This was as part of the BRCC, Building Resilience to Climate Change in PNG, ADB funded program on
Food Security. This work took us to the rarely visited preselected islands of the Luzancays; Kawa
and Konia, the villages of Keileuna Island and Lalela village of Kitava Island. As getting to these places is
a full days dinghy travel from Alotau on an open 23’ fibreglass banana boat with a 40HP engine hanging
off the back, the calmer the weather the better.
ECA at long last made it to the distant Lousiade Archipelago to learn from the several
hivi (gwala) that had been placed there. The Hon. Bernard Jack who made a smartphone recording
MPA of a hivi being placed on the Panahubo Reef (ECA Newsletter 8) formally invited us as President of the
Yeleyamba Local Level Government area to make this visit many years ago. Finally with the USAID
Lukautim Graun program support we were able to achieve this.
The idea of gwala, bubuli of the header picture). Fishing is still allowed in the has been applied in waters out from the reef drop off, but not allowed Sewa Bay in the past however this was not really within the bubuli that follows the fringing reefs along applied. A recent unfortunate event though where a the shore. young man from Goodenough drowned whilst sperfishing in the bay led to a customary bubuli being Throughout the communities of Milne Bay
put in place, the water becoming contaminated by his death and in preparation for a feast to break the period
Letter From the Director Welcome to this our seventeenth ECA newsletter for Eco Custodian Advocates. We finished the year with a lot of travelling around the province. To the north-west corner of the Lusancays and to the south-west corner of Kololona and the sunken barrier reef, some 1200km in an open 23’ dinghy on these two voyages alone. The articles in this Newsletter are a mix of gwala customary closure and fishing, whilst raising the issue of fishing rights and the area of this jurisdiction based on custom and formal governance.
Letter From the Director David K Mitchell
Welcome to our fifth ECA newsletter for Eco Custodian Advocates, As we enter our third year we can look back and see that we are making both environmental and life impact of our place. Our lead story is on turtle satellite tagging with youth from Ole Island - 1808 Atlas of D’Entrecasteaux voyage. But 2018 is leaning towards an El Nino year and it seems the migration for nesting this season is not on. We look at why not.
We had an Adelaide University student with us in this work who had been drawn by Gwala Rising.