“Bougainville is experiencing an increase in deforestation and unsustainable practices that lead to loss of bio-cultural diversity and ecosystem services.”

— Kainake Project

Dr. Jeffrey Noro and Junior Novera are the manager and co-founder of the Kainake Project in Bougainville Island, and partners to the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History’s Bougainville Island collectionproject. In the wake of deforestation, unsustainable practices, and the sea swallowing the land due to climate change, Bougainville Island and its surrounding island neighbors are losing bio-cultural diversity and land. To address these issues, theis dedicated to creating and sharing knowledge to empower people to preserve and develop their natural and cultural inheritance through community solutions. The museum holds some of this natural and cultural inheritance and hasshared all information associated with the collection including Bud Johnson's photographs and fieldnotesto engage with the Bougainville communityand contribute tothe process of returning knowledge.

Below are more photos taken by Conrad 'Bud' Johnson, as well as photos of objects in the CU Museum of Natural History Bougainville Collection.