Port Moresby Nature Park

The festival emphasizes on creating sculptures made of waste tins, cans bottles, rubber and plastics.

 BSP Senior Relationship Manager, Raymond Logona, presented a cheque worth K40,000 to the Port Moresby Nature Park recently to reaffirm its support to the Trash to Treasure sculpture program.

He said BSP is pleased to support the Nature Park that, as it has set the benchmark in PNG for tourism, animal welfare, conservation, research and community nature based education.

World Tree Kangaroo Day was launched to provide a common date for local and international stakeholders to collaborate, celebrate and raise awareness of Tree Kangaroos, their importance in broader biodiversity protection and to highlight how the global community can support Tree Kangaroo conservation efforts.

Globally, over 50 organisations including conservation groups, zoos and other key stakeholders, across 10 countries will be celebrating World Tree Kangaroo Day.

Now into its fourth year running, the BSP Trash to Treasure Sculpture Festival has educated and inspired more students and youth around Port Moresby and Central province about the importance of recycling and reusing waste material for better purposes in the household and community.

For the youth at ATS, their involvement in the BSP Trash to Treasure Sculpture Festival is part of their community leaders’ efforts in changing youth mindsets that living in a settlement should not limit them to opportunities that can earn them employment or more learning to better their livelihoods.

In its effort to educate and provide information to school children as part of their learning. The team is into its second week of normal school excursion.

Since its introduction in 2014, the education programs have rapidly gained interest over the years from different schools in and around Port Moresby and Papua New Guinea. The Park’s Education Department has so far educated over 126,117 students and 11,196 Adults from various schools.

At the start of the breeding season, some old pandanus logs were placed inside the aviary to encourage our red-cheeked parrots to breed. The female and the male were observe nipping on one of the old logs to create a hole that would be the start of a nest chamber.

After sometime, the female was seen visiting the log frequently and disappearing into the nest chamber for long periods, curious, bird keepers, Joshua Heni and Rebecca Gaimbili carefully visited the log and saw two white eggs laid inside the log and they were both excited.

In an update, the Park announced this first batch of seedlings are now ready for transplanting into the natural environment.

Port Moresby Nature Park’s Horticulture Team Leader, Junior Muli said, “From when we first mentioned the successful sowing of the first batch of Kwila seedlings, we’ve received numerous requests for the seedlings; however we had to put those requests on hold in order for the seedlings to be strong enough for transplanting.”

Born to parents Andrew and Amo Yariki, from Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands Province, 27-year-old Jivix is the only child who’s humble and has a strong personal drive to achieve his dreams in the field of horticulture.

Port Moresby Nature Park recruited Jivix as a Nursery worker on 15 January 2020. His love for learning and enthusiasm in his work has seen him take on additional roles within the Grounds team with the much deserved recognition of earning a Staff Excellence Award this month for his consistent efforts.

Registration fee is only K40 per participant between the ages of 6 – 13 years old and includes a healthy snack for brunch with lots of fun outdoor learning. An award certificate will be presented to participants upon completion of the program.

Due to COVID-19 measures observed by the Nature Park, class sizes are reduced to 20 students per session, where 80 students are expected to participate over the four days program.

Scientifically named Intsia bijuga or ‘Kwila’ as commonly known, is a tree variety that is common in most lowland parts of Papua New Guinea, especially East and West Sepik Provinces. It takes about 20 – 40 years for a Kwila tree to reach full maturity when it can be harvested for use in furniture, general house building and/or carving as it is very durable and is naturally a termite-resistant wood.

The Nature Park’s current promotion connects people to wildlife through a ‘Locate & Win’ Selfie Sticker challenge, which is COVID-19 Safe and self-directed.

There are four exclusive wildlife stickers placed in various locations around the Park for visitors to locate and take ‘selfies’ with in order to participate in the promotion. Participants are required to upload their ‘4 Selfies’ in front of the wildlife stickers onto Port Moresby Nature Park’s Facebook Page, tagging as many friends as they can.