HOW WE DO IT
mEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS eMPOWER COMMUNITIES
Niu Nature is deeply committed to building meaningful and enduring connections with the communities we partner with. Our success is rooted in genuine relationships, care, and affection for the people we serve. We hold the sincere belief that the ancient wisdom and knowledge of those whose lives have always been intertwined with their environments have much to teach us about sustainability and conservation.
Our Approach
We have profound respect for the traditional structures that have held communities together for millennia. We honor and uphold these systems, navigating their dynamics skillfully while always seeking to deepen our understanding.
We imbed traditional knowledge into modern frameworks, working with communities to mold governance structures that comply with the PNG Corporations Act around customary clan-based decision-making systems and processes that intuitively make sense.
Beyond securing free, informed, and prior consent, we recognize that true community ownership is an ongoing process. In Papua New Guinea's kinship-based societies, reciprocity and fair distribution of resources are deeply ingrained values, essential for the harmony, success, and sustainability of projects at the community level. We understand the intrinsic cultural and spiritual significance of land, which serves not only as a source of livelihood but also as a pillar of identity and belonging.
We believe that for communities to be truly empowered and have genuine ownership, decision-making should primarily occur within the villages, rather than in distant urban, town or station centers. We engage entire populations, trekking between villages and sleeping in family homes to gain unique perspectives on the daily lives of those we work with.
We engage in consensus decision making through robust conversation. This is often a long, drawn-out process, and complexities can and do arise. We stay for as long as it takes, and we return as often as needed. Our commitment to communities is a long-term engagement. We stay the course, with our success dependent on the success and sustainability of the communities we enroll and support.
We Bring Unique Value to Projects
Existing Relationships with Landowners: Our team has ventured into some of the most rugged and pristine environments in Papua New Guinea, most of the time traveling on foot. We sleep in family homes, eat garden kaikai, share food and laughter, tell stories, and build lifelong friendships. This level of comfort, familiarity, and genuine affection gives us an unrivaled ability to quickly forge relationships with new communities.
Successful Papua New Guinean Landowner Businesses in Our DNA: We have exclusive access to the institutional knowledge of one of Papua New Guinea’s largest and most successful landowner companies. This includes transparency, accountability, and good governance, as articulated through carefully crafted foundational documents. With a track record of delivering consistent commercial results for over 15 years, this background provides partner communities, investors, and stakeholders with the confidence that we know what it takes to succeed.
High-End Eco-Tourism Expertise: Often extolled as a pillar of Papua New Guinea’s future blue and green economy, the barriers to viable tourism in remote Papua New Guinea are multiple and complex. In areas with limited economic opportunities, social cohesion over the long term relies on their being enough benefit to go around, while lack of access and infrastructure makes transportation and creature comforts significant hurdles to overcome. The tourists that can afford to reach these places expect exceptional hospitality, service and attention to detail that we, along with village communities have been fine-tuning for the past 10 years.
Over the last decade our team has pioneered eco-tourism into some of the most wild and untouched landscapes in Papua New Guinea. We engage and prepare entire communities to welcome these VIP guests, and they do so like family, immersing them in the culture and landscapes of which they are most proud. These trips live as long and fondly in the memories of host communities as they do for our guests, and for tourists fortunate enough to have these experiences, PNG captures hearts and minds, and transforms their understanding of the world in ways that leave a lasting impression.
We have established relationships with the some of the world’s most prestigious travel agents who trust us exclusively with the comfort, care and safety of their high-net-worth clients who travel to PNG. Our guests, who are often influential leaders in their field forge their own connections with PNG’s amazing places and people, with return clients and word of mouth referrals making up a significant number of trips we facilitate each year.
