THE BACKGROUND

12 years ago, Waldo Etherington , professional adventure athlete , remote expedition leader and climber, first went to a place that holds cultural significance and biological wealth, found nowhere else on earth. That place is known to the local community as the Lamo Auru Caldera , in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea, also known as Hargy Caldera.

Lamo Auru is an extinct volcano that contains one of the last remaining pristine fragments of our worlds oldest tropical rainforest. The name Lamo Auru, translates to Blue Lake – the lake in the centre of the caldera. On the far side of the lake, the caldera rim rises into the steep foot hills of the Nakanai range, reaching over 2km into the mist.

Spending time in Lamo Auru and with its ancestral landowners, the Indigenous Nakanai community from Biakakea, is humbling.

The people taught Waldo a great deal about how humans can still live intrinsically with the natural world, and inspired him with how cultural heritage found in wild corners of the planet still holds great value, where it's disappeared in much of the western world. While Waldo might think of himself as a hardened expedition leader, these people are on a another level!

The geography of this forest is special and the trees are other worldly. Lamo Auru is globally unique and conjures a sense of mythical wonder, like it’s straight out of a fairytale. Scientifically speaking, this place is almost completely uncharted. Knowing that there is still so much biological mystery there, it's pretty exciting. Standing in that forest feels like going back in time... and now I wish we could, because since last year and ecological disaster has begun. Illegal logging is happening in the forest right now and the Nakanai community need all the help they can get to stop this deforestation.

WHO WE ARE

Friends of Lamo Auru is a Community Interest Company we have founded to collaborate with our friends in Papua New Guinea, for the benefit of preserving their ancestral land and the irreplaceable biodiversity that lives within it.

We aim to combine technical expedition skills and high-end film production, with scientific rigour and Indigenous knowledge, to establish community-led research and conservation programmes. These programs will improve welfare and create economic value for the Nakanai community, value that will come from keeping this heritage rich and biologically unique forest in a healthy, well preserved state.

OUR BIG SCARY GOALS AND DREAMS

To achieve this goal we’re embarking on a series of expeditions to the region over the next few years. The first expedition will be in September of this year.

Amongst our expedition team we have a selection of world-leading biologists and conservation scientists, remote expedition management safety specialists, rope access technicians, top environmental charity workers, and a high-end film production team.

This first expedition is incredible exciting! It will be a real adventure to one of modern sciences last biological frontiers.

We have been to Lamo Auru before, yes, but it’s a dense forest crater that’s 12 km in diameter, so in reality we’ve only seen a small fraction of it so far. Tropical forests canopies are the most biologically diverse environments on Earth, this one is no different but we have only climbed a handful of trees in this forest of giants.

We plan to explore the Lamo Auru Caldera in more depth than ever before. Setting the ground work for field research and biological studies that will continue in further visits and by the Nakanai community in our absence. Allowing them to become the champions of their conservation story as they uncover the secrets of their mysterious land.

At the heart of this project is the Nakanai people and especially the community from Biakakea. The heritage stories from in the Caldera, the vibrancy of their culture, and their knowledge of the land, is deeply profound.

They come from a marginalised part of the world where their voices are underrepresented, if heard at all. We aim to inspire empowerment within the community. To know that everything they have and are, is important in the world. We want to provide a platform for their voices to be heard in Papua New Guinea but also internationally, and turn up the volume!

That platform will be in the form of an impact film. Impact films can have an enormous influence and can serve as a powerful tool for positive change.

So sharing all of Lamo Auru’s story – the good, the beautiful, the bad and the ugly – is the way that we spread awareness and education to the wider world, and provide encouragement to other indigenous groups in Papua New Guinea that protecting their ancestral lands in possible. This is what protecting a forest can look like.

AN IDEA OF COSTS

As well as making an impact film, another goals is to fund a ranger programme. This will give the community direct financial support and additional incentives to protect the forest. The aim is to have 3 rangers in the caldera, every day, 365 days a year.

£11 pays for 1 ranger for 1 day

£30 pays for that ranger's head torch

£240 pays for a hammock so they can sleep safely above the forest floor

£500 pays for a Garmin InReach so they have a safety support line and emergency help access

CAN YOU HELP US?

It’s a big ask, but we at Friends of Lamo Auru, and the Nakanai community from Biakakea, need your help.

Logging moves faster than politics, so we need to get cracking. The ranger programme has already started, they're busy monitoring the destruction and wiping off paint marks on their ancient ancestral trees.

All types of donations, collaborations, sponsorships and suggestions are welcome.

Please check out out website and give us a follow on socials.

With your help we can bring all the elements of this project together for success.

By empowering Indigenous communities, there is an opportunity to preserve local customs and traditions through globally important rainforest conservation.

Thank you for your support