Tree Kangaroo Washed

The fertile lands near villages in the Yopno, Uruwa and Som Zones (YUS zones) is the perfect place for coffee trees to thrive. However, access to the market has been an immense challenge. The nearest road is a 2-day hike that involves traversing steep mountains, fast-flowing rivers and dense, tropical forest.  For most farmers, this isolation has meant they are unable to grow coffee as a means of income. Most farming families have subsisted on only the food crops they grow.  

More than 20 years ago Dr. Lisa Dabek began working in the area to study the endangered Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo. Dr. Dabek soon established the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP).  

Indigenous people, who own most of the land in the YUS zones, and scientists like Dr. Dabek were able to work together to highlight the importance of conservation for future generations and establish the official YUS Conservation Area in 2009.  This protected area is the first of its kind to be recognized by the national government. The geographical indicator prevents mining, logging and the destruction of this incredibly diverse habitat.  The area encompasses over 75,000 hectares of protected land that range from cloud forests to coastal zones. 

As a component of this community-based conservation, it is vitally important that the livelihoods of the people who have pledged their land for conservation are heathy, resilient and sustainable.  Coffee is the main and often sole source of income for people in the YUS zones. However, due to the remote location and the cost of transport, their sales opportunities are limited.  In order to help expand their market access, we have engaged with local stakeholders to coordinate the transportation of parchment via airfreight to the mill and prepare it for export.   

This supply chain comes with added costs, but we believe the importance of conservation of the environment for future generations is worth it. When you learn about the tree kangaroos, the experiences of people in the YUS zones and taste this coffee, we think you’ll agree.  

In addition to cultivating coffee, farmers in the YUS zone intercrop their farms with staple food crops like taro, banana, sweet potatoes, cassava and squash.

Farming families selectively handpick ripe cherry and pulp it using a classic pulper. After dry fermenting, coffee is washed in clean water to remove any remaining mucilage. Clean parchment is then transferred to drying beds where it dries for an average of 14 to 21 days. Bagged coffee rest in sheds at the airstrip for 2 to 4 months before it is transferred to Colbran Coffee Mill, our partner in Kainantu, Eastern Highlands Province, where it’s milled and prepared for export.  

Ben Colbran pioneered coffee growing in the Eastern Highlands, especially in Kianantu District. Colbran moved from New Zealand to PNG in 1963 with his wife, Norma, and their three children, Jill, Sandra and Nichol.

Colbran purchased a farm of around 600 acres (242 hectares) and due to the cost of the transaction needed to begin making money as soon as possible! He started with vegetables, such as broccoli and cabbage, and fruit, such as strawberries. These crops flourished in the highlands and were much sought after in the port city’s markets. With the money he earned, he would buy goods such as sugar, tea and flour that were hard to get in the highlands. In this way, he slowly saved enough money to set up a sawmill, which he saw as a better means of generating funds for his new coffee farm – which had been the dream all along!

From that time forward, Ben ran Colbran Coffeelands as one of the most notable coffee estates in all of PNG. His son, Nicol, who had lived in the country virtually his whole life, had helped him from a very early age. When Ben Colbran sold the farm in 1979 and moved to Australia, Nichol stayed and worked in the farm’s management under the new owners. Nichol has lived on the Colbran Coffeelands estate since age 6, when his family moved to Papua New Guinea. In 1997, he bought the farm back and has been the Owner and Director of the farm ever since.

Today the farm composes around 220 hectares of mature coffee trees alongside some sections of newer plantings. Colbran Coffeelands also works with farms and farmers in the surrounding region, offering processing and marketing support.