Perspectives: Asia Women guardians on the mangroves in Png
When
6.00 – 7.00pm, Thu 28 Mar 2019Where
Gallery of Modern Art & Cinema B
About
Presented by Barbara Masike-Liri, Papua New Guinea Country Director, The Nature Conservancy and Robyn James, Director Conservation, Melanesia, The Nature Conservancy. Papua New Guinea is frequently featured within the Australian media, as a country of corruption, violence and exotic spectacle. A focus on stories such as Government representatives spending taxpayers money on buying expensive cars often overshadows the work of community groups and NGO’s focussed on creating culturally appropriate and sustainable models of development. Despite a historical and cultural predominance of men in roles of leadership, women are playing a key role in the fight against the large-scale land and coastal clearing that threaten their local ecosystems and livelihoods. One particular concern is still largely intact mangrove forests that protect the shorelines of Papua New Guinea’s island and coastal provinces. The Nature Conservancy is an international NGO working with women across PNG to address mangrove loss and women’s empowerment through the Mangoro Market Meri (MMM) project. Melanesia is a challenging place to work on gender. Globally, Melanesian countries have some of the highest rates of violence against women and the lowest rates of Parliamentary participation by women. There are many cultural and historical issues that can stifle a woman’s opportunities to be educated, and to be part of decision making. Using MMM as a case study, this talk will engage with the current status of mangroves in Papua New Guinea, the results of research into how women and communities currently utilise mangrove livelihood and techniques being developed to empower women to develop a scheme to link them to larger scale economic benefits for conservation such as the blue carbon economy. Perspectives Asia is a regular, free public seminar series developed and co-presented by Griffith University's Griffith Asia Institute and QAGOMA's Australian Centre of Asia Pacific Art (ACAPA). More information / Places are limited for this free event, book to avoid disappointment. Bookings: events-gai@griffth.edu.au