Papua New Guinea creates first conservation area

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Papua New Guinea has created its first conservation area to save an area of pristine rainforest larger than Singapore and to protect rare animals such as a bear-like tree kangaroo, conservationists said on Tuesday.

Saving the horse-shoe shaped area on the remote eastern Huon Peninsula will also lock away 13 million tons of carbon and the project might eventually yield tradeable carbon offsets to help fund local communities.

"It's the most pristine forest. It's spectacular and what's also amazing is these are forests that even the local land owners in some places they've never gone into themselves," said Lisa Dabek of Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, told Reuters from Seattle.

The YUS Conservation Area covers 76,000 ha (187,000 acres) from the coast up to peaks of nearby 4,000 meters (13,000 feet).

Dabek, who runs the zoo's tree kangaroo conservation program with support from U.S.-based Conservation International and National Geographic, has worked with villagers in the area over the past 12 years to develop a community program to protect the forests.

"The YUS Conservation Area doesn't have any really commercially interesting forest. It's very rugged, montane," said Bruce Beehler of Conservation International who's been going to Papua New Guinea since 1975.

He said under a new law passed by the government, ministries need to sign off on any area deemed to be of conservation value and the YUS had no timber or minerals of great importance, said Beehler.

Under the conservation plan, 35 villages representing 10,000 people have pledged to create a safe zone for forests and wildlife, particularly for the endangered Matschie's tree kangaroo.

The community will also set the rules governing the conservation area and in return will receive aid for education, health and alternative livelihoods.

"They have bought into this model. A lot of it has to do with the fact the PNG government at the national level doesn't offer them a lot of alternatives for development," said Beehler.

He added many villagers backed the plan because they had heard about or seen other areas stripped by miners or loggers, destroying livelihoods and cultures.

"Everyone knows somebody who's been hurt through that pillaging process," he told Reuters.

Beehler said there were another six or seven groups in the country seeking to create conservation zones under the new law.

(Reporting by David Fogarty; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)