Since the Australian Government assumed responsibility for the management of the Kokoda Trail under a Joint agreement with PNG in 2008 trekker numbers have fallen by 46 percent which has resulted in a cumulative loss of some $20 million in foregone wages, campsite fees and local purchases for villages communities. And these are the people we have spent millions trying to help!
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PNG National Court Judgement re Adventure Kokoda Tour Operator’s License
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The Kokoda Tour Operators Forum scheduled to take place in a 5-star Brisbane hotel on 23-24 November 2023 should be cancelled and either conducted via Zoom or switched to Port Moresby.
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Update on the revocation of Adventure Kokoda tour Operators License
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‘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. . . .
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by Rashmii Amoah Bell ‘ I am the author of ‘My Walk to Equality’ and Butterflies on...
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
Read MoreAir 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...
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