Protecting paradise: PNG's forest guardians

Konia continues, "So the key to protecting Yamolo-Samaki is making protection economic, and a viable alternative to logging—developing it as a voluntary carbon project, so people like Bugi can be paid to protect their way of life.”

Here's how: these forests store massive amounts of carbon that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere due to destructive practices. By keeping them standing and implementing protection activities, communities can generate carbon credits that when sold  result in real income – turning conservation into a sustainable finance rather than an economic sacrifice. Instead of freezing Yamolo-Samaki in time, the project ensures communities equitably share in the benefits of development without destroying some of the most biodiverse forests on Earth, whilst still receiving the other livelihood benefits they depend on, like food and clean water.

“We want our land to be secured,” Bugi says. “We don't want logging operations to tap into our area. We only want sustainable carbon projects. For our future generations, we want the forest to remain.”

With the Yamolo-Samaki Protected Area, The Nature Conservancy is trying to show that the real asset of these forests isn't the one-time value of harvested timber, but the ongoing value of living forests. It's carbon sequestration. It's people. It's clean water, food security and sustainable livelihoods. And it's Indigenous communities working the land sustainably, protecting biodiversity and getting an equitable share of profits at the same time.

Right now, the project is still in development. But The Nature Conservancy has laid the groundwork, with the full feasibility assessment wrapping up in September 2026. Meanwhile, local men and women are out in the forest with digital cameras and GPS trackers, building the first comprehensive record of what actually lives here. What gets caught and hunted, what turns up in nets, the frogs in the undergrowth, the number of cassowaries seen in a given week. Small steps, but hard statistical data that will one day form the basis of a comprehensive land management plan.

The long game, and TNC's ultimate mission, is sustaining conservation in this area in perpetuity. Protecting biodiversity is one part of that. But so too is improving livelihoods, empowering local communities to develop their own ranger programs, marking out clear (and enforceable) boundaries for the protected zone, and creating a trust fund for forest conservation, backed by carbon projects. Helping forests turn a profit, and sharing that profit among the communities, and the people, who deserve it most. People like Bugi.

“One good thing is that the forest we see around today, it remains as it is,” Bugi says. “I want future generations to benefit from me when I am gone. The decisions I make now will affect all the generations that come after.”