56 BIO-DIVERSITY INVENTORY OF KAMIALI WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA (55/45) -- Traveling Farmer

56 BIO-DIVERSITY INVENTORY OF KAMIALI WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA Rick Bein THE BIO-DIVERSITY INVENTORY: CASE STUDY OF KAMIALI WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA F.L. (Rick Bein Environmental Research & Management Centre PNG University of Technology Lae Papua New Guinea Location of Papua New Guinea 1________500 miles Map for the Village Development Trust by CIA. Abstract A team of scientists in 1997-98 inventoried the biodiversity of the Kamiali Wild Life Management Area, 60 kilometers southeast along the Huon Gulf coast from Lae, Papua New Guinea. The 434 square kilometers area was registered with the PNG government as a wildlife management area in 1996. A village of 500 people has elected a committee who with the Village Development Trust, a Nationally based NGO, manage the area extending 12 kilometers out to sea and 17 kilometers inland. The high relief environment ranges from 1080 meters below the sea up to 2012 meters above mean sea level. A transect method was used to sample biomes beginning with open sea, coral reef, mangrove, beech, village, sago swamp, garden, riparian environments, tropical forest and cloud forest. This study provides a baseline inventory for a unique area which has never experienced hillside gardening nor commercial logging and contains a high biomass environment that serves as a habitat for many rare species. This case study demonstrates an application for the conservation of natural Resources for Science and Technology in Development. The Role of Conservation and the Wildlife Management area “Conservation of resources” is a concept which lies half way on the continuum between ”exploitation of resources” and “preservation of resources”. Resources exploitation is the extraction of nature in a manner in which there is no regard for the long term future benefits that those resources may provide for humans. The antithesis of exploitation is the preservation of resources which in the pure sense promotes the total non-use of the resources by humans. Neither of these extreme approaches can functionally serve human kind for the long term. Humans must use the earth’s resources in order to survive and conversely, humans will perish if they the consume all of the resources at once. Conservation on the other hand promotes the sustainable use of natural resources. Wildlife Management Areas (WMA’s) have been established for years in a number of countries (including Papua New Guinea) to slow down the process of exploitation of natural resources. It falls slightly left of center on the preservation side of the continuum. Another concept, the Integrated Conservation and Development Area (ICAD) is a recent addition to the many methods of protecting the natural environment from human destruction. It promotes sustainable human use of the resource and occupies a more central position. In PNG, WMA’s have been more commonly established because there are government regulations to follow. Regulations for the implementation of ICADs did not exist in PNG un