Papua New Guinean biologists

The Binatang Research Centre – a sanctuary for local knowledge and global discoveries

You will have heard of Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard but have you heard of the Binatang Research Centre in Papua New Guinea?

Founded in 1997 and located in a coastal town on the Bismarck Sea, they pioneered an innovative research model called paraecology. It recognises local people as the ones most competent in observing, understanding and researching their natural world. A local environment that their ancestors shaped and one that their descendants will come to interact with and depend on.

Papua New Guinea Biodiversity Officer Jack Joseph Kostolo sits on the forest floor surrounded by green plants. He sits with two students has he conducts a field training session. — Papua New Guinea Biodiversity Officer Jack Joseph Kostolo conducting a field training session.

The Binatang Research Centre’s mission is to highlight the contribution local people make to science, using approaches that are seldom championed in mainstream academia and collaborating with established researchers from around the world.

In 2020, Clifford Yaee, Cool Earth’s Forest Monitoring Coordinator in Papua New Guinea, was invited to visit the research centre. Here is how it went in his own words.

“I visited the Kau Wildlife area, which is where local people work to help researchers collect field data. It was started by an elder who rejected a suitcase full of money from a logging company. However, the younger generations wanted the income, so the model of payment for forest research was established to protect the land and provide skilled jobs.

Papua New Guinean biologists revolutionising knowledge creation

The Binatang Research Centre – a sanctuary for local knowledge and global discoveries

In 2020, Clifford Yaee, Cool Earth’s Forest Monitoring Coordinator in Papua New Guinea, was invited to visit the research centre. Here is how it went in his own words.