mossier than around our camp. Around 11:00 a.m., Victor picked up a signal, and we gradually homed in on what turned out to be a female accom- panied by a nearly full-grown joey. Eventually, we spotted the animals high in a tree, peering down at us from the tops of branches covered by moss and other epiphytes. Like two curious teddy bears, they stared at us for severalminutes, then crawled over one another, nuzzled and climbed higher into the tree,where they settled down for a nap. Not much action, but enough to get a few good shots of these extraordinary mammals. Dabek and her colleagues have
been using the tree kangaroo as a flag- ship species to promote establishment of a community-based conservation area on theHuon. Because indigenous people own 95 percent of the land in Papua New Guinea, local landown- ers—not just the central govern- ment—must support land conserva-
tion measures. The tree kangaroo turned out to be the perfect ambassa- dor: Local people value the animals both for food and for their fur, which is used in ceremonial headdresses. Hunters have come to realize that the kangaroo is becoming scarcer and might be exterminated in the future. Early last year, the project’s efforts
finally paid off. In ameeting with gov- ernment officials,more than 35 villages came together and agreed to each com- mit a portion of their land to a new reserve called the YUS Conservation Area (an acronym for the region’s three rivers: the Yopno, Uruwa, and Som). Within land pledged to the reserve, vil- lagers agreed to prohibit all hunting as well as development such as logging and mining. The agreement was his- toric:YUS is the first conservation area ever designated under the country’s Conservation Areas Act of 1978. The new reserve also has global implica- tions: By protecting 187,800 acres of
forest, YUS will prevent an estimated 13 million tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere. The YUS Conservation Area
extends from the highmountains to, in a few sections, the coast. It therefore protects not only tree kangaroos, but birds of paradise and the rest of the peninsula’s vast diversity. Many of these species, particularly smaller ones like frogs and insects, remain to be dis- covered and studied by a younger gen- eration of field scientists—at least some of them from Papua New Guinea. “What we have accomplished here is more than just an act of envi- ronmental preservation,” says Dabek. “It’s a sustainable model for commu- nity-based conservation that works.”
TIM LAMAN is a research associate in the Ornithology Department at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. To learn more go to www.zoo. org/treekangaroo.
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