Dei community restores sacred site

CONSERVATION

By PETER ESILA
THERE are mystical, sacred sites everywhere in Papua New Guinea.
In some villages the sacredness of such sites has been lost to growth and urbanisation while in others like Ronimb Village, 45 km outside Mt Hagen city, preservation is still important.
And there are many stories told of such sites; for example, in Port Moresby, there is a story behind the big boulder on the side of the freeway from Hohola overlooking the Harbour City. If you did not know, ask and know.
PNG is a land of mystery and while development is much sought after by our people, a group of villagers in the Dei District of Western Highlands now want to protect their sacred site.
Preserving the site has a two-fold benefit – preservation of culture and environment, and a contribution to the greater fight against climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
They have formed an organisation called the Ronimb Community Development Foundation Incorporated (RCDFI) to preserve the proposed conservation area including sacred forest of approximately 270ha, according to local villager and RCDFI project manager Johannes Pook.
The site is located in their Tigi council ward of Muglamp LLG.
Pook said over the years, people continued to destroy a sacred forest known as Ronimb Deipog, which means a special area preserved by their ancestors for rituals.
According to Western Highlands’ Melpa custom, this unique sacred area has long been regarded as a special preserved forest for generation after generation.
“They called the place a home of living spirits for both natural spirit as well as those who have died in their families, clans or tribes long ago,” Pook said.
“It is a special preserved forest area by our ancestors where they went and killed pigs and also offered live pigs to the natural spirits.

“Spiritual dances were also performed in order to appease the spirits. In return, the spirits blessed them with more pigs, by way of pigs reproducing increased numbers of piglets and an abundance of garden produce.
“The people believed and witnessed themselves that spirits also gave them rain to water their food gardens for crops to grow healthy and produce more yields.
“Our grandfathers went to that special forest area and practiced special spiritual cultural dances and spoke spiritual languages during ritual days. The spirits eventually appeared to them, watching and listening to all those activities and were pleased with the village men and that made their relationship strong and intact over a long period of time.
“However, civilisation brought by white men followed by Christian beliefs and practices had affected all traditional spiritual practices and activities contributing to their extinction and they are no longer in there for our future generations to benefit and carry on with their life.
“During those days our ancestors were careful in all aspects of their life by making sure no single tree was cut or chopped down including vines and dried woods.
“They were forbidden to destroy leaves of trees and plants that were growing within the sacred area.
“These included trees with traditional ritual and minor medical significance, and vines, both at bearing and non-bearing stages.”
“Such activities maintained by our ancestors and forefathers enabled friendly relationships with the environment and ecosystem and with natural spirits in that particular preserved area,” Pook said.
“The traditional ritual and minor medical significant trees, plants or vines were used only by designated (appointed) people when treating sick people and people with sores and minor injuries.
“Women and children were never allowed into the protected area, including boys under the age of 17 years.
“Only adult men were allowed to go in during special ceremonial occasions, spiritual offering sessions and ritual performance periods. These special trees and plants still exist today as was recently proven by few older people who are still alive.”
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under its Global Environmental Facility – Small Grant Programme (GEF-SGP) is jumping on board to support RCDFI with their community preservation and conservation project.

GEF- SGP has provided a grant of about US$45,000 (K154,000) to the project which is titled Land Degradation And Sustainable Forestry Management (LD & SFM).
Under the (GEF-SGP), all the plants and trees can be protected and preserved from extinction.
He said the project would help to change some of their behaviour and instill discipline the younger generation in Ronimb community.
Pook said the project would also help to preserve the flora and fauna of the area.
He said RCDFI would now ensure that the environment was protected at all cost in line with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) through Civil Societies such as community-based organisations (CBOs).
This would be done by strengthening the capacity of vulnerable communities on sustainable land management (SLM) practices related to deforestation and desertification through agriculture and other land use based practices.
Pook said the primary focus of the project was preserving the local forest area including surrounding environments, in line with Global Warming & Climate Change Strategy (GWCCS) for REDD.”
“At the same time, the CBO will make every effort to conserve and protect most of the special trees including plants with traditional medical significance that still exist around the proposed conservation area under GEF SGP.
“Therefore, once the environment is transformed and restored back to its natural beauty and to its original state, it will become virgin, primitive again.
“It will be a perfectly protected area from destruction to the forest and its floor including carbon stock and its natural canopy and surroundings.
“Once that is done, the relationship between local people and the environment will be strong, intact and restored to its former glory.
“The CBO with support from the people of Ronimb community will pursue tree planting or reforestation programme with the intention of increasing population forest as well as non-timber resources.
“In line with that, climate change mitigation within the productive landscapes where local people reside will also be pursed for multiple benefits to the community for sustainable livelihoods.
“Every effort will also be made to link related activities with other GEF focal areas to benefit from the synergies with the existing conservation and forest investment programmes and partnership facilities from the Government, development partners, forest and environment-related industry players such as Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (Cepa), Office of Climate Change and Development Authority (OCCDA) as well as other related international organisations both within the country and aboard.”
UNDP GEF-SGP national coordinator Tamalis Akus said a memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed in Port Moresby last month to pave way for the project.
“The Small Grants Programme is proud to be continuing its support to community-based organisations, who engage with communities, implementing activities addressing local environmental threats, extend awareness on good land management practices and in this case, protect sacred sites important to their cultural heritage,” Akus said.