KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY Archives - Adventure Kokoda Blog

Adventure Kokoda Tour Operators License Update

by Charlie | Sep 21, 2023 | KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, OUR VIEWPOINT, Uncategorized | 0

Update on the revocation of Adventure Kokoda tour Operators License

Kokoda: A Trail of Woe

by Charlie | May 7, 2023 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, OUR VIEWPOINT | 0

by Rashmii Amoah Bell ‘ I am the author of ‘My Walk to Equality’ and Butterflies on...

Kokoda: A Tale of Bureaucratic Woe 80 Years On!

by Charlie | Apr 9, 2022 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, MILITARY HERITAGE, OUR VIEWPOINT | 2

Trekker numbers have declined by 46% under their watch. This translates into a cumulative loss of K46 million for the subsistence villages across the Trail in foregone wages, campsite fees and local purchases – and these are the people we have spent more than K150 million trying to help!

Database Evaluation of the Kokoda Tourism Industry: 2003-2019

by Charlie | Mar 4, 2022 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, OUR VIEWPOINT | 0

Official data, based on the number of Trek Permits issued by the Kokoda Track (Special Purpose) Authority (KTA), reveals that villagers across the Kokoda Trail have suffered a cumulative loss of K49.7 million in foregone income opportunities since the DFAT-Kokoda Initiative assumed responsibility for its management in 2009. A Kokoda Livelihoods Study by Pacific Islands Projects revealed the DFAT-Kokoda Initiative allocates just 1% of their budget to ‘income generating projects’ for villagers across the Trail.

The Kokoda Trail: Chronology of Mismanagement: 2009-2019

by Charlie | Jul 11, 2021 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, OUR VIEWPOINT | 0

Under Australian management since 2009 trekker numbers have declined by 42% resulting in a direct annual loss of $1.2 million (K3.1 million) for village communities across the Trail.

Kokoda: The enemy within!

by Charlie | Apr 25, 2021 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, OUR VIEWPOINT | 0

The discovery of a $3 billion gold and copper deposit on the southern slopes of the Trail provided the ‘emergency’ they needed to derail the mining approval, compensate landowners, and offer to ‘manage’ the Trail on their behalf.

KTA Strategic Plan: 2012-2015. FAIL

by Charlie | Mar 9, 2020 | KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, OUR VIEWPOINT | 0

A ‘strategic Plan ‘developed by PNG DFAT officials for the management of the Kokoda Trail failed to achieve any the 5 strategies or 30 objectives it set out for 2012-2015. A massive fail!

Apology to Kokoda Trail Villagers

by Charlie | Dec 23, 2019 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, KOKODA TRAIL VILLAGERS, OUR VIEWPOINT | 0

‘Olgeta,

‘We met 31 years ago when you welcomed me into your villages on my first trek with Alex Rama in 1991. At the time you told me that few people trekked across the Trail – less than 100 each year – and you only made a few kina selling your vegetables at markets. . . .

SHAMELESS Hijack of Kokoda Trek PERMIT Fees!

by Charlie | Jun 23, 2019 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, OUR VIEWPOINT | 0

More than $5 million has been hijacked by unaccountable Australian and PNG Government bureaucrats over the past decade. This money had been paid in good faith by Kokoda trekkers to meet their basic needs in the form of adequate campsites and a safe trail. The fees were also meant to provide for shared community benefits for villagers along the trail.

OWERS CORNER: How to convert a memorial junkyard into PNGs No 1 Tourism Asset

by Charlie | Nov 26, 2018 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, KOKODA TRAIL VILLAGERS, OUR VIEWPOINT | 3

Air Niugini’s Paradise magazine describes a visit to Ower’s Corner, where ‘the road becomes a footpath that connects the start of the Kokoda Trail . . . just an hour and a half from downtown Port Moresby’.Visitors who make the...

Kokoda Tour Operators Association (KTOA) – Shameless Australian Lobby Group

by Charlie | Jun 23, 2018 | KOKODA INITIATIVE, KOKODA TOUR OPERATORS ASSOCIATION (KTOA), KOKODA TRACK AUTHORITY, OUR VIEWPOINT | 0

The Australian Kokoda Tour Operators Association (KTOA) is a small but shameless lobby group established to cash in on the Kokoda trekking industry and protect their business interests in PNG.