Chief Executive Officer of Tenkile Conservation Alliance has encouraged local and international non-governmental entities to be more community oriented in their various pursuits. The conservationist earlier has worked enthusiastically to save the tree kangaroos of Papua New Guinea.
Speaking to the media, Tenkile Conservation Alliance (TCA) Chief Executive Officer Mr Jim Thomas said, “The successes of TCA have only come about through the involvement of local communities. NGOs interested in bettering the lives of communities and generally people in PNG and other Pacific Islands should adopt a truly community-oriented approach to achieving their respective goals and objectives.”
The conservationist further said, “Many NGOs had the right goals and objectives but were attempting to reach them the wrong way. Real change and tangible outcomes came over time in PNG and needed a constant presence.” He explained that the effort to conserve one species has now effected a gradual change and conservation is now a holistic effort to maintain all flora and fauna in the area.
Jim Thomas and his wife Jane have spent most of the last 15 years living and working with communities in Sandaun province to set up the Tenkile Conservation Alliance. They have raised over US$4 million toward the conservation of the tree kangaroos that inhabit the Torricelli Mountain Range.
The Alliance has used all community-based people in the Sandaun area and has since its inception, employed over one hundred locals. TCA is an entity that protects the tree-dwelling marsupials it is named after and was set up by Mr Thomas and his wife in 2003.