In an attempt to conserve the birds-of-paradise for which the region is famous, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe has banned the use of their body parts in anything other than traditional ceremonies.

Hunting has helped push some paradise birds — members of the family Paradisaeidae — to the brink of extinction.

Historically, indigenous groups on Indonesia’s half of New Guinea island — composed of the Papuan and West Papua provinces — have used the birds’ colourful feathers in their rituals and traditional dress.

Meanwhile, others turn their parts into souvenirs, sold to tourists or handed out by local officials at events.

Last November, a university student in Papua sparked an outcry after she posted pictures of herself holding a dead bird-of-paradise, known locally as cendrawasih, and a hunting rifle.

Governor Enembe enshrined the ban in a circular letter, a mechanism typically used to support existing laws.

The provincial administration plans to issue a regulation specifying the consequences for violating the ban, according to Papua Regional Secretary Hery Dosinaen.

Raids on stores
Until then, the government will use the circular to raid stores selling products made from real bird-of-paradise parts.

In addition to raising awareness about the animal’s protected status, the policy is expected to give Papua’s creative industries a nudge by turning craftspeople onto artificial bird parts.

Alex Waisimon, who runs birdwatching tours out of Jayapura, the provincial capital, welcomed the ban: “Cendrawasih is a bird from paradise that God created for us to protect together.”

But he recognised a greater threat than hunting — the destruction of the birds’ forest habitat.

Indonesia’s rapid deforestation has long been concentrated on Sumatra and Borneo islands in the archipelago country’s west. But forest loss in the Papua region is on the rise.

Korean-Indonesian conglomerate Korindo is one firm expanding there. The oil palm planter was recently the subject of a NGO report that said it was responsible for 30,000 hectares of deforestation and nearly 900 fire hotspots since 2013.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has said it is investigating the company.

Republished from Mongabay with permission under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence.

• WWF calls for conservation

More than 400 pilot whales were caught at the base of the spit in Golden Bay with most of them dying, but more than 100 were refloated by hundreds of volunteers and Department of Conservation (DoC) workers on high tide at 10.30am, said RNZI.

UPDATE: People warned to stay away from risk of exploding whales

A boat on the water and a line of people in the sea had been trying to encourage the whales to swim in the right direction.

About 50 whales were successfully refloated, but 80-90 have re-stranded on the beach, reports RNZI.

Andrew Lamason, the Department of Conservation operations manager for Golden Bay, said volunteers would now try to keep the whales comfortable until another attempt at a refloat tomorrow.

DoC said it was the biggest whale stranding department staff had ever seen and eight staff who had been there since the early hours of this morning had been putting sheets and buckets of water on the whales.

“Awesome to see so much kindness, love and respect given to the whales. It makes those of us who are unable to help so proud, thank you so much,” said Ngaire Manu among messages of support for the rescuers on the Project Jonah website.

High stranding rates
Project Jonah reports New Zealand has one of the highest whale stranding rates in the world.

“On average, about 300 dolphins and whales strand each year. Most stranding are of individual animals, but mass strandings are common and can involve hundreds of animals at a time,” the project said.

“Strandings are complex events and there are many reasons why dolphins and whales may strand. In most cases the exact cause is unknown.”

Some factors include:

• Old whales may find it difficult to keep up with their pod or resist heavy swells or inshore currents.
• Whales can suffer from a number of diseases – either a temporary affliction or something more severe.
• Natural toxins can poison whales.
• A shortage of food caused by overfishing can result in malnourished whales.
• Calving whales will often seek out sheltered bays to give birth to their young.

Acccording to ABC News the manumea has been on the brink of extinction for several years.

Conservationist Gianluca Serra is leading a team employed by the Samoan government to stop the bird from disappearing.

He told Mandie Sami of ABC News the situation was desperate.

“There are probably only a few dozens birds left in Samoa,” he said.

Serra said the manumea is a species of pigeon and is special because it is only found in Samoa and is the last surviving relative of the extinct dodo bird.

He said hunting was a major issue.

“We realize that they are being hunted by mistake because apparently people don’t like the manumea’s meat but they kill the manumea while they are targeting another pigeon they like.”

Serra added forest logging and invasive species like rats and cats also put the survival of the bird in danger.

‘Pretty depressing’

“You know our job as conservationists is pretty depressing,” he said. “Every year the planet is losing hundreds if not thousands of species.

“There is not enough awareness and interest by governments and people.

“Public opinion is so interested about cats and dogs but they don’t know that there is wildlife out there and they need help, so it’s really hard.  There’s no money there, only few people are interested in it.”

Serra and his team are working with local villages to establish protected areas and controls around hunting.

Listen to the full interview on ABC News.

Eight groups plan to file a lawsuit against the US Department of the Navy and the US Fish and Wildlife Service for failure to comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Notice of the lawsuit was received by the US Department of Defense, the US Department of the Interior, the Secretary of the Navy at the Pentagon and the Director of US Fish and Wildlife Service on February 25.

It is expected that the Navy will respond by the end of this month. The ESA requires a 60-day period before litigation can begin – the earliest to file suit is 26 April 2016.

On 1 October 2015, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced 23 new plant and animal species in the Northern Marianas and Guam as threatened or endangered.

Following this declaration, the Navy has failed to comply with ESA Section 7, which requires a reassessment of the Navy’s ongoing Mariana Island Training and Testing (MITT) programme.

The Navy, along with the service, must ensure that any action authorised, funded, or carried out by the Navy such as the MITT program is not likely to jeopardise the continued existence of the newly listed threatened or endangered species (16 U.S. C. § 1536(a)(2)).

The Navy must request from the service whether any listed or proposed species may be present in the area and if so, the Navy must prepare a “biological assessment” to determine if the species may be affected by the proposed action.

Critical habitat
If the action may affect any listed species or critical habitat, the Navy must consult with the service. The Navy has also failed to commit resources to find reasonable and prudent alternatives for training and testing.

Earthjustice attorney David Henkin uses the service’s own words from the final rule extending ESA protection to the Mariana Islands species:

“The MITT area opens up every island within the Mariana Archipelago as a potential training site…which subsequently may result in negative impacts to any number of the 23 species addressed.”

Marianas Island Training and Testing (MITT)
In August 2015, the Navy authorised the expansion of Mariana Island Range Complex (MIRC), a project that earned “A Finding of No Significant Harm” (FONSH) status, according to the Navy’s Environmental Assessment.

The 500,000 sq-nautical-mile training and testing area around the Mariana Islands was doubled and now includes nearly a million square-miles; an area larger than the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, and New Mexico combined.

This training area also overlaps the area protected by Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, also administrated by the service.

The training and testing within the MITT area includes the use of explosive bombs from the air, sea and land and amphibious, anti-surface, electronic, anti-submarine, and mine warfare. It also includes undersea ordnance training — with a roughly 300 percent increase of bombing on Farallon De Medinilla, or No’os island.

The Navy also approved state-of-the-art high frequency undersea sonar systems to be operated from Navy vessels — similar to that linked to causing death among whales and dolphins.

In March 2015, a federal court ruled that these sonar exercises and underwater detonations in the waters surrounding Hawai‘i and off the coast of California violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Community Organisations
The ESA process is the only legal framework in which to challenge the Navy’s activities. The Mayor of the Northern Mariana Islands (Gani Islands), Jerome Aldan, supports the potential lawsuit, along with the eight organisations: Alternative Zero Coalition, Center for Biological Diversity, Fanacho Marianas, Guardians of Gani, Oceania Resistance, PåganWatch, Tinian Premier Football Club, and Tinian Women’s Association.

“The American citizens who live here — who have said ‘NO’ in a strong and clear voice—are also being disregarded,” says Peter J. Perez, co-founder of PåganWatch. “A department of the federal government, not the leadership of the United States, not the President and the Congress, but a department, somehow has the right to unilaterally decide to turn a state’s territory into the world’s largest live-fire training range.”

In 2013, the late CNMI governor Eloy Songao Inos requested that the Navy conduct more in-depth assessments of their activities, respect marine protection areas, and refrain from undersea training occurring in areas with high levels of marine life.

The Navy responded in May 2015, stating that they could not impose these “geographic limitations on training and testing activities,” calling it an “impractical burden” to implement and an “unacceptable impact to the effectiveness” of their training.

Pacific Pivot

The potential lawsuit is only a small element of the resistance to the American foreign policy “Pacific Pivot,” that calls for additional militarisation of the region. The Department of Defense has released numerous documents outlining military projects in the Mariana Archipelago.

The largest project, approved in August 2015, includes the relocation of 5000 Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to Guam, the construction of housing containments and a live-fire training range complex adjacent to the only National Wildlife Refuge on the island.

Additional proposed projects include housing artillery, mortar, grenade ranges on the island of Tinian, and to use the entire island of Pågan for bombing and range training purposes.

While the local community continues to show resistance to the militarisation of their sacred and scarce islands, the Navy only emphasises the need for servicemen to train in the land, sea, and air of the Marianas in the name of “national security”.

Sylvia C. Frain is a doctoral candidate with Te Tari Kōrero Nehe me te Mahi Toi Onamata/The Department of History and Art History, Te Ao O Rongomaraeroa/The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, at Te Whare Wānanga/Otāgo University of Otago and a research associate with the Richard Flores Taitano Micronesia Area Research Center (MARC), Unibetsedåt Guåhan University of Guam in the Marianas, Micronesia. She founded Oceania Resistance to share her autoethnographical research relating to decolonisation and demilitarisation efforts across the region.

• More information: Chamorro.com
• Resisting the US military in the Marianas