Indigenous coastal management in Papua New Guinea: resilience and the revitalization of polepole stone fish traps on Lovongai island

On Lovangai Island in Papua New Guinea, Indigenous communities have worked with Indigenous scientists and international anthropologists to document and revitalize traditional stone fish traps. These locally designed and enacted projects are an Indigenous form of coastal planning which refuses both state-planning and conservation organization planning. They are also a form of biocultural revitalization that foregrounds Indigenous sovereignty. Based on a traditional design, the Lovangai stone fish trap known as polepole works to provide pool habitat for important aquatic biota, to increase food security, to increase respect for, and interest in, traditional practices, and it is also hoped that it may contribute to prevention of coastal erosion. In this paper we describe the reciprocal collaborative process by which this project came to be, the methodology used, and the relationship between biocultural approaches to research and Indigenous-led resilience projects.