Marine conservation requires collective participation from everyone. Recently, young women have taken the lead in marine conservation in Papua New Guinea, with the backing of the Coral Sea Foundation through its Sea Women of Melanesia (SWoM) Program.
Marine conservation requires collective participation from everyone. Recently, young women have taken the lead in marine conservation in Papua New Guinea, with the backing of the Coral Sea Foundation through its Sea Women of Melanesia (SWoM) Program.
The Coral Sea foundation, a brainchild of Australian marine biologist, Dr Andy Lewis, was founded in 2017.
Dr Lewis has been working in marine science and ecotourism in PNG since 2006, and has surveyed the coral reefs in the country at over 165 locations.
According to Dr Lewis, he created the foundation after receiving numerous requests for assistance from reef owners to help them better manage their coral reefs through the implementation of marine protected areas.
“This prompted me to create the Foundation in order to facilitate the marine conservation action in Papua New Guinea which would lead to a more sustainable use of marine resources,” Dr Lewis said.
The SWoM program was created in 2017 in response to requests from Papua New Guinean women for more training in the skills needed to help create and manage marine protected areas on traditional reef.
The program started with one woman, Lorie Pipiga from Sebutuia Bay on Ferguson Island, and to date, it has trained over 30 women and has active teams at Kimbe, Alotau, Port Moresby, Ferguson Island, and Munda in Solomon Islands.
To date, the SWoM Program has:
• Completed underwater digital photo surveys of bleaching stress on PNG reefs at Gabagaba, Manus, Kimbe, Milne Bay, and Ferguson Island in response to the early 2021 bleaching event.
• Completed beach plastic clean-ups at Kimbe.
• Participated in Manta Ray research in the western Louisiades in partnership with Manta Trust UK.
• Installed marine reserve signage at the Nua Marine Reserve Network at Ferguson Island and conducted community awareness meetings.
• Surveyed reefs and conducted community awareness at Sewa Bay on Normanby Island, Logeia Island in Milne Bay, Tubusereia village at Bootless Bay, Harengan Island in Manus and Stetin Bay in Kimbe.
• Delivered humanitarian aid to partner villages at Ferguson Island, Sewa Bay, Ginewa, Harengan Island (Manus), Engineer Islands, and Deboyne Islands and medical aid to the Kimbe General Hospital.
• Conducted scuba diving training for PNG women in Milne Bay Province and Port Moresby.
• Delivered a presentation on the SWoM program to the PNG Biodiversity conference in Port Moresby.
According to Dr Lewis, the foundation develops close partnerships with the local communities in the areas that they work.
“The Coral Sea Foundation and the Sea Women of Melanesia also have partnership linkages with the PNG Centre for Locally Managed Areas, Melanesian Luxury Yachts, PNG Yacht Services, Prodive PNG, and Walindi Dive Resort. All the scientific information we collect on the status of the reefs of PNG is forwarded free of charge to CEPA,” said Dr Lewis.
Dr Lewis said his greatest hope is that the marine conservation message about the importance of coral reef marine reserves for food security and preservation of biodiversity is spread ever more widely through PNG, and that we can help the nation and the people of PNG meet the international obligation to have 30% of marine resources in protected areas, by 2030.
“We hope that the work of our Sea Women teams will continue to expand in its scope and effectiveness, and that more communities will come forward to partner with us on marine conservation projects. We would like to open SWoM offices in Madang, Kavieng, Kieta, Buka, Tufi, and Manus, and continue our marine conservation work and training programs for both women and men in those areas. We hope that the women of PNG are inspired by the SWoM program to take a greater interest in marine conservation, and that our work contributes to greater gender equality and opportunities for women in Papua New Guinea,” he added.