and Management Training from the Institute of Technology, University of Wellington, New Zealand.
In 2007 to 2009, he helped in the planting of mangroves along the Tahira stretch of mangrove habitat assisted by elementary and primary school students and their teachers from Tubusereia.
“I decided to concentrate on building the capacity of students because I believe this approach is sustainable. Young students growing up with this knowledge and skills will become good stewards of the mangroves, the marine and terrestrial ecosystem and their biodiversity,” he said.
He teaches children and other community participants on to how to: Select good mangrove seeds; grow mangroves; learn the correct way to plant mangroves; pant; keep the mangroves clean from plastics and non-degradable substances; identify mangrove species; and learn the basic functions of the mangrove species.
He further commended his daughter for supporting his efforts.
In 2006 his daughter Irene was very instrumental and influential in mobilising her class, the rest of the elementary classes and their teachers to join in the mangrove replanting and rehabilitation activities.
Daroa reiterated that these students were now advocating for the mangroves as a result of this training and have influenced their parents, siblings, extended family members and the rest of the community members to take care of the mangroves and the marine and terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity.
He further extended his gratitude to his wife and other family members who supported him in this endeavour.
From his field experience he has manufactured a multi-purpose spade that he uses to dig mangrove seeds or shrubs from the non-suitable mud locations and replant them in suitable conditions.
“When I first started this work, Sibomich Daroa, my last child was still a baby. My wife would put him in the bilum (string bag) and hang him in mangrove branches, while we collected mangrove seeds for replanting and did other mangrove rehabilitation work. Today he is 23 years old. I am so happy to see him join me in undergoing the Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Training here at UPNG,” said Daroa.
The Certificate in Biodiversity Conservation Training he and his son are taking at the University of PNG is part of the community outreach programme the university is undertaking as a way to build and strengthen the capacity of communities and local organisations to manage community resources. The certificate is supported by ExxonMobil under its Biodiversity offset Program, said Professor Simon Saulei, head of Biology at the university.
The training has drawn Daroa and his son to join 40 other participants from all over PNG attending from Dec 1-20.
“This training is very good. It fits in very well with my job. It broadens my knowledge to do conservation work effectively. In the past I did not do my work correctly because of lack of adequate knowledge and skill on biology, marine and terrestrial ecology, and governance but now after going through this training, I understand these subjects and can use these knowledge and skills to train others at the community level.”
Daroa used to do this work alone with his family but now after this training he aims to share his knowledge and skills with other people.
“I am growing old and I want to build other peoples capacity. I dream of building a resource centre closure to a mangrove patch in my village so I can teach my students theory and take them out into the mangroves to do practical work. In that way they can put theory into practice. They also feel the texture, the shape, size and smell of the different mangroves and their functions in the ecosystem,” he reiterated.
The news about his selection to be a recipient of the Queens Diamond Jubilee Commemorate Award reached him just last Saturday when he left the university to go home for the afternoon. As he was chewing his betel nut and resting, the ward councillor from his village, Daniel Lohia, approached him, handed him a letter and asked him to read it.
“I took the letter, opened it and saw two sheets of paper stapled together.
“When I pulled them out, the first thing that struck me was the Gopvernment House letterhead with the Queen’s Crown logo. First without reading the content, I thought I was being invited to attend an award ceremony for some recipients for Queen’s awards.
“But after reading it thoroughly, I learned that I was selected as a recipient for the Queens Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Medal. Tears started flowing down my cheeks as I tried to accept this news,” he said emotionally.
“God is happy with us. He asked us the minority group of people to look after His creation. The Lord will reward us,” said Daroa as he wipes tears from his eyes.
His mangrove rehabilitation project is spread all around Tubusereia Village and at Bootless Bay.

• Wenceslaus Magun is a freelance writer.