By Dr Joseph Ketan


It is disturbing to hear that the country’s only World Heritage Property at Kuk, near Mount Hagen, might be under threat from developers. A government consultant (representing politicians) visited Kuk recently to advise the local Kawelka landowners that the government intends to build a university at Kuk.

I hope this is not true because Kuk is a UNESCO protected property under the Cultural Landscape Category.

The UNESCO Operational Guidelines for the protection of World Heritage Sites states that  “The cultural and natural heritage is among the priceless and irreplaceable assets, not only of each nation, but of humanity as a whole”.

Is it legal to build a university on a UNESCO World Heritage listed archaeological site? No. In most countries, you would be charged with theft, destruction of a world heritage property, and for violation of the integrity of the scientific evidence (upon which the government made a claim for UNESCO protection and subsequent approval was granted by the World Heritage Committee).

In Papua New Guinea, the Early Agricultural Site of Kuk was inscribed on the World Heritage List on the condition that no major developments would be allowed to take place on either the core zone or the buffer areas identified in the Nomination Document for Kuk.

Kuk was accepted on the agreement between the PNG Government and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that the Kawelka landowners would continue to practice agriculture using traditional PNG farming methods.

The key legal document is the Nomination Document for Kuk World Heritage Site. That document was signed by the Minister on behalf of the Government of PNG.

This document indicates that the Kawelka have ownership rights to the land at Kuk. Their rights were never extinguished either in 1968 when the Australian Colonial Administration paid seven thousand dollars (AUD $7,771) to lease the land for agricultural research, or in 2007 when the PNG Government nominated the archaeological site for World Heritage listing.  

Kuk is a cultural landscape property of universal significance. It contains evidence of agriculture at the early date of 10,000 years. The evidence is buried beneath the soil.

Any development would destroy the evidence. The evidence indicates that Kuk is one of only three early agricultural sites in the world.

I hope the PNG Government steps in now to protect this property from developers.