Piku Biodiversity Network: Papua New Guinea's Kikori Turtle Rangers

The Piku Biodiversity Network is a Papua New Guinean NGO working to save the endangered pig-nosed turtle, locally called "piku," whose population fell an estimated 57% over three decades as eggs were poached and animals trafficked — more than 80,000 turtles were seized in the illegal wildlife trade between 2003 and 2013. Since 2012, the network's Kikori Turtle Rangers program has trained local schoolchildren from seven different tribal groups along the Kikori River to patrol nesting sandbanks, relocate eggs to safety, and monitor hatchling survival instead of hunting the turtles. Ten of the program's current rangers have stayed involved continuously since they first joined as schoolchildren. The organization pairs this community-led fieldwork with environmental education and research into other threatened Gulf of Papua species, including sharks, rays, and sawfish.