Table of Contents

On 21 August 2018 PNGBLOGS reported:

‘Glenn,
‘Likewise, it was good to bump into you in the vege aisle – that’s why I like shopping! Thanks for the powerpoint, I’ll check it out and we’ll put the thinking cap on. I’m hoping to catch up with Charlie when he visits later this month, so we’ll get a chance to talk further then.
‘Mark’

‘I would like to manage the KTA and will make myself available to do so, provided we are all working together to move forward’.

Response from Governor Gary Juffa on 24 October 2013 Re: Kokoda Track Authority:

Email from Charlie Lynn to Mark Nizette cc Australian High Commission and the Kokoda Initiative:

Email from Charlie Lynn to Governor Gary Juffa cc. Henri Amuli MP:

29 Septembe 2019: Email to Governor Juffa re ‘Kokoda Disappointment’

24 February 2020
Email response from Governor Juffa to Charlie Lynn:

‘My issue with Mark Nizette relates to the fact that he is an Australian ‘Strategic Management Advisor’ to the aid-funded DFAT-Kokoda Initiative regarding the management of the Kokoda Trail.‘As I see it, the priorities for the strategic management of the Kokoda Trail are: the development of business systems, protocols, and proper governance for the management of the Kokoda Trail which is now PNGs most popular tourism destination; The Identification, protection, and interpretation of significant military heritage sites across the Kokoda Trail between Owers Corner and Kokoda and through to the beach-head areas of Buna and Gona; the protection and interpretation of the pristine environment across the Kokoda Trail; and the development of micro-finance and micro-business opportunities for the traditional owners of the land sacred to our shared military heritage.

‘During this period some K65 million has washed through your subsistence village communities in the form of wages, campsite fees and local services – this is significant because between 1942 and 1992 they earned nothing!

‘Illegal Kokoda tour operators are no different to illegal logging companies which you have publicly criticised in the past.

Database Development – Campsite Booking System:
‘The most fundamental and essential management tool in today’s business world is a database which records the contact details of all customers to allow for the management of booking systems, group trek itineraries, dissemination of information, conduct of surveys, cross-marketing, and philanthropy.

‘According to a PNG Biodiversity Report on the Kokoda Historical Track Reserve[ix] conducted by the Secretariat Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)/Protected Area Solutions the CEPA proposal would extend the boundaries of Kokoda Trail ‘from 71 ha to 238,000 ha’ which would provide an aid-funded bonanza for foreign environment officials.

‘So while we, along with our PNG support crews are sweating across the Trail and carrying the risk of supporting your most popular tourism destination, we have government bureaucrats and a veritable army of consultants plotting to hijack the word ‘Kokoda’ to give relevance to their own agendas, and to enhance their own aid-funded careers at the expense of our shared wartime heritage.

‘And why should your subsistence villagers across the Kokoda Trail have to bear such a significant financial loss as a result of these ideological follies?     

Kokoda Tourism – a PNG Perspective:
The only relevant assessment of Kokoda tourism was written by a PNG female trekker, Rashmii Bell.

  1. 5 March 2023: Media Release: Call for Parliamentary Inquiry into the management collapse of the Kokoda Trail

‘oversee the transition to the new Kokoda Track Management Authority, and the development of the Kokoda Track Tourism Master Plan’ and directed that ‘the acting Chief Executive Officer of KTA will report to the Minister for Inter-Government Relations, pending the establishment of the proposed legislation, and the abolishment of the existing Proclamations’.

Mark Nizette’s Clandestine Strategy for the Kokoda Trail

Soon after Mark Nizette had settled back into the KTA office the PNG National Newspaper reported on 27 February 2019 that  ‘Legislation for new entity to manage Kokoda underway’.

ATTACHMENT 1

Attachment 1: Irregular Transfer of Trek Permit Fees to Australian NGO


ATTACHMENT 2

 

  1. Mr Mark Nizette    KI Secretariat


[x] Ibid

[xi] https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/preservation-of-the-kokoda-track-region-declaration.pdf

[viii] Conservation Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) Bill is a Scapegoat!