Neglected Baiyer sanctuary receiving attention

“Important conservation sites like the Kuk World Heritage and the Baiyer River Wildlife Sanctuary are important national assets that can bring about immense benefits to the country if properly managed and developed for conservation and commercial purposes.

– Jude Tukuliya.

THE Baiyer River Wildlife Sanctuary which has been neglected for many years has finally received much needed attention and support from the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (Cepa) under the new management of acting Managing Director Jude Tukuliya.
The wildlife sanctuary which is an important nature reserve expanded to a current area of 740 hectares along the Baiyer River in Western Highlands was opened on Jan 13, 1968 by the then Australian administration. It has been a world-renowned tourists site known as Baiyer Zoo in the 1860s but was closed due to mismanagement over the years.
It been overlooked by the past organisational management from then Department of Environment and Conservation to now the DCE – Cepa for the last two decades (1990 to 2022). No work has been done to revive the sanctuary and have it developed for the benefit of the country and local communities.
There was no management structure and funding support from the responsible State agency (Cepa) and it was under an interim caretaker management by the Mul-Baiyer District Development Authority as it is a State property.
Acting Managing Director Tukuliya after his appointment last year made an unofficial visit to the Baiyer Wildlife Sanctuary on May 4, 2023 to get firsthand information on the current status of this important wildlife sanctuary and the challenges and issues facing affecting proper and better management of the sanctuary.
While on the ground, Tukuliya wasted no time to address an important issue by restoring management functions of the sanctuary back to Cepa which included the caretaker management team placed by Mul Baiyer DDA.
Tukuliya said by restoring the management functions back to Cepa now commenced the process for reviving the once world renowned Baiyer Zoo.
“Important conservation sites like the Kuk World Heritage site and the Baiyer River Wildlife Sanctuary are national assets that can bring about immense benefits to the country if properly managed and developed for conservation and commercial purposes.”
Tukuliya said under the new law – the Protected Area Bill passed by Parliament, conservation projects would now be regarded as commercial ventures because

community livelihood development was captured by law as an integral part of the programme.
“This is what has been missing over the years and that led to the ultimate demise of many of our conservations sites throughout the country.”
He said the redevelopment of the Baiyer Wildlife Sanctuary and the Kuk World Heritage site remained an priority under his leadership.
“There are many issues and challenges that we need to address as we go on to ensure the sanctuary is well developed and I am thankful to the Mul Baiyer DDA under the leadership of the local MP and the Western Highlands Provincial Government for ensuring the sanctuary is still remains protected despite the absence of Cepa over the past two decades,” Tukuliya said.
Land ownership issue of the sanctuary remains an important agenda to address and, on Aug 15, 2023, Tukuliya had attended to the land issues related to Baiyer Wildlife Sanctuary land portion 166 and 94 for non-payment of customary land acquisition payments by the state to the traditional landowners during the time of land alienation to the state in the 1950s.
He had advised the traditional landowning groups to come up with a resolution under one incorporated land group for Cepa to mitigate their plight further through relevant state agencies and they agreed in the meeting but their resolution is still pending due to their own differences.
Cepa will continue to engage with the local communities and the relevant authorities to ensure all issues are addressed amicably to facilitate the revival of the Baiyer Zoo.

Protected areas
Out of the 61 established (gazetted) protected areas, both marine and terrestrial excluding proposed protected areas, only Yus Conservation Area in Morobe, Managalass Conservation Area in Northern and Varirata National Park in the Central seem to be actively managed and the rest of the 58 protected areas in the country have no site-specific management activities implemented on the ground.
Biodiversity conservation in general is an integral part of the human livelihood that requires collective and collaborative effort to effectively manage the established protected areas in the country but currently there is hardly any active management activities on the ground, he said.
Tukuliya said the total area protected in PNG, both marine and terrestria,l under the PNG Protected Area Networks is 2,125, 371.91 hectares out of the 462, 860km square kilometres of PNG land mass. This is the updated figure in 2017 excluding the proposed protected areas in the country. Realistically speaking, the acting MD said only Varirata National Park was effectively managed by Cepa and the rest of the 60 protected areas in the country have no site-specific management activity implemented on the ground whilst Yus Conservation Area was effectively managed by NGO partners.
“Therefore Cepa, as a constitutionally mandated statutory authority, must set the priorities right at this time through strategic and innovative organisational leadership,” Tukuliya said.
He said the policy framework of Cepa on protected area management was on foot pending the gazettal of the Protected Area Bill by the Governor-General for enforcement, but organisational stewardship to achieve these targets was paramount and Cepa was going in that direction.
Tukuliya said Cepa would establish a strategic management approach over significant protected area sites to explore commercial values and transform these values into economic value and generate revenue to sustain its management operations whilst managing protected areas in the country as per the Cepa Act 2014.

Tourism
“The biodiversity value of each protected areas can be transformed into commercial value and boost the tourism industry in the country to enhance the economic growth .
“I have already issued instructions to our technical officers that those protected areas in the country that have economic value must be transformed into tourism hubs to realise the outputs of the Medium-Term Development Plan 1V (2023 – 2027), themed as “National Prosperity Through Growing the Economy”.
“This is the way forward for Cepa and under my leadership, I want to see that change and reforms implemented,” Tukuliya said.
Senior programme officer, Terrestrial Protected Areas , David Kau who was part of the team visiting the Baiyer Wildlife Sanctuary, said the site visits had shown positive signs on the image of the established and proposed protected areas which had never been attended to for the last two decades.
“First and foremost, I would like to thank God for His divine guidance and wisdom placed over the leadership of Jude Tukuliya, the acting MD in taking a bold step to intervene over the protected areas which have been overlooked by the past management for the last two decades.”
He said the restoration of management function of the Kuk World Heritage and the Baiyer River Sanctuary back to Cepa by the acting MD was an important achievement during his short stint in office.
“With his leadership, the future of conservation programmes in the country is looking bright and I commend the acting MD for his foresight and leadership,” Kau said.

Mt Giluwe conservation area
He said another important achievement made by the acting MD was the launching of Mount Giluwe proposed conservation area.
“The launching was done by Mount Giluwe Conservation Foundation onMay 25, 2023, a community-based organisation and to support the local NGO going forward in establishing community mobilisation process, the acting MD had made a financial commitment of K50,000 and technical support from Cepa,” he said.
Currently, a ‘cnservation deed’, document previously referred to as community mobilisation process is under going the screening process to effect the gazettal process of the proposed conservation area.

• Article and pictures supplied by Cepa