LMMA activities in Papua New Guinea are taking place primarily in Kimbe Bay and Madang Lagoon in the northern part of the country, with growing interest in Manus, Kavieng, Milne Bay and Hiri-East in the south. The circles on the map below indicate areas of LMMA activity in Papua New Guinea.

Involvement with the LMMA Network began in August 2000, when project representatives from Kimbe Bay and Madang Lagoon attended the Fish for Future? workshop in Fiji and the follow-up workshop at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Bali that year. At these meetings, project representatives expressed initial interest in joining the Network. In late 2001, site visits to PNG by members of the Network Coordination Team (NCT) renewed interest in and increased awareness of the LMMA Network.

In August 2002, Pamela Seeto was recruited as the interim Country Coordinator for the PNG country LMMA Network, and Aaron Jenkins was hired to serve as Project Liaison for the local Madang Lagoon LMMA network. There was a growing need during this time to continue dialogue with interested projects in Madang Lagoon and Kimbe Bay, and to increase awareness of the overall LMMA Network in PNG.

This was achieved through an LMMA Network introduction session at the PNG Marine Conservation Workshop in late 2002, followed by a workshop on Adaptive Management and the Learning Framework (LF) in May 2003. At the May workshop, project partners from Kimbe Bay (Mahonia na Dari and TNC) and Madang Lagoon (WWF and WIO) formally requested provisional membership, and revised the social contract to accommodate their needs. Project representatives from Manus, Kavieng, Milne Bay and Hiri-East requested associate membership, and LMMA point people at these sites were identified.

In October 2003, Rebecca Samuel was hired as the new assistant coordinator for the PNG country Network to help project teams work toward full membership and begin implementing the LF. In 2004, several cross-site visits, trainings and workshops were held to assist Madang and Kimbe project teams carry out activities to satisfy the criteria for full membership.

For more information on Papua New Guinea LMMA Network activities, please see Stories from the Field
and the following documents:

Madang LMMA Network Summary		Sinub Island WMA Plan of Management