An elusive almost fabled creature.

A rocky road-trip into the remote jungle.



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Whatsapp Getting in and out of the Managalas Plateau in Oro Province, PNG, relies on an unreliable road.

Finding and saving the world’s very biggest butterfly is a feat like few others.

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Whatsapp The glorious hues of the male Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly which only occurs in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea

The push back against Big Palm Oil and Big Forestry in Papua New Guinea.

For a saga about people power, survival, and one beguiling insect, Natasha is joined by intrepid journalist Jo Chandler who takes us with her to the jungles of PNG.

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Whatsapp The female Queen Alexandra's Birdwing butterfly is the world's biggest, growing upwards of 25cm in wingspan. Here it is with the world's smallest butterfly!

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Whatsapp Conwel Nukara, a butterfly conservationist on the Managalas Plateau in Papua New Guinea, is determined to bring the world's biggest butterfly back from the brink

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Whatsapp Pupal stage of the Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly. The world's biggest butterfly calls Papua New Guinea home

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Whatsapp Clan elder Raynold Pasip is a board member of the Mangalas Conservation Foundation in Oro Province of PNG. Theirs has been a 33 year fight.

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Whatsapp Women's representative June Toneba. Inadequate child and maternal health services for women in PNG means their lives are risk.





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Whatsapp Transport challenges make it hard to get products like coffee to market and to access services for the people in Oro Province, PNG.

GUESTS:

Malchus Kajai

Chairman

Managalas Conservation Foundation

Conwel Nukara,

Butterfly conservationist and breeder

Mangalas Plateau

Papua New Guinea

Raynold Pasip

Clan elder and board member

Managalas Conservation Foundation

Papua New Guinea

Jim Thomas

Tenkile Conservation Alliance, Sandaun province

Papua New Guinea

June Toneba

Women's representative and board member

Managalas Conservation Foundation

Papua New Guinea

Dr Darren Bito

Entomologist

Lead, Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly Project

New Britain Palm Oil Ltd

Tom ‘Diwai’ Vigus

Retired forestry scientist

Thank you to environmental lawyer Damien Ase



FURTHER INFORMATION:

Read more from Jo Chandler on her journey in Griffith Review's 'Writing the Country' edition February 2019

Partners With Melanesians

Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly project (New Britain Palm Oil Ltd)

Decolonising Conservation (John Aini and Paige West)

Papua New Guinea Conservation Project. Oro Province. Project completion report

Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), 1999, Canberra.

Conservation is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea

Paige West

Duke University Press, 2006

Notebooks from New Guinea: Reflections on Life, Nature and Science from the Depths of the Rainforest

Vojtech Novotny

Oxford University Press, 2009

Reporter: Jo Chandler

Hosts: Natasha Mitchell and Jo Chandler

Producer/editor: Natasha Mitchell

Sound engineer: Melissa May