PNG’s only zoo turns 10

CONSERVATION

By KAREN-MARIE LILLIE
GR Base to Golf 1. Good morning team, we’re open for business. You can now open the gates. Have a lovely day today!
There goes the famous morning greeting heard throughout the little admin and operations office at the Port Moresby Nature Park for the 4,010th time this year…a full 10 years of opening its gates daily for visitors to come spend recreational time, learn or do business at the PNG’s only internationally-recognised welfare accredited zoo.
Such a status that took years of planning, hard work and determination to meet all international standards and put PNG on the world map for its collection of flora and fauna, and the significant conservation work done within the facility.
Since the day the Nature Park was born, it has taken years of amazing work and developments to bring it to where it stands to date. The park today is almost unrecognisable from the park of 2012 and almost every single corner of it has been transformed since then.
The transformation is telling. Animals have new enclosures, gardens are better landscaped, pavements are all redone, water works have been installed all around the gardens to maintain lush green lawns all year round, there’s electricity throughout the garden venues so guests can stay entertained during their events, lighting around the park so there is security and our animals have a little ‘night-life’ of their own here at the park when there aren’t any guests around.
The Port Moresby Nature Park truly was ‘born’ upon transitioning from the previous Botanical Gardens.
Apart from the physical changes of the park, founding CEO, Michelle McGeorge shares her experience that the one thing that stands out most throughout the development of the park is its people. All the staff in the last 10 years, during their time, have all been instrumental in shaping and growing the organisation and delivering what is arguably one of the greatest success stories for PNG over the last decade.
“What you the staff and the staff before you have achieved over the years is nothing short of amazing. You have shown the country what is possible and what can be achieved with hard work, commitment and unwavering dedication to the cause and to excellence,” Port Moresby Nature Park’s former CEO, Michelle McGeroge said in a special note to the staff
“We have done all this as a charity, committed to serving the people of PNG and in securing a better future for PNG’s wildlife and environment and in turn, to committing to a better future for your children and future generations,” she added.
Building PNG’s first internationally recognised park has had its challenges and it required sacrifice, but thanks to the drive of its management and staff, Port Moresby Nature Park has truly proved its potential globally.
Behind all the hard work and effort put into physically ‘reshaping’ the park, there is the vision of an exceptional leader, teaming with the undivided support from major partners, sponsors and supporters of the park who have made their mark in helping fund, build or design key facilities around the park that over the years become key assets and infrastructure to an internationally accredited wildlife park.
While the little old fan out at the old entry from the deck still hangs to remind us of those years when guests would line up in the heat trying to get some cool air from the little wall fan upon paying their entry fees, now standing up proud to greet you is the new entry with a number of entry points and express lines to ensure you get in quick and smooth every time you visit.
The park has had a major facelift to bring it up to standard, yet it remains authentic as an identity to PNG through the various displays of traditional art such as the signature totem poles that welcome you.
The park has won a number of international awards for its work including awards from the Zoo and Aquarium Association of Australasia (ZAA), the South Pacific region’s governing association for zoos with awards for innovation for establishing a ‘sister zoo’ Capacity Development Programme in 2016 (the first ever established), and in 2018, an Education Award for the Park’s World Wildlife Week programme focused on educating school-aged children about the importance of native wildlife conser

Since introducing its curriculum-based education programmes in 2014, more than 100,000 students have participated in the programme, proving that the programme complements well their classroom learning. Port Moresby Nature Park’s school excursion programme is facilitated by the park’s education team and is specifically targeted at supporting the learning outcomes of the PNG curriculum.
Seeing the programme grow gradually, it now supports over 24,000 students’ learning annually through its various grade-specific science programmes which support the teachers in their lesson plans and curriculum outcomes, allowing students to learn both theory and practical aspects of their science or environment lessons at the park.
For its consistent delivery of its mission in wildlife conservation and research, the Port Moresby Nature Park has recently won two international awards in the 2021 Zoo and Aquarium Association of Australasia (ZAA) in the small institutions category for its exhibit design in the construction of the ‘Reptile Haus’, a first of its kind in PNG. In the second award, the park again in small institutions category won the Engagement Award for its ‘Snaketastic’ Programme.
Port Moresby Nature Park is PNG’s only international recognised wildlife park and sets the benchmark in PNG for tourism, animal welfare, conservation, research and community nature-based education. It hosts over 130,000 visitors to the park each year and since opening has had over 1.1million visitors through its gates, making it PNG’s most-visited recreational attraction.
Having been awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence over five consecutive years Port Moresby Nature Park is the only attraction in Papua New Guinea to have done so and was entered into TripAdvisor’s Hall of Fame in 2020.
In reflecting over the 10 years, a lot has changed and happened.  The world has changed and surely has the park. Despite all the challenges faced, it has been the resilient spirit of the staff, its management, board of directors and the corporate society that continued to believe in its mission and strive to ensure the success of the park.
There is a lot more planned for the park in what it hopes to achieve as a major tourist attraction in PNG and conservation park. And it is with community support both locally and internationally that these can be achieved. If the last 10 years of development has proven to be of international standard, there is no doubt, Port Moresby Nature Park will continue to fly the red, black and gold flag high through its mission in conservation education and protection of PNG’s rich biodiversity.
If you haven’t visited the Port Moresby Nature Park in a while, now is the best time to do so as we showcase our environmental campaigns through our partnered events such as the BSP Trash to Treasure Sculpture Festival.
We’re not just a recreational facility, we’re truly an educational facility where there is so much to learn from around the park. We’re more than an organisation, we’re indeed a family – the Nature Park femili!
This is moment for all Papua New Guineans to be proud of – a decade on from humble beginnings to being a globally recognised facility.
Happy birthday Nature Park femili!