The Wanang Conservation Area and the New Guinea Binatang Research Center are long-term research partners of our ecological research team based at the Biological Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of South Bohemia. These partners are supporting joint research projects in Papua New Guinea that include studies of one of the most detailed rainforest plant-insect food web, a long-term monitoring of insect dynamics, or a 50-ha forest plot following the fates on 280,000 individual trees, as well as hosting students for field courses and other training.
The Wanang Conservation has been awarded the UNDP Equator Prize 2015 for “outstanding local achievement in advancing sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities.” The Wanang conservation is one of 21 awarded projects, from over 1,400 applications submitted world-wide. It has been selected since it “has become a model for community-driven conservation and development in the country and is a powerful example of partnership between a self-governed community, local NGOs, government and research institutes. It is also a model of resistance to commercial logging interests.”
We are looking forward to the Wanang community leader, Mr. Filip Damen, and the New Guinea Binatang Research Center representative, Mr. Pagi Toko (possibly a PhD student at the University of South Bohemia next year) coming to Paris later this year to receive the US $10,000 prize from the UNDP Administrator Helen Clark and actor Alec Baldwin.
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