The Torricelli Mountain Range and its tree kangaroos belong to the people who live there. TCA works only with their endorsement — 50 villages across the range, bound by a shared commitment to protect it.
TCA can only carry out its field work with the endorsement of the landowners who own the Torricelli Mountain Range — a co-operation built on understanding and respect over more than two decades. The alliance is made up of Community Members who pledge their allegiance to TCA’s mission and vision.
Each community elects one woman and one man to represent it at TCA meetings and training, and to carry the work plan back to their village. Three to four meetings are held each year at TCA Base-Lumi, with both men and women present, and all discussion and newsletters are in Tok Pisin — which has meant far better communication between TCA and the people of the range.
Most villages can only be reached on foot. Just four are accessible by road, and even then only with difficulty.
A decade on, the Tenkile Conservation Alliance is the most successful conservation organisation in Melanesia — and no other organisation I know of in a developing country has anything like this degree of success.
The Tenkile depends on land owned by villages on the slopes of the western Torricelli Mountain Range. TCA works with the 21 villages of the Tenkile moratorium — often in teams of two or three — with an annual landowner fee for the seven research sites. The 21 villages span four language groups.
The Weimang — the Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo — lives only in the eastern half of the range, and is just as endangered. TCA established a Weimang moratorium with 12 villages in March 2007; it has since grown to 29 villages across three language groups.
Every contribution supports TCA’s vision — that the people of PNG value and protect their natural resources, their community, and their culture.